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Business leaders across market sizes, verticals, and growth stages are being pushed to use artificial intelligence. Your boss reads a message in their executive Slack community and now they’re asking about “our AI strategy.” Your new hire swears that they can use AI to finish their tasks in half the time. Whether or not you’re currently using AI tools, someone in your network absolutely is.

But with so much hype around AI, where should you search for new tools? Surely you can choose from one of the dozens of new AI startups entering the market, right?

Well, according to Dima Kovalenko, co-founder and CEO of Uptech, most of the newly minted generative AI startups entering the marketplace today are just “ChatGPT wrappers that bring null value regarding technological novelty or user flow.” (Ouch.)

To save you the headache of sifting through multiple Reddit threads and G2 reviews, we’ll list some of the best AI tools across use cases like sales, marketing, process automation, and more. We’ll also demonstrate a few innovative ways business leaders use artificial intelligence to add business value and save time within their companies. Let’s get started.

11 AI tools your business should know about

There are several major categories of AI tools that businesses should understand when evaluating solutions. Mastering the types of technologies available is the first step toward identifying high-impact use cases.

1. Video content creation: Colossyan

You’ve probably read your fair share of emails and social posts created with generative AI – but this technology can be used for so much more than writing text. With AI-powered video platforms like Colossyan, you can produce high-quality videos at scale for a virtually unlimited number of use cases.

Pros and key capabilities

Colossyan is a leader in AI-powered video creation, and its creator platform allows businesses to create high-quality videos at scale using AI.

For example, with text-to-video capabilities, Colossyan allows creators to automatically turn written content like slides, scripts, or articles into videos using customizable AI presenters. It’s really that simple. And if you have a global audience, you can easily meet their needs, too – Colossyan can auto-translate your videos into over 70 languages with a single click.

The Colossyan platform also allows you to choose from a variety of AI avatars and accents to personalize your video content. Or, if you need something really specific, you can even create custom presenters for your company or brand.

Once your videos are built, you can quickly export and publish them to meet a variety of use cases, including explainer videos, training modules, videos for marketing campaigns, town hall presentations, and digital signage.

2. General use: ChatGPT

We couldn’t create a list of AI tools without including ChatGPT. But aside from its popularity, what earns ChatGPT a spot on this list? Let’s take a closer look.

Pros and key capabilities

If you’re looking for a multi-purpose “Swiss Army knife” AI platform, ChatGPT is your best bet. Due to its accessibility directly via its application programming interface (API), you can leverage ChatGPT to build custom solutions that are tailored to your specific use cases. 

In other words, instead of investing in multiple niche AI tools, you can use ChatGPT and its handy text prompt features to build multiple, custom “GPTs” (generative pre-trained transformers) to meet your needs.

Some use cases where ChatGPT has added value include customer support, knowledge base management, process automation, and more. 

That said, the only downside to using ChatGPT instead of a custom solution is that you’ll likely be building these AI tools, or GPTs, yourself. Even if you do find a great GPT that meets your needs, it won’t come with the regular updates, priority support, and robust feature set that a standalone artificial intelligence tool provides.

3. Sales and lead generation: Salesloft

Noticed an influx of cold email spam lately? It’s probably the result of AI tools falling into the hands of business development representatives (BDRs) and sales development representatives (SDRs) with monthly quotas to hit. Don’t worry, we’re not blaming them. However, we do know there are several better ways to use AI tools for sales and lead generation. Which brings us to our next tool on this list: Salesloft.

Salesloft is a revenue operations platform that leverages AI to optimize the sales process from lead to close. It utilizes machine learning models that have been trained on vast datasets to provide actionable insights for sales teams.

Pros and key capabilities

One of Salesloft’s key capabilities is lead scoring, which qualifies prospects based on their behaviors and attributes. This helps sales reps prioritize their outreach to prospects and accounts that are most likely to convert. 

Then, once leads are in their system, Salesloft assists reps with the next best actions. Its AI recommends the optimal time, channel, and messaging tailored to each lead’s profile and stage in the sales funnel. This ensures reps spend time on activities proven to move their deals forward.

4. Marketing and customer engagement: HubSpot

Sales reps aren’t the only go-to-market professionals being pushed to adopt AI. These tools are also running rampant across the martech space as marketers continue trying to keep pace with increased growth targets.

Well, if you’re looking for an AI tool to help with marketing and customer engagement, we recommend HubSpot.

Pros and key capabilities

You may already know that HubSpot is an integrated customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, and sales platform, but one of its key AI capabilities includes predictive lead scoring to qualify prospects based on their attributes and behaviors. HubSpot’s AI studies the account attributes and behaviors of previous leads to make recommendations, helping marketers identify where, when, and how to engage leads and prospects.

HubSpot also comes with AI-powered search engine optimization (SEO) features through its content management system (CMS). By analyzing your on-site content and backlinks, it recommends SEO strategies to boost organic traffic to your site and improve user experience. 

Additionally, its marketing automation features utilize machine learning to personalize website experiences for new and returning visitors to your site; suggesting specific on-site content or sending personalized messages via chatbots are both good examples of this.

5. Meeting transcription: Otter.ai

Don’t want to take notes for every meeting? Neither do we. Regardless of what department you work in, AI transcription tools are a great way to quickly record, transcribe, and share meeting notes – whether you’re sending them to colleagues or saving them for future reference.

And if you’re looking for a meeting transcription tool, we recommend Otter.ai.

Pros and key capabilities

Otter.ai is a virtual AI assistant that can automatically record and transcribe audio files and meetings in real time. It utilizes speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to convert your audio to text so you can stop taking notes for good.

But Otter.ai does much more than act as a notetaker. Once you’ve recorded your meeting notes within the platform, you can easily search specific content within your completed transcript for reference. Even better, Otter.ai captures everything verbatim so you don’t have to worry about missing any crucial details that may have been missed otherwise.

In terms of accessibility, this tool integrates with common meeting platforms and CRMs such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Dropbox – giving you everything you need to store and share your meeting notes.

6. Customer support and chatbots: Intercom

As companies scale, customer support becomes more challenging. After all, your customer success managers, support agents, and service reps can only assist so many customers at once.

Naturally, this need to augment customer support led to the creation of AI-powered chatbots – but these tools come in varying degrees of quality. If you think AI chatbots could benefit customer support at your company, we recommend going with Intercom.

Pros and key capabilities

For customer support, Intercom uses natural language processing to understand your customers’ needs from previous chats and emails. Its predictive routing system then directs their inquiries and questions to specific agents with the highest probability of resolving them quickly. This is much faster (and less frustrating) than forcing your customers to choose menu options in a phone tree.

Intercom also provides chatbots powered by ML-based intent recognition and dialogue management. How can you use these bots, exactly? Well, common customer questions and inquiries can be handled automatically 24/7, freeing up your agents to focus on and resolve more complex queries that require their undivided time and attention. 

7. Process automation and efficiency: UiPath

Here’s a great tool for our enterprise readers. If you’re a startup or scaleup, chances are you’re still nailing down your processes and creating SOPs for standardized workflows. But if you’re a larger enterprise company, your goal is to optimize and streamline the processes you already have in place.

This is another use case where the power of AI really shines. If you’re looking for an AI tool to automate your existing processes and make them more efficient, we suggest UiPath.

Pros and key capabilities

UiPath is a leading robotic process automation (RPA) platform that utilizes various AI technologies to identify and automate repetitive tasks.

Some of UiPath’s key capabilities include cognitive automation, which uses computer vision and NLP technology to extract data from documents. In simpler terms, this allows you to automate tasks and processes that involve unstructured data, such as invoice processing, analyzing legal documents, or predicting employee turnover risks.

UiPath’s chatbots can also interact with users, guiding new employees through your existing workflows so you can spend less time and effort training them. In a nutshell, investing in an automation tool like UiPath is kind of like having a COO in your back pocket. As it automates more tasks, UiPath gathers insights to optimize your processes, prioritizes the effort involved in building these automations, and recommends new automation opportunities.

8. Omnichannel personalization: Dynamic Yield

Personalization is the key to getting the attention of your customers and prospects—but it’s not exactly scalable when you’re trying to create a personalized user experience for hundreds (or thousands) of customers at once. AI-powered omnichannel personalization tools like Dynamic Yield are making the impossible possible.

Pros and key capabilities

Dynamic Yield is an experience optimization platform that uses AI to create personalized customer interactions across channels. It collects customer data from various touchpoints (e.g., your website, customer emails, call center records) to build a unified customer profile that understands your customers’ behaviors, preferences, and attributes. Dynamic Yield then applies machine learning to analyze this data and personalize your messaging at scale.

Armed with these insights, the platform also tests multiple variations of your content, products, or user flows to surface the optimal experience for individual users in real time. Some of its key capabilities include AI-powered recommendations, dynamic product suggestions, and real-time campaign optimization.

9. Cybersecurity: Darktrace

With the influx of AI technology, hackers and bad actors are able to pose security threats at a greater scale than before. Fortunately, AI-powered cybersecurity platforms are also being developed to neutralize these new threats.

So if you’re looking for an enterprise-grade cybersecurity platform, we recommend Darktrace – a leading cybersecurity company that uses self-learning AI to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats across enterprise networks, cloud, SaaS, endpoints, and industrial environments.

Pros and key capabilities

The Darktrace Cyber AI Loop continuously monitors and analyzes digital activities to learn the “pattern of life” for all users, devices, and digital assets. It can even detect subtle anomalies indicating potential cyberattacks to stop threats in real time.

Why is this useful? Just like with your customer support teams, your security team has only so much bandwidth to constantly monitor, identify, and defend against potential security threats. But with a tool like Darktrace, you can monitor and identify potential threats 24/7.

The platform comes equipped with an Autonomous Response feature that allows AI to take automatic action to neutralize threats without human oversight, stopping incoming cybersecurity attacks within seconds. This platform is not only effective but also helpful in defending against internal threats as well; its Cloud AI Security protects your cloud workloads, containers, and serverless functions from both insider risks and external threats.

And if you need tools to identify potential threats, Darktrace can do that, too. The platform’s Darktrace Antigena feature detects and investigates zero-day threats across email, SaaS applications, and cloud environments without relying on signatures or rules.

10. Data analysis: Tableau

Data analysis is another use case that AI can easily tackle. Instead of manually sifting and sorting through large datasets, AI-powered platforms like Tableau make it easy to analyze endless columns of data and extract meaningful insights.

Pros and key capabilities

Tableau is a leading visual analytics platform that leverages AI and machine learning throughout the data exploration and storytelling process.

Some of its key AI-powered capabilities include “Ask Data,” a feature that lets users interact with data intuitively using plain English. 

But what if you’re not sure what you’re looking for and don’t know what to type? In that instance, Tableau’s automated recommendations engine can suggest relevant charts, dashboards, and analyses based on the dataset you’ve provided. 

Additionally, Tableau uses AI to prepare and cleanse data. Its automated data preparation tool recommends steps to profile, enrich, and transform datasets so users can interpret them with minimal effort.

11. Predictive analytics: DataRobot

We all wish we could predict the future. And while that’s not really possible, you can get pretty close with AI-powered predictive analytics technology. With platforms like DataRobot, you can build AI models to assess historical data, discover patterns, observe current trends, and use that information to predict future trends.

Pros and key capabilities

DataRobot is a leader in AI for predictive analytics, allowing businesses to build, deploy, and manage predictive models at scale using automated machine learning (AutoML).

For starters, DataRobot streamlines the predictive modeling process with powerful AutoML capabilities. This allows even non-technical teams to develop accurate predictive models quickly and easily. 

Then, your teams can use these models across a wide range of tasks, including credit risk modeling, customer churn prediction, price optimization, fraud detection, and more. 

DataRobot also focuses on transparency to help its users understand why a model generated a specific prediction. This model explainability gives users confidence in the models and their ability to support important business and operational tasks.

Unexpected ways AI can improve productivity

While automation is AI’s most recognizable benefit, some of its most impactful applications go far beyond streamlining repetitive tasks. AI also acts as a powerful decision-making aid when tackling complex challenges – especially in corporate environments where the stakes are high.

AI provides a valuable “second opinion” in specialized fields. For example, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center uses AI to review CT scans and flag areas for a radiologist to examine closer. In other words, if medical professionals trust AI to give feedback, your teams can trust AI to identify and resolve business problems within your organization.

Business leaders would also be wise to think beyond automation alone when brainstorming potential AI use cases. What high-impact or time-consuming decisions could AI inform? Where can it best be utilized to assist your human teams? Approaching AI as a problem-solving partner rather than a process-automating tool will help you open the door to new forms of productivity.

Leverage AI video creation tools with Colossyan

You don’t need every tool listed above to successfully optimize your business’s performance. But one tool on this list can impact every part of your business: Colossyan. With AI-powered video creation, you can quickly spin up interactive product explainers, onboarding videos, organization-wide training modules, presentations for every meeting and department, and so much more. 

Want to start creating high-quality videos at scale? Book a demo with our team to get started.

Corporate videos don’t have to be boring. And no – you don’t have to rely on gimmicks or ride social trends to increase your viewership.

In this article, we’ll cover some best practices for creating corporate videos so you’ll have everything you need to start producing content that resonates with your audience and keeps their attention. 

What’s a corporate video? 

Corporate videos are used to help audiences achieve a particular business goal, rather than being created for entertainment value. As a result, corporate videos can be about any topic that’s relevant to your organization’s corporate communication needs or objectives. 

Here’s an overview of the main types of corporate videos: 

1. Training videos: Created to educate employees on various topics, including company policies, new tools, or skills. Onboarding is another main use case of training videos. 
2. Promotional videos: Designed to highlight company culture, products, or services to attract new customers or employees. 
3. Product demo videos: Intended to illustrate how your product’s features can solve problems for your target audience. 
4. Corporate event coverage: Developed to recap conferences, seminars, trade shows, or other activities, typically used for internal communications or marketing purposes. 
5. Testimonial videos: Produced to showcase the positive experiences of satisfied customers in order to build credibility on the company’s products or services. 

Above all, because these videos are typically distributed across various platforms, it’s important that the information is conveyed in a clear and compelling way. 

How are companies producing corporate videos with AI?

Imagine having the ability to create a high-quality corporate video without ever needing to pick up a camera. Fortunately, this is already possible thanks to AI video tools like Colossyan, which leverages AI avatars to bring your scripts to life. 

You might be wondering – how exactly are companies using AI video today?

Both B2B and B2C companies are using AI video tools to create more engaging and interactive training modules, including compliance training videos. Even enterprise-size B2B companies are using this technology to produce product explainer videos, employee training videos, and other corporate videos at scale and at a fraction of the cost.

This is possible due to the standout visual effects that tools like Colossyan offer, which includes a library of more than 100 distinct, human-like AI avatar presenters. 

These virtual presenters can serve as on-screen hosts for corporate videos, eliminating the need for hiring actors or shooting live video footage. Additionally, these corporate AI avatars can deliver scripts in various languages and accents, making it easy to produce a great corporate video for a diverse, global audience.

Here’s an example of what a compliance training might look like in Colossyan: 

Whether you decide to leverage AI video technology is up to you. But if you really want to improve the quality of your online videos, you should at least start implementing the following strategies.

How to upgrade your corporate videos in 5 steps 

There’s always room for improvement when it comes to video creation, so let’s take a look at 5 things you can do to improve the quality of your corporate videos. 

1. Add high-quality captions to boost engagement

Creating corporate videos that effectively engage customers requires thinking beyond just high production value. You also need to ensure accessibility and provide multiple viewing options. That’s why adding professional captions should be a core part of your video content strategy.

For example, captions make corporate videos accessible for those with auditory issues. They also help people watch without sound in quiet environments or consume content faster through reading.

In fact, some studies suggest that 82-94% of people view videos without sound – specifically when viewing short-form videos on social media.

But captions aren’t just reserved for Facebook and Instagram videos. The best corporate video examples also use captions for these benefits:

• Precise transcription so captions mirror spoken words
• Proper caption positioning to avoid blocking visuals
• Optimized caption timing in line with scene changes
• Easy readability via legible text styling

Including captions for your videos is also a quick way to make your informative and entertaining promotional video content accessible to more customers across more devices.

2. Include multiple language options

Using corporate videos to spread your company’s message with your target customer is much easier said than done. For instance, if you’re a global brand, you’ll want to customize your company video footage to connect better with international audiences.

And what better place to start than by offering your video content in multiple languages? Whether you’re producing training videos, social media promos, or client testimonials, enabling multi-lingual accessibility allows you to cater to diverse demographics more effectively.

Top brands have already realized the power of this approach. For example, IKEA creates furniture assembly videos in English, Spanish, French, and Arabic to cater to the needs of its global buyers. With the right tools, you can choose between subtitling your corporate videos or re-voicing the scripts, too.

This is one area that an AI video tool can help you save time in. Colossyan’s ability to instantly translate your video scripts into over 100 languages – complete with subtitles – makes the process of dubbing your corporate videos easier than ever. 

However, no matter what tools you use, simply offering the option to produce an interesting corporate video in multiple languages will greatly improve your videos’ accessibility.

3. Design custom thumbnails  

Let’s move on to some ways that the best corporate videos are increasing their click-through rates: adding a custom thumbnail.

In marketing videos, the thumbnail acts as the first impression for driving clicks and building brand awareness. Investing in eye-catching custom thumbnails is imperative if you want to amplify the reach of your video project and ensure that your hard work doesn’t go to waste.

But what makes a good thumbnail, exactly?

Typically, an effective thumbnail incorporates vibrant colors, concise text overlaying relevant imagery, your company logo, and any recognizable faces associated with a company’s brand image. Streaming services excel at this kind of thumbnail design. For example, Netflix A/B tests multiple options for its original shows to find what performs best across a global subscriber base.

Similarly, most full-time YouTubers rigorously track the click-through rates of their various video titles and custom thumbnails, iterating them until they discover what leads to the most clicks. These same rules apply to your corporate videos.

The good news is that you don’t need to be an expert designer to start creating great designs.

Crafting custom video thumbnails is now faster and easier with design tools like Canva and PicMonkey, which provide various stock templates that your teams can easily customize. 

However, many Colossyan users find it’s easier to just use the thumbnail creation features available within our platform. That way, they have access to all their video creation and design tools in one place.

Once you’ve got a handle on how these tools work, you can start to experiment with different images and contrasting text colors that get your audience to click on your corporate videos and watch them the whole way through.

4. Consider your distribution channels

After you’ve made your video look good, you still need to make sure that your audiences can find it. This means you’ll have to do more than just host the content on your company website. To truly engage your target audience, corporate videos need omni-channel distribution tailored to maximize their discoverability on each platform.

A good place to start is to have your production team optimize your videos for the social media channels that your customers prefer. For example, square 1:1 aspect ratio performs better on Instagram and Facebook feeds, while landscape 16:9 is better for YouTube watch pages. If you’re a B2B business, you may want to resize your corporate videos for LinkedIn as well.

You can also leverage video search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure that your company’s videos show up organically across Google and YouTube. For example, you can tag your YouTube videos with relevant keywords and optimize the titles and descriptions using SEO best practices to rank higher in search results.

Similarly, outside of SEO, you can use hashtags and video captions on Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social channels to drive more profile visits and meaningful engagement from professional communities that are relevant to your brand. Sure, you could always promote your corporate videos via paid ads, but optimizing them organically is one of the best ways to reach new and engaged audiences.

5. Collect data to track your results and iterate

Finally, once you’ve done everything you can to distribute your corporate videos, you should analyze their performance metrics like completion rates, conversions, and engagement for each distribution channel to double down on what works. 

To make this easier, platforms like YouTube, Wistia, and Vidyard simplify video analytics for businesses. Within these platforms, your team can evaluate both top-level and time-stamped interaction data and identify what sections of your corporate videos resonate best with your audiences and drive the most engagement. 

And once you have this data, you can then run A/B tests. Testing different custom video thumbnails while keeping your video content the same is a simple test you can run.

Likewise, promoting the same video captioned differently across platforms is another possible A/B test. Once you’ve set up the different captions, you can analyze peak drop-off points in your corporate videos to assess what performs better at scale.

You don’t need to nail these tests the first time around. But by regularly analyzing your video performance and making small, meaningful changes, you’ll start to reach new audiences across channels.

Create more engaging corporate videos with Colossyan 

If you’re still looking for other ways to upgrade your corporate video production process, an AI tool may be worth looking into. After all, you won’t need any special gear, film crew, or actors to create consistently great corporate videos – and you can do so on a tighter budget. 

With Colossyan, all you’ll need is a good corporate video idea to get started. Or, if you already have a document outlining the information relevant to your video, you may want to utilize Colossyan’s document-to-video feature. 

Document-to-video makes it easier to get your video project off the ground by transforming your document into a video draft – complete with an AI avatar and voiceover, images, and animations – in less than 60 seconds. Take a look for yourself: 

Once the software has created your first draft, you can make the necessary edits. No need to hire professional editors – you can do everything from Colossyan’s easy-to-use video editor interface. 

AI tools like Colossyan don’t just save your team hours of precious time, but they can create higher quality results that are more effective at engaging your audience. 

Want to unlock the full potential of AI video creation and create fast, scalable videos for your business? Try Colossyan for free today, or schedule a demo with our team to get started.

It doesn’t matter if you have a chatbot, knowledge base, or dedicated support agents at the ready to answer your customers’ questions. Sometimes, people just want to sit back and watch a video.

Why? The short answer is they require minimal effort from the viewer and are easy to understand. 

The longer answer is that video-based learning is far more effective than text-based learning when it comes to knowledge retention. In a recent study of 100 medical students, the research found that video lectures were significantly more effective than text in improving memory retention. Similarly, in a 2023 study, the use of animation-based e-modules was shown to significantly increase learning retention among junior high school students.

And with an explainer video maker like Colossyan at your fingertips, it’s never been easier to make an explainer video that meets your needs.

In this blog, we’ll explore the different types of explainer video styles and share our best practices for creating animated explainer videos, videos with whiteboard animations, and videos with dedicated AI presenters.

What is an explainer video?

An explainer video is a short, visually engaging video that explains or demonstrates how a product, service, or process works. A typical explainer video uses a combination of graphics, text, and narration to clearly outline key features, benefits, and functions in a way your viewers can easily understand.

Here’s a quick example of one of our own explainer videos for Colossyan:

This is exactly how your explainer video clips should look – short, concise, and jam-packed with value.

Since they serve a wide array of use cases, creating explainer videos has become an increasingly popular way for businesses and brands to grow and expand their customer base. By leveraging the power of visual storytelling, an explainer video allows companies to introduce themselves, their offerings, and their value propositions in a way that can’t be communicated with plain text alone.

Research has also shown explainer videos can boost website traffic and conversions. Viewers who watch an explainer video are more likely to understand and use a company’s products or services, resulting in increased signups, purchases, and customer retention over time. Not to mention, explainer videos can be used internally to assist with continuous learning and development in the workplace (e.g., product, compliance, and sales training).

But what if your company is selling a complex B2B offering that can’t be summarized in a few knowledge base articles or 1:1 customer support chats? 

Explainer videos work great here, too. For complex ideas and solutions in particular, an explainer video acts as an “always-on” sales representative to help potential customers understand the benefits of your product or service. 

Different types of explainer video styles

No two explainer videos are the same – they may be different in terms of content, length, or design. Speaking of design, there are several common styles used for explainer videos, including live-action, animated, and whiteboard explainer videos. 

Each has a unique look and feel that may be better suited for certain types of content. At Colossyan, we help our users replicate live-action videos with the assistance of our AI presenters.  

However, any of these styles can be used to create an engaging explainer video. Want to try out one of these AI avatars yourself? You can check Colossyan’s library of explainer video templates here.

Live-action

As a quick refresher, these explainer videos feature real people on camera. They can help demonstrate physical products or processes in a realistic way – as opposed to relying on illustrations or complicated design elements. However, live-action comes with higher production costs and is less flexible for revisions.

Fortunately, with the influx of new AI video production tools like Colossyan, your teams can spin up live-action explainer videos at a fraction of the cost and time it would take to record real live-action for your own videos.

Animated

Animated explainer videos use digital illustrations and graphics to visually convey concepts that can’t always be captured in a live-action setting. Animated explainer videos are also more engaging for abstract topics and allow for dynamic illustrations and unique animated features that would be impossible with live actors. However, creating quality animated explainer videos also requires specialized design skills and can be more expensive as a result.

Whiteboard

Finally, whiteboard explainer videos feature an on-camera presenter drawing diagrams and writing notes on a whiteboard or clear glass screen. These are the most straightforward and to-the-point videos on this list.

Not only are they a cost-effective way to visually map out processes, systems, or user flows, but whiteboard animation tools also allow the presenter to modify drawings and text easily. However, they may not be as captivating as high-quality animation or live-action for certain audiences – especially if you want to keep your viewers’ attention.

Making an explainer video in 6 steps

Any task can seem overwhelming if you don’t break it up into manageable steps. The same rules apply to producing explainer videos. If you want to start producing engaging videos for your company, here’s what the process should look like from A to Z.

1. Topic identification

The first step to creating a solid explainer video is to identify the core topic or process you want to explain. While this may seem like common sense, coming up with your topic(s) ahead of time will make it easier to ensure you’re not duplicating any content later on – especially if you plan on producing an ongoing series of explainer videos.

To get started, brainstorm common questions your customers may have when first learning about your product or service. You may also want to survey existing clients on what parts of your product or service confused them at first, or where they’d like additional education. Then, define two to three key messages or benefits you want viewers to walk away understanding at a deep level. 

For example, let’s say your sales team is underperforming. An investigation (task analysis, etc.) has identified that they are not following the sales process correctly.

After conducting a few interviews with your sales reps, you might learn that the existing PDF guide is confusing and time-consuming to review.  With all of this in mind, you decide to create an explainer video on the sales process.

From here, you can start producing a full content outline for your video(s) as part of your explainer series.

2. Conduct research

Conducting thorough research of your subject matter is crucial. If you really want to produce an effective explainer video, try scheduling time with internal SMEs at your company. Then, document their explanations in an outline. 

Once you’ve got the bulk of your research complete, you can begin to outline your training video using the action mapping training method as created by internationally recognized training designer, Cathy Moore.

In a nutshell, the action mapping process involves the following steps:

1. Identify the business goal you’re hoping to achieve by creating this training. For example, your goal could be to increase new sales by 8% in Q4.

2. Identify what people in your organization need to do to achieve this business goal. This will help you design your training around actions vs. passive knowledge.

3. Design practice activities that mirror the actions you want your employees to perform.

4. Finally, identify the information that your employees actually need to know to complete your practice activities. This will help you focus your training solely on the knowledge that will help your employees achieve your company’s business goals.

Once you’ve finished this action mapping exercise and your outline is ready, you should also research how your competitors present similar information through their explainer videos. This will help you identify areas where you can improve upon any existing video content in your space.

Alternatively, you can use an explainer video software with a document-to-video feature – such as Colossyan – to give you a headstart in the video creation process. 

So, how does document to video work? Simply upload your document into Colossyan in one of our accepted formats (PDF, PPTX, TXT, or DOCX), specify the video topic, tone, or audience, and select a theme. From there, you’ll have a video draft based on your document ready in just 30 to 60 seconds. That’s all it takes to create an explainer video using the written content you already have. 

3. Create a storyboard

With your research in hand, start crafting the narrative of your video by mapping out a rough storyboard. At this stage, you should decide on a logical progression of your video’s main points and supporting details. 

Think of your storyboard as a blueprint, ensuring that all the elements of your video come together cohesively. At this phase, you should also determine if live-action, animation, or whiteboard style best fits the content and goals of your explainer video.

4. Record narration

Not every video needs narration, but it’s a great way to supplement your visual content. If you’re recording a voiceover, ensure you’re capturing crystal-clear audio to maintain quality. 

However, you can also use an AI tool to handle the video narration for you. For example, Colossyan can turn your script into an AI voiceover in over 100 languages with a range of different accents. You’ll also be able to specify the phonetic pronunciation of specific terms for added clarity. 

And with the ability to translate your voiceover into different languages, every explainer video you create can be adapted for a global audience with the click of a button. 

5. Design assets and illustrations

Once your audio has been captured or recorded, you can start bringing your storyboard to life through visual assets. You can create graphics, diagrams, or whiteboard illustrations that clearly represent the concepts you plan on covering within your video. Or, for animated videos, map out the motion graphics and transitions you plan to include between slides. 

6. Edit

At this stage, you should assemble all your audio, video, graphics, and narration elements into a cohesive storyline using the video editing software of your choice. Or, if you’re using a dedicated video creation tool like Colossyan, you can start making adjustments to your video with our built-in video editor.

During the video editing process, you’ll want to ensure that your video has a logical progression and smooth flow between different visual and auditory elements. From there, consider adding additional elements to your video such as intro and outro frames with calls-to-action or your company’s logo.

Examples of effective explainer videos

There are many use cases for different types of explainer videos. They can span pretty much everything across an organization:

• Video-based SOPs
• Product demo videos
• Onboarding videos for new hires
• FAQ videos for customers
• Internal SOPs for new processes

Keep in mind that you should consider video as your medium of choice when it makes sense. Not everything can be explained best in a short video, but by running this process of elimination, you’ll be able to identify exactly where explainer videos can make a difference in your organization.

For example, here’s a compliance and ethics training video we made using Colossyan:

You can access this exact explainer video template here if you want to try it out yourself. Or, you can access Colossyan’s entire explainer video template library here. All of these templates are fully customizable to meet your needs. 

If you really want to create an effective explainer video, map out the potential use cases within your company. Ask your teams and departments where they could use support, and make a list of the different explainer videos you can create to supplement their efforts. From there, all you have to do is start producing your videos and you’ll be well on your way to making the lives of your employees and customers much easier.

Using AI in explainer video content production

At this point, you have all the steps laid out for you to start creating an engaging explainer video. The only caveat is that producing high-quality videos requires a significant investment of your time. Between conducting research, capturing footage, video editing, and getting approvals, there’s a lot that needs to be done before you can even hit “publish.”

Fortunately, with AI, you can significantly streamline the video creation process. 

Here’s a look at how AI can help you start producing high-quality videos at scale. We’ll use Colossyan Creator to support these examples.

Production and filming

Video production is by far the most time-consuming part of the content creation process. But with AI tools, you can skip the hassle of producing live-action footage. For example, Colossyan’s AI presenters act as virtual on-camera talent that are always “available” for filming. 

Not only does this give you near-limitless options for on-camera talent, but it also helps you avoid the delays of coordinating live actors’ schedules and setting up last-minute reshoots. Plus, AI avatars eliminate additional costs for things like wardrobe, makeup, and studio rentals.

Localization and translation

Video production can be tricky if you’re trying to reach your global target audience. Most videos just auto-translate the subtitles of their videos and call it a day, but these translations can be inaccurate and add friction to the viewing experience. 

Colossyan’s 100+ language support and auto-translation features make it easy to create and repurpose your explainer videos for a global audience. Not to mention, translation can be costly when done manually, so an explainer video software with this feature can free up more of your budget. 

Editing and revisions

The video editing experience can take even longer than the video production process, especially when you factor in the revisions and approvals that need to be cleared before you’re through. And if you’re relying on a single editor to manually edit your explainer videos, revision can be a serious bottleneck in your workflow.

But with a dedicated AI video production tool like Colossyan, you can cut your editing workflow in half. How? With features like text editing, image placement, and music selection that are intuitive for non-designers, anyone on your team can quickly grasp how an explainer video maker like Colossyan works and begin creating professional edits.

And if company leadership wants to make edits or revisions to your videos after the fact, that’s no problem. You can always make adjustments to your script, visuals, or any other part of your video and regenerate it once everyone’s happy. 

How to make explainer videos more engaging

Attention spans aren’t what they used to be. So if you want to capture the attention of your viewers and get your message across, you’ll need to add a few interactive elements to spice things up.

Once you’ve created your base video footage, you can insert interactive content and video elements like these:

• Custom characters and AI presenters to engage the viewer
• Integrated quizzes to reinforce learning
• Whiteboards and diagrams to illustrate your content
• Sound effects and animated elements

Each of these elements aims to engage the viewer in a way that isn’t limited to visual or auditory presentations alone. These elements not only make your explainer videos more engaging, but they also give you more ways to present information that plain text alone can’t convey.

Creating accessible explainer videos

Before you add all the bells, whistles, and final touches to your explainer videos, there’s one thing you need to keep in mind: accessibility. 

Specifically, you’ll want to make sure that your videos meet current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards, which ensure that online content is accessible to people with disabilities. 

Here are some tips to integrate accessibility into your explainer videos right from the beginning:

1. Use descriptive captions and subtitles: Instead of just transcribing the audio, provide descriptions of sounds, identify speakers, and clarify any unclear references to make your video easily understandable without sound.

2. Enable pause functionality: Include visible pause buttons for screen readers and ensure that the video stops after being paused for more than 5 seconds.

3. Maintain clear color contrast: Adequate color contrast is essential for your videos so that text can be read by individuals with visual impairments; a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 is recommended.

4. Minimize seizure risks caused by flashing elements: Videos featuring more than three flashes per second can heighten seizure risks. As a precaution, consider using static images instead of flashing content in your explainer videos.

5. Support keyboard navigation: Include keyboard functionality to allow your audience to control playback features such as pausing, playing, or rewinding using keys instead of relying solely on a mouse.

6. Additionally, ensure that your explanatory videos include audio descriptions: In cases where the content heavily relies on visuals like diagrams or graphs, remember to verbally describe what is being shown on the screen. This approach will enhance accessibility for viewers who may have visual impairments.

By incorporating these recommended strategies, you can produce explanatory videos that are inclusive and offer all audiences equal access to information regardless of their abilities.

Start creating engaging explainer videos with Colossyan

You’re only one explainer video away from making that sale, onboarding that new hire, and fulfilling that customer support request. But without the right explainer video software to streamline the video production process, you’ll be stuck trying to do the work of a videographer, editor, designer… and the list goes on.

But with AI video platforms like Colossyan, you can manage the entire video production process in one place, with fewer employees, and in far less time. Book a demo with our team to get started.

If we asked you to give a detailed summary of what you do for work, you might say something like, “It's complicated.”

And we wouldn't blame you. Not every job can be summarized in a brief elevator pitch. But if your job really is that complicated, you might want to start creating instructional videos to help out with employee training and onboarding. After all, the average employee onboarding cycle can last anywhere from three months to a full year.

Videos can provide effective and accessible alternatives to plain text, and with the help of AI video creation tools, it’s also never been easier to create a series of tutorial videos at scale.

In this article, we’ll show how creating instructional videos for your business can increase learner retention, provide helpful resources for your customers, and establish your brand as an industry expert. We’ll also cover our recommended best practices for developing engaging and accessible video content, from storyboarding to production and distribution.

What are instructional videos?

Instructional videos guide the viewer through how to accomplish a task or use a product or service. And unlike plain text, instructional videos engage both the visual and auditory senses via dual coding.

Specifically, your average video tutorial will include elements like these:

• Closed captions
• Visual aids like custom illustrations or diagrams
• Audio narration
• And more recently, custom AI presenters

In a corporate setting, instructional videos like these are commonly used for onboarding new hires, supplementing customer support teams, and facilitating continuous workplace learning for existing employees. Here’s a closer look at how these explainer videos are used by both companies and customers.

Instructional video for companies

Many companies today utilize instructional videos as part of their onboarding and training programs. Rather than relying solely on written manuals or in-person sessions, instructional videos allow information to be conveyed efficiently through a step-by-step visual format. 

Additionally, an instructional designer can help add interactive elements like quizzes and practice activities to instructional videos to reinforce learning. 

The addition of these interactive elements is one of the best ways to increase the efficacy of instructional content, as outlined by Cathy Moore in her Action Mapping training design.

Instructional video for customers

Instructional videos are also frequently used to empower customers to help themselves through interactive guides, assembly instructions, and how-to content. This reduces strain on your technical support teams while ensuring your users are still able to get the customer service they need. For example, many software applications and devices now include instructional videos within their online help sections for easy access.

Popular types of instructional videos

No two video tutorials are the same. Some may be quick screen recordings, while others may be longer videos on how to use a certain software feature or perform a complicated task.

Regardless of the type of instructional video you want to create, here are a few of the most popular types of instructional videos to give you some inspiration.

How-to videos

As you probably guessed, how-to videos demonstrate step-by-step processes. These types of instructional videos are commonly used for technical support, onboarding new employees, and guiding customers through complex processes like using a particular software feature that has a steep learning curve.

Screen recordings

Taking a screen recording is another great way to quickly start making your own instructional videos. What’s great about them is they don’t require a significant investment of your time or money. As long as you have some basic equipment and decent sound quality, you can create high-quality video tutorials across a wide range of use cases. 

Product demo videos

Recording product demo videos is a great way to supplement and support your existing knowledge base articles on how customers can use your product. If you plan on creating instructional videos for your company, this is probably one of the first types of educational videos you’ll turn to. These tutorial videos should give your customers a live preview of what a completed project or workflow within your service or software may look like.

Here’s a quick example to illustrate our point:

The best part of this kind of video tutorial is that it allows the viewer to work through the content at their own pace. And speaking of working through content at your own pace, here’s the last type of tutorial video on our list:

Assembly & maintenance videos

This type of explainer video guides viewers through assembly processes, repairs, or routine maintenance tasks. While this may not be the most relevant use case for companies in the tech sector, it can be incredibly helpful for B2B companies in the manufacturing space or for B2C companies who build and sell physical goods (e.g., toys, tools, and equipment).

How to plan instructional video content

Planning is essential if you want to create an instructional video series for your employees and customers. Here are some key steps to follow when mapping out your video content strategy:

1. Identify your video content needs

The first step in creating an instructional video is to identify the business goals that these trainings will solve.

As we mentioned earlier, if you’re familiar with Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping training design, then you’ll know that effective instructional design starts with identifying the change in your business you want to create (e.g., increasing sales in Q4). Once you have a better idea of the kind of change you want to see in your business, you’ll know what kind of instructional content to create.

Additionally, if your teams already have several learning resources available, you should audit your existing employee training programs, technical documentation, and customer support channels. Take note of any frequent questions, common issues, and processes that could benefit from a quick video tutorial series.

Finally, if you’re still uncertain about what kind of tutorial videos you should be making, you can always survey your end users to uncover what kind of content they’d find most helpful (e.g., product trainings, knowledge base videos, etc.)

2. Research topics

Not conducting any research or producing videos with zero forethought is one of the biggest instructional video mistakes you can make.

So before you start creating your own instructional videos, do further research into the specific topics, tasks, or processes that could benefit from your video creation skills. During this research phase, you’ll also want to define clear and measurable learning objectives for what your users should understand or be able to do after watching. This will make it easier to outline the key points you want to cover in your video script so your content stays on track.

3. Create content outlines

With your research complete, you’ll want to develop detailed outlines and storyboards for each video topic. Be sure to include an introductory overview of the training video topic, step-by-step demonstrations, and a concluding summary of your how-to video. 

After you’ve created a rough outline of your video, you’ll want to get it signed off by any internal stakeholders or SMEs in your organization before you move into pre-production. Then, once your content outline has been approved, you can begin to make an estimate of how long it will take to sufficiently cover the material in your video and keep viewers engaged.

4. Schedule production timelines

Now that your ideas are fully fleshed out, you can start recording! But first, you’ll need to get your production days scheduled out. To do this, block out dedicated dates for video production on your calendar, such as the day of filming, review periods, editing sessions, approvals, and the planned publishing dates. As an extra precaution, you may want to allow extra time for revisions in case any past videos need reshooting.

But what if you don’t have weeks or months to dedicate to producing a full live-action video?

If this sounds like you, don’t worry—you’re not alone. As markets fluctuate up and down, employees have historically been tasked with doing more with less. However, as of 2024, over half of organizations surveyed report using generative AI in at least one business unit, meaning more professionals are taking matters into their own hands—using AI video tools to streamline the production process.

With AI tools like Colossyan, for example, you don’t have to worry about scheduling reshoots, hiring on-camera talent, or shooting live video. Instead, you can start producing high-quality instructional videos at scale with the click of a few buttons. The popular hotel chain Sonesta was even able to cut 80% of their video production costs by using Colossyan.

5. Set publishing goals

Establish target launch dates for your initial instructional videos as well as future publishing schedules. Consistency helps keep your library fresh and lets your users know when to expect new additions. 

If you’re publishing videos on a streaming platform, you can also refine these publishing goals over time based on performance metrics like average watch times, number of views, and subscriber engagement.

6. Market your video content launches

Your instructional video content won’t have any actionable impact if no one watches it.
With this in mind, you’ll want to bake in the marketing and distribution of your instructional content from the beginning. For example, you could promote your video content in a monthly customer-facing newsletter, on your company blog, or internally across your organization.

If possible, test your marketing efforts to see how they affect your video performance metrics—especially if you’re creating instructional videos for a larger audience. 

Creating goals and KPIs for instructional videos

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that creating high-quality instructional videos isn’t easy. Making instructional videos takes time and money if you want to do it right. 

So to make sure you get the most out of your investment, you’ll want to create goals and KPIs around your video efforts.

Not only is this crucial for ensuring your instructional videos are delivering real value to your business, but it will also help your teams understand the impact your educational content is having so you can optimize over time.

Some important KPIs to track include the following:

1. Measures the percentage of employees who complete training courses versus those who start them. High completion rates can indicate that you’ve created engaging and relevant training content for your employees.

2. Learner satisfaction: Assessed through surveys post-training to determine how satisfied your employees are with the training content, delivery, and overall experience.

3. Knowledge retention: Measures how much information your employees retain over time through quizzes or assessments administered after a period following training completion.

4. Behavioral changes: Evaluates how effectively your instructional content has influenced employee behavior and practices in the workplace. This is often assessed through performance reviews or 360-degree feedback.

5. Skill improvement: Assesses the improvement in any soft or hard skills before and after training; this is often measured through pre-training and post-training assessments.

6. Impact on performance metrics: Links your instructional content to specific performance metrics such as increased sales, improved customer service ratings, or enhanced productivity.

7. ROI of training programs: Calculates the return on investment of training by comparing the financial benefits gained (like increased productivity or reduced error rates) against the cost of the training.

8. Time to proficiency: Measures the time it takes for employees to become proficient in their roles after undergoing training.

9. Engagement levels during training: Tracks how engaged employees are during training sessions, which can be measured by participation rates in activities, interaction with content, and feedback.

Having goals in mind—like viewer retention targets or new user training completion percentages—will help you determine if your videos are worth the time and effort it takes to create them. Plus, it’s a great sounding board for whether your instructional content is (or isn’t) effective.

Creating engaging visuals and multimedia

Creating animations with real-life characters or custom illustrations that list out direct instructions are great ways to supplement the learning process and appeal to different learning styles. And to be honest, if you’re creating videos that aren’t visually appealing, your target audience probably won’t bother to watch them.

But adding visual elements to your videos isn’t just about making them look good. According to Richard Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia, structuring your videos’ multimedia elements is crucial to maximize learning outcomes.

Mayer’s multimedia learning theory is based on three assumptions:

• Dual-channel assumption: According to Mayer, people have two separate channels for processing auditory and visual information.
• Limited-capacity assumption: The theory recognizes that individuals have a limited ability to absorb information at any one time.
• Active-processing assumption: The multimedia learning theory also suggests that people should be actively engaged in the learning process rather than passive receivers of information.

Fortunately, you don’t need professional-grade video creation skills to make engaging multimedia assets for your instructional videos. Thanks to the influx of new AI video technology, it’s never been easier to add multimedia elements to videos and create high-quality instructional videos.

Here are a few of the different multimedia elements you could add to your videos:

Custom graphics

Well-designed graphics, diagrams, and illustrations can help enhance your viewers’ understanding of complex concepts. Diagrams and process flows make it easier for your viewers to grasp concepts that can’t be communicated with heavy blocks of texts alone.

AI presenters

These days, anyone can capture a quick voice recording on their phone, and boom—they have a voiceover ready to go. But unless you have visuals to support your audio recordings, your viewers likely won’t stay engaged.

What if you could combine professional voiceovers and engaging videos with the click of a button?

Well, with the help of AI, it’s a lot easier than it sounds. With tools like Colossyan, you can choose from a vast library of AI presenters and voiceover recordings in 100+ languages to narrate your video. Not only does this make it easier to produce high-quality instructional videos at scale, but it also gives you the option to customize your recordings according to your specific needs.

You can check out Colossyan’s AI presenters here if you want a better idea of what we’re talking about.

Polls and quizzes

Finally, polls and quizzes introduce interactivity into your video content by formally assessing your viewers’ comprehension. Multiple-choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions challenge viewers to recall and apply what they learned. Incorporating quizzes not only encourages deeper engagement with your video content but also transforms it from a passive viewing experience into an active learning process.

Keeping accessibility in mind

One last thing before you start creating your first instruction video: It’s important to ensure your instructional videos meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standards. All your instructional videos should have the following assets available:

• Closed captions for audio content
• Audio descriptions of visuals for visually impaired users
• A text transcript alternative
• Compatibility with assistive technologies like screen readers
• Sufficient color contrast

Following these WCAG guidelines will ensure that your training videos are accessible to the widest possible audience, from your customers to your executives and everyone in between.

Using AI in instructional video content production

At this point, you may be thinking this seems like a lot of work. 

For most startups and mid-size companies, making instructional videos just isn’t a priority when they have revenue and retention goals to worry about. Fortunately, leveraging dedicated AI video creation tools like Colossyan can significantly streamline the process of creating instructional video content.

For starters, AI can assist with automated transcription, translation, and closed captioning to ensure your videos are accessible to a global audience—without any added manual effort. Even better, you don’t need fancy editing software to do this. Most AI video tools can have built-in editing suites that let non-technical users easily spin up professional quality video tutorials.

Related: How to Scale Your Digital Video Production Using AI

Start creating high-quality instructional videos with Colossyan

You don’t need to be a professional videographer, animator, or producer to produce and publish videos online. With dedicated tools like Colossyan, you can use AI to quickly create video scripts, generate custom AI presenters, translate your videos into 100+ languages, and distribute your instructional video content across social media platforms and beyond.

Want to produce instructional videos for your business? Book a demo with Colossyan to get started.

Whether you’re looking to help out your customers, employees, sales team, or new hires, how-to videos are a powerful and easy way to impart knowledge.

Sure, written documents are helpful, and they do have the benefit of being searchable. However, reading through lengthy written guides can be cumbersome, and some people learn better through a visual medium.

So you want to create some more how-to videos—maybe you’ve just bought a fun new tool that you’d like to get some use out of—but you’re a bit stuck for ideas.

We’ve got you. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss 14 creative how-to video ideas for different businesses and departments. Then, we’ll provide some tips on how to come up with your own ideas and give you the inside scoop on how to easily create how-to videos using AI.

14 how-to video ideas for different businesses 

Use these 14 how-to video ideas as a launchpad for your own ideation, or simply use them as they are.

1. How to submit a timesheet

One of the first training videos a new employee should watch, especially if they’re working remotely, is how to submit a timesheet.

This is a great opportunity for a how-to video. 

You can have an AI avatar handle the voiceover and add a screen recording of the exact steps to properly submit a timesheet in accordance with company guidelines.

2. How to get started with your software platform 

Customer education is another important case for how-to videos.

This example should be a staple in your new customer onboarding process. 

A quick how-to video for getting set up with the platform you use can be a great way to either supplement and streamline a human-guided implementation session or replace it altogether for a product-led onboarding workflow.

3. How to perform a compliance audit 

Compliance training isn’t anyone’s favorite pastime, but you can make it much more engaging using video.

For example, you could use an AI video tool to create a short video guide on how to perform, analyze, and file an internal compliance audit.

4. How to handle common sales objections

How-to videos are one of the best ways to improve sales enablement. This is especially true of modern remote and hybrid teams, where traditional “all-hands” sales training sessions are a lot harder to organize.

Here’s a simple but effective how-to video idea for sales: “How to handle X common sales objections.”

Of course, you should use the experience of your actual sales reps here—you can even tap into their expertise when writing the video script.

5. How to make an internal announcement 

Video is an important medium for improving internal communications and making effective announcements to distributed teams.

One way to upskill your team is to create a quick how-to video on how to use video to make internal announcements, providing insights into using diplomatic language or how you might use visuals like graphs to better communicate complex ideas.

6. How to prepare for a meeting

Here’s another instructional how-to video idea for the workplace: a step-by-step guide on how to prepare for an upcoming meeting.

In this video, you might discuss skills like:

• Creating a meeting agenda
• Determining the meeting objective
• Delegating responsibilities
• Taking notes during the meeting itself 

This will guide employees through the process of prepping a meeting and show them exactly how to use the tools you’ve provided to do so.

7. How to be more productive at work

While you’re creating videos for the workplace, why not share hacks and tips for improving productivity at work?

In this how-to video, you might dive into different productivity tools you find useful, strategies like the Pomodoro Technique, or how to structure your day with strategically placed breaks. 

8. How to set goals

Career planning goes hand in hand with goal setting.

A short how-to video on setting career goals can be a great way to inspire team members and improve employee job satisfaction.

9. How to collaborate effectively in your project management platform

Another smart how-to video idea that should be part of your employee onboarding package is how to get the most out of your project management platform of choice.

For this video, use a screen recording tool while you walk through the platform’s features, and have an AI avatar narrate the video and provide expert tips.

10. How to handle workplace confrontation 

Conflicts in the workplace will always exist. What matters is how your employees handle them.

A video series on how to handle confrontation at work is a great way to reduce the need for intervention by management. 

You can even use AI avatars to demonstrate how to handle specific challenges that commonly arise, such as when workplace objectives clash or when two employees have differing opinions on how to proceed with a project. 

11. How to organize online events

You can also help your online marketing team get the hang of virtual events, teaching them how to use your various event marketing tools in an engaging video.

12. How to negotiate pricing 

Here’s another how-to video idea for sales reps: how to handle a pricing negotiation.

This how-to video idea is another perfect fit for AI avatars. You can have one avatar act as the customer and another as the sales rep to role-play different negotiation scenarios.

13. How to give effective feedback

Managers need to know how to give effective, constructive feedback to employees in a way that aligns with your business philosophy.

A how-to video on just that topic can be a great training device.

14. How to create your own how-to videos

Our final video suggestion is a bit meta.

Since you’re investing in creating how-to videos for the workplace, you’ll want your team to be sufficiently skilled in doing the same, right?

One of the most important pieces of training you can deliver is a guide on how to use your video creation platform of choice.

In the next section of this article, we’re going to demonstrate exactly what that might look like using Colossyan, our AI video generation platform.

How to easily create how-to videos using AI 

AI makes it easy to create how-to videos for your employees and customers without ever needing to step foot in a studio or touch a camera.

Here are the six simple steps to follow:

1. Choose your AI video generator (learn how in our guide).

2. Write your script or use an AI script generator to create one using plain English prompts.

3. Design your scenes using a storyboard, or start with an AI video template to get off the ground quickly.

4. Select the right AI avatars for your how-to video.

5. Create an AI voiceover and try out different languages, accents, and tones of voice.

6. Generate your video and edit and fine-tune the script or video instructions to perfection.

Learn more: Create Research-Backed AI Video Training Using “Mayer's 15 Principles”

How to come up with how-to video ideas 

The 14 examples we’ve discussed above are a great start, but to really get the most out of your AI video platform, you’ll want to have some solid sources for your own how-to video ideas.

Here are five areas to investigate for new how-to video ideas. 

1. Review your support chat logs

Take a look at the types of support tickets your customers are constantly raising. Are there any trends across the board?

You might find, for instance, there is a specific functionality that many users are failing to work out.

While this should also be a source of information for the product dev team—maybe they need to do a bit of work on the UX—an easy fix right now would be to create a how-to video for that function. Then, you can simply share that video with customers each time they raise a ticket on the matter.

2. Analyze what blog and social media content inspires engagement

Examine how your customers are engaging with the different kinds of content you produce, as well as that of your competitors.

Are there any how-to guides that are getting a lot of engagement? Could you explain them better with a short video?

If so, you’ve got another how-to video idea to throw into the pipeline.

3. Talk to your sales reps

Your sales team is a great source of information when it comes to learning what customers (and potential customers) are struggling with.

Throw out a few messages over Slack or organize a brainstorming session to extract ideas from your internal experts.

4. Collect customer feedback

Ask your customers!

Put out a survey or run some interviews and ask them a simple question: “What how-to video content could we create that would be enormously helpful to you?”

5. Ask ChatGPT

Finally, you can ask good old ChatGPT.

Here’s an example of a quick question about creating how-to videos for Colossyan:

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Bring your how-to video ideas to life with Colossyan 

How-to videos are one of the most engaging and practical video formats around.

They’re a great form of content for onboarding new employees or providing additional training to your team. You can even use them to support sales and customer success roles by creating customer-facing how-to clips.

The problem with traditional video creation is that it’s time-consuming and costly. Producing one video can take weeks, or even months, and cost thousands of dollars in studio time, actors’ fees, and editing expenses.

But with Colossyan, our AI video generation platform, you can generate, edit, and publish videos in a matter of minutes, not months.

Try out it for free and see for yourself just how transformative AI video can be.

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Conferences aren’t just about soaking up the wisdom from the speakers on stage. They’re a fantastic opportunity to learn from and connect with other L&D people. After all, when else do you find so many of them in one place?

Taking one or two days out of work to go to a conference is no small commitment. The cost in lost work time, travel, not to mention your conference ticket, can add up. 

But play your cards right, and you’ll feel the value long after the vendors have packed up and the conference hall has closed its doors. 

With Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibition 2024 just around the corner, and celebrating its 25^th year with its biggest event yet, we’ve pulled together some insider tips for effective learning and connection at this or any other conference event you go to this year.

Before the conference 

Some people just show up on the day and enjoy the experience. That’s ok if enjoyment is your main goal for attending. But those of us who do a bit of planning beforehand tend to get more out of it.  

Set your conference goal

What outcome would make it feel like a good use of time? Do you want to learn about a specific topic? Look for a new tech solution? Network with people in similar roles in different organizations? Or all of the above? 

Set a goal and plan your visit around it. 

Set your conference goal

What outcome would make it feel like a good use of time? Do you want to learn about a specific topic? Look for a new tech solution? Network with people in similar roles in different organizations? Or all of the above? 

Set a goal and plan your visit around it. 

Donald H Taylor’s Global Sentiment Survey shows what’s hot in workplace in L&D this year. Robin Hoyle’s annual L&D trends article also gives a good indication of what people will be talking about this year.

AI is top of the list in both, so expect to hear a lot about it at any conference or exhibition floor. You can also expect to hear about personalization, analytics, data, and measurement. The most interesting conversations are likely to be about how AI helps you achieve, or changes how you approach, these issues. 

If the conference has an exhibition floor, doing homework ahead of time will help you make the most of your time with vendors.

Colossyan’s Vendor Profiling Tool helps you organize your thinking before, during, and after conversations with vendors. It recommends:

• Identifying 3 to 5 main challenges or problems faced by your organization.
• Listing your fixed requirements or ‘red lines’ (e.g. compatibility with existing tech stack, accessibility, data security, budget).
• Listing your flexible requirements (e.g. exclusive features, support model, future features roadmap).

Decide which sessions you want to see

Concurrent sessions in the conference, a free seminar program, and a huge exhibition floor of vendors, is enough to keep anyone busy for a couple of weeks. Go through the program and choose the ones you want to see most. If you’ve chosen the theme(s) you want to focus on, it’ll make your choices easier.

Some events have apps which help you do this. For example, you can build a personal event plan on the Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibition app. Add the sessions you want to go to – it’ll show you where you’ve got a clash. If you enable notifications, it’ll give you an alert on the day when it’s time to go to your session. 

Even though you’ve picked a theme, there’ll always be something else which catches your eye. At Learning Technologies Conference, most of the sessions will be technology-focused in one way or another. But there will also be some interesting sessions on human and creative skills, like Hadiya Nuriddin’s conference session on Storytelling. 

If you’re struggling to whittle down the sessions you want to go to, look for blog posts with recommendations. Like Tom’s Essential Guide to Learning Technologies 2024’s Standout Sessions. He’s grouped the sessions by theme with a bit more information on the topics and speakers than you’ll get anywhere else.

Connect with people in advance

Find out who’s going among your current connections and if any informal meet-ups are happening. It’s a great opportunity to get recommendations and arrange catch-ups. 

It’s also a great opportunity to connect with people you don’t know yet. David Kelly’s Curated Content highlights current themes and who’s posting about them. If one of the articles piques your interest, connect with the writer and see if they’ll be at the conference. 

If the event has an app, you might be able to use it to connect with people. The Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibition app lets you connect with fellow conference goers and exhibition vendors. Which is perfect for some of the busy vendors because you can book a slot and save yourself hanging around waiting to talk to them. Especially helpful if you have a tight conference schedule. 

Pack a conference bag

Bring a bag with your essentials. You’ll probably get a bag as you go in, or at an exhibition stand. But it’s always a good idea to bring your own so you’ve got what you need, where you need it. 

The seasoned conference and exhibition goer usually has: 

• A refillable water bottle – it’ll get hot, and you’ll get thirsty. Stay hydrated and use the refill stations which are usually dotted around the venue. 
• Snacks – there’s a lot of walking, thinking, and talking. So, you’ll need some carbs and sugar to keep your energy levels up. 
• Something to take notes on – you can’t go to a conference and not take notes. Install a notes app on your tablet or phone. Or bring a notebook and pens (just because you’re going to Learning Technologies doesn’t mean you can’t go analog). 
• Your mobile phone – it’s handy for connecting with people on LinkedIn there and then. You’ll also need it to access the event app or a back-up of your ticket.
• A power bank or charger – your phone’s battery will probably need a top-up at some point, especially if you’re using it to take photos, videos, or notes. 

Ask vendors the right questions

Make the most of your conversations with vendors by asking questions which help you get the information you need. 

If you used the Vendor Profiling Tool when planning your visit, you’ll already be equipped with useful questions. Such as: 

• I’m currently dealing with [problem]. How can your tool help me? 
• We’re struggling to [challenge]. Is that something you can help with? 
• Every tool we use must be [fixed requirement]. Would that be a blocker to using your tool?
• Does your tool deliver [requirement]? 
• Do you have anything that allows [requirement]? 
• Is this a subscription or single purchase? 
• Do I need any specialist hardware to use it? 
• What other costs are associated with using it? 
• How does (or does it) compare with other options?
• What makes it different? 
• What do your customers like most about it? 
• Does this technology exist in other products? 

Not all vendors will be able to answer these questions on the day, so you’ll probably have to schedule a follow-up with them. 

After your visit to the stand, take a few minutes to note down your initial thoughts. This’ll help with comparisons and follow-up calls.

Network

With so many L&D people in one place, there’s no better time to network. But don’t save your networking just for vendors and speakers. Chat to the people sitting next to you while you’re waiting for the session to begin. 

There’s usually a back channel on social media. Check out the conference hashtag to join the conversation – this year’s Learning Technologies Conference hashtag is #LT24UK.

Go to fringe events

There are usually a few fringe events around a conference. These are more relaxed than official conference receptions and a great way to network with people. Check in with your network to find out what’s happening before, during, and after each day.

After the conference

There’s still a lot of value to be had after the event. So, report back to your organisation about what you saw. Then agree next steps. 

Share your thoughts 

People will be talking about the conference for weeks after. So, get involved.

Tell people what it was like to be there. If you can include photos, even better! 

Don’t save all the sharing for online. Tell your colleagues who weren’t there what they missed. 

Connect with people you enjoyed hearing from

This is no time to be shy about connecting with people on LinkedIn. We all expect to pick up some new connections at conferences. 

Especially speakers at the sessions you enjoyed most. Connect with or tag them in posts. Tell them what resonated most. They’ll appreciate the feedback. 

It’s a great way to keep the conversation going with the vendors and people you met at.

Follow up with vendors

Do some follow-up research on the vendors and make appointments with those you’d like to find out more from. 

If you’ve filled out the profiles in the Vendor Profiling Tool and noted what makes each one different, you’ll be able to create a shortlist of those you want to take the next step with.

Ultimately, it’s up to you how you get the most value from attending a conference. But the experience will be all the richer if you follow some (or all) of these tips.

Creating e-learning videos is often a thankless task. Few understand the hard work and long hours that go on behind the scenes to create educational material.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of the process is one that seems, on the surface, pretty simple: recording a voice narration.

But between countless false starts, retakes, and edits post-recording to get the final version right, narration for learning videos is anything but simple.

The good news? There’s a much easier way: AI narrators.

This article will serve as your introduction to the world of AI narration. We’ll explain what AI narrators are, how you use them, what they’re useful for, and how to choose the right platform for your needs.

What is an AI narrator? 

An AI voice generator uses artificial intelligence to generate voice narrations for video content, based on the script that you either provide or create using a few prompts and a generative AI scriptwriter.

AI narrators use a combination of modern technologies, ranging from simple text-to-speech (TTS) systems to more sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) and speech synthesis technologies to convert text into spoken word.

The voice that the AI voice generator provides can be completely computer-generated. Or it can be what’s known as a synthetic voice—one that uses recordings of real human speech (maybe even your own voice!) as its base.

In some cases, AI narrations are accompanied by an AI avatar—a synthetic or computer-generated visual representation of the human or character giving the voice overs. 

How do you use AI voice generation?

While every AI text-to-speech platform has a slightly different workflow, the broad steps to creating a narration are similar.

Here’s what the steps might look like in Colossyan, for instance:

1. Import your script or write one from scratch using generative AI (often a feature included in the same software platform).

2. Choose your AI avatar and voice (if you’re using one).

3. Select your language and accent.

4. Adjust the narration with parameters such as tone and scenario.

4 benefits of using an AI narrator in your e-learning videos 

Still not sure about using an AI voice generator to power your e-learning material?

Here are four tangible benefits of using AI avatars that you’ll see right away:

1. Support different learning styles 

For many, written text is a difficult learning medium. It can be slow and often fails to communicate nuances that the human voice can.

An AI voice generator with a natural-sounding voice can help support text-based learning by giving your educational materials engaging audio that helps students learn in a way that works best for them.

2. Improve consistency across learning videos 

Traditional, human-recorded voice overs are the norm in e-learning, but they can create an inconsistent experience for learners.

These videos often feature speakers with different voices and audio recording setups with varying degrees of audio quality, which not only impact the learning experience but actually make it harder and more time-consuming to edit into a final product.

AI text to speech platforms eliminate that inconsistency, as you can use the same computer-generated voice with the same accent and inflection across all videos, creating consistent quality.

Plus, your AI avatar will never get sick and record a video with a blocked nose!

3. Add subtitles to promote accessibility 

Adding subtitles and captions to videos is a great way to promote accessibility in e-learning.

If you’re not using AI-generated voice narration, you’ll likely have to do this manually, adding another item to your to-do list before you can get that video out to students.

But the more advanced AI voice generators on the market take this work off your plate, helping you to automatically generate subtitles and superimpose them over your video.

4. Translate in seconds

The best AI narrators also have built-in translators, allowing you to easily and automatically translate an entire narration in just seconds.

How to choose an AI voice generation solution for e-learning 

Ready to get started with AI narration?

There are plenty of options out there, from a simple free AI voice generator to the most complex platforms that let you create your own AI voice to generate voice overs that sound just like you.

Your next step should be to start looking for a software solution to help you get the job done.

Before you dive into that task, though, take note of these quick tips for choosing an AI voice-generation solution:

1. Check for learning requirements like SCORM 

When picking an AI narration tool to create e-learning and training videos, your first step should be to check out the tool’s ability to meet learning requirement ratings.

For instance, Colossyan offers features that support learning and development needs, such as automatic translation and scenario-based learning.

Of particular importance is the ability to export videos in sharable content object reference model (SCORM) format, a set of technology standards that all major learning management systems (LMS) use.

If you’re using an LMS to support online learning, you’ll want to prioritize a tool that offers SCORM as an output format.

2. Review the available avatars, voices, languages, and accents 

Next, take a look at each tool’s range of AI avatars, realistic AI voices, languages, and accents. 

If you’re going to create training videos with AI avatars, you’ll want someone who is a fit for your audience.

A gruff-looking man in overalls might be perfect for internal videos at an engineering firm, but he’s probably not the best fit for a group of 8-year-olds.

The best AI narration tools will provide a variety of avatars to choose from.

From there, ask these questions:

• What languages and accents are the AI-generated voices available in?
• Can you alter features like tone while still retaining natural-sounding speech?
• Does the tool offer voice cloning technology so you can use your own AI-generated voice sound in educational videos?

Pro tip: You can choose your favorite voices in Colossyan and always keep them at the top for easy access.

3. Consider the need for custom avatars

Didn’t find an AI avatar that suits your use case? Or perhaps you want to add a personal touch to your learning videos?

Some AI narrator tools also offer the ability to generate a custom avatar with your own gestures and facial expressions.

Depending on the tool in question, you may be able to create a basic avatar using your smartphone, or you might need to book some time in a studio with professional equipment.

4. Review quality standards 

Now that you’ve ticked off some of those preliminary boxes, turn your attention to audio quality.

What does the narration sound like? Is it a natural human voice, or does it sound a bit robotic? Is the narration quality the same across all voices and accents, or does it differ?

Moreover, how realistic does the narration need to be for your needs? 

Some use cases may require as much realism as possible to pass as a real human voice. In other cases, you might be completely happy with a voice that is clearly AI-generated but communicates the intended message just fine.

5. Make sure the tool integrates with your existing tech stack 

One of the big wins of using an AI voice generator is the amount of time and effort you save compared to traditional voice recordings.

You can take this efficiency gain to the next level by integrating the tool into your existing software infrastructure.

For example, if you can export a video directly from your AI video generation platform to your e-learning solution, you can skip the download and upload processes and get learning content out to a global audience faster.

6. Confirm that the pricing fits within your budget 

Finally, you’ll want to take a look at what the tool actually costs.

At the end of the day, the best AI voice generator serves all your needs without breaking the bank.

Free AI voice generators do exist and can be a reasonable option for getting started, but they generally don’t offer a lot in terms of feature richness, and quality is often a concern—especially if they don’t allow you to fine-tune audio files or choose different speech styles.

The good news is that professional options like Colossyan offer packages using synthetic voices that start at just $19 per month.

Colossyan: Your AI avatar for e-learning videos 

AI narrators can be powerful tools for creating e-learning content at scale or for adding natural sound voice overs to your YouTube videos.

The best options offer natural-sounding voices across dozens of languages, accents, and speaking styles, helping you find the perfect voice for your needs.

Some solutions, like Colossyan, go beyond simple narration—not only providing high-quality voice overs but also adding a powerful visual element with AI avatars.

Unlock the full potential of AI video creation today with Colossyan.

Creating e-learning videos is often a thankless task. Few understand the hard work and long hours that go on behind the scenes to create educational material.

One of the most time-consuming aspects of the process is one that seems, on the surface, pretty simple: recording a voice narration.

But between countless false starts, retakes, and edits post-recording to get the final version right, narration for learning videos is anything but simple.

The good news? There’s a much easier way: AI narrators.

This article will serve as your introduction to the world of AI narration. We’ll explain what AI narrators are, how you use them, what they’re useful for, and how to choose the right platform for your needs.

What is an AI narrator? 

An AI voice generator uses artificial intelligence to generate voice narrations for video content, based on the script that you either provide or create using a few prompts and a generative AI scriptwriter.

AI narrators use a combination of modern technologies, ranging from simple text-to-speech (TTS) systems to more sophisticated natural language processing (NLP) and speech synthesis technologies to convert text into spoken word.

The voice that the AI voice generator provides can be completely computer-generated. Or it can be what’s known as a synthetic voice—one that uses recordings of real human speech (maybe even your own voice!) as its base.

In some cases, AI narrations are accompanied by an AI avatar—a synthetic or computer-generated visual representation of the human or character giving the voice overs. 

How do you use AI voice generation?

While every AI text-to-speech platform has a slightly different workflow, the broad steps to creating a narration are similar.

Here’s what the steps might look like in Colossyan, for instance:

1. Import your script or write one from scratch using generative AI (often a feature included in the same software platform).
2. Choose your AI avatar and voice (if you’re using one).
3. Select your language and accent.
4. Adjust the narration with parameters such as tone and scenario.

4 benefits of using an AI narrator in your e-learning videos 

Still not sure about using an AI voice generator to power your e-learning material?

Here are four tangible benefits of using AI avatars that you’ll see right away:

1. Support different learning styles 

For many, written text is a difficult learning medium. It can be slow and often fails to communicate nuances that the human voice can.

An AI voice generator with a natural-sounding voice can help support text-based learning by giving your educational materials engaging audio that helps students learn in a way that works best for them.

2. Improve consistency across learning videos 

Traditional, human-recorded voice overs are the norm in e-learning, but they can create an inconsistent experience for learners.

These videos often feature speakers with different voices and audio recording setups with varying degrees of audio quality, which not only impact the learning experience but actually make it harder and more time-consuming to edit into a final product.

AI text to speech platforms eliminate that inconsistency, as you can use the same computer-generated voice with the same accent and inflection across all videos, creating consistent quality.

Plus, your AI avatar will never get sick and record a video with a blocked nose!

3. Add subtitles to promote accessibility 

Adding subtitles and captions to videos is a great way to promote accessibility in e-learning.

If you’re not using AI-generated voice narration, you’ll likely have to do this manually, adding another item to your to-do list before you can get that video out to students.

But the more advanced AI voice generators on the market take this work off your plate, helping you to automatically generate subtitles and superimpose them over your video.

4. Translate in seconds

The best AI narrators also have built-in translators, allowing you to easily and automatically translate an entire narration in just seconds.

How to choose an AI voice generation solution for e-learning 

Ready to get started with AI narration?

There are plenty of options out there, from a simple free AI voice generator to the most complex platforms that let you create your own AI voice to generate voice overs that sound just like you.

Your next step should be to start looking for a software solution to help you get the job done.

Before you dive into that task, though, take note of these quick tips for choosing an AI voice-generation solution:

1. Check for learning requirements like SCORM 

When picking an AI narration tool to create e-learning and training videos, your first step should be to check out the tool’s ability to meet learning requirement ratings.

For instance, Colossyan offers features that support learning and development needs, such as automatic translation and scenario-based learning.

Of particular importance is the ability to export videos in sharable content object reference model (SCORM) format, a set of technology standards that all major learning management systems (LMS) use.

If you’re using an LMS to support online learning, you’ll want to prioritize a tool that offers SCORM as an output format.

2. Review the available avatars, voices, languages, and accents 

Next, take a look at each tool’s range of AI avatars, realistic AI voices, languages, and accents. 

If you’re going to create training videos with AI avatars, you’ll want someone who is a fit for your audience.

A gruff-looking man in overalls might be perfect for internal videos at an engineering firm, but he’s probably not the best fit for a group of 8-year-olds.

The best AI narration tools will provide a variety of avatars to choose from.

From there, ask these questions:

• What languages and accents are the AI-generated voices available in?
• Can you alter features like tone while still retaining natural-sounding speech?
• Does the tool offer voice cloning technology so you can use your own AI-generated voice sound in educational videos?

Pro tip: You can choose your favorite voices in Colossyan and always keep them at the top for easy access.

3. Consider the need for custom avatars

Didn’t find an AI avatar that suits your use case? Or perhaps you want to add a personal touch to your learning videos?

Some AI narrator tools also offer the ability to generate a custom avatar with your own gestures and facial expressions.

Depending on the tool in question, you may be able to create a basic avatar using your smartphone, or you might need to book some time in a studio with professional equipment.

4. Review quality standards 

Now that you’ve ticked off some of those preliminary boxes, turn your attention to audio quality.

What does the narration sound like? Is it a natural human voice, or does it sound a bit robotic? Is the narration quality the same across all voices and accents, or does it differ?

Moreover, how realistic does the narration need to be for your needs? 

Some use cases may require as much realism as possible to pass as a real human voice. In other cases, you might be completely happy with a voice that is clearly AI-generated but communicates the intended message just fine.

5. Make sure the tool integrates with your existing tech stack 

One of the big wins of using an AI voice generator is the amount of time and effort you save compared to traditional voice recordings.

You can take this efficiency gain to the next level by integrating the tool into your existing software infrastructure.

For example, if you can export a video directly from your AI video generation platform to your e-learning solution, you can skip the download and upload processes and get learning content out to a global audience faster.

6. Confirm that the pricing fits within your budget 

Finally, you’ll want to take a look at what the tool actually costs.

At the end of the day, the best AI voice generator serves all your needs without breaking the bank.

Free AI voice generators do exist and can be a reasonable option for getting started, but they generally don’t offer a lot in terms of feature richness, and quality is often a concern—especially if they don’t allow you to fine-tune audio files or choose different speech styles.

The good news is that professional options like Colossyan offer packages using synthetic voices that start at just $19 per month.

Colossyan: Your AI avatar for e-learning videos 

AI narrators can be powerful tools for creating e-learning content at scale or for adding natural sound voice overs to your YouTube videos.

The best options offer natural-sounding voices across dozens of languages, accents, and speaking styles, helping you find the perfect voice for your needs.

Some solutions, like Colossyan, go beyond simple narration—not only providing high-quality voice overs but also adding a powerful visual element with AI avatars.

Unlock the full potential of AI video creation today with Colossyan.

‍

Learning Technologies 2024 is almost here, and it's massive! With over 200 sessions to choose from, knowing where to spend your time can be a challenge. If only someone spent the time to categorize and review every session, then provide a list of suggestions organized by theme…

Good news!

I’ve spent this week doing exactly this.

Why?

Why is a question I asked myself more than a few times during this process, but in truth, this is an amped-up version of what I always do before attending events. There's nothing worse than sitting down in a seminar, only to realise 2-minutes in that this was a bad choice. Hopefully, this article can save you from this fate.

Categorization by Theme

I, or rather we, started by collating every session from the exhibition, conference, and bitesize learning zone into a single spreadsheet. This included the theme listed against the session.

I then reviewed each session in a given theme and selected the sessions I felt merited your attention.

Making the Cut

Whittling down more than 200 sessions to a manageable number of suggestions is not a small or easy job. Not least because there are so many great sessions this year. I decided to keep my criteria simple, but flexible enough to allow for some variation between themes.

1. Timeliness - Does the session cover topics that we need to hear about right now?
2. Speaker Quality - Are the speakers experts in their field? And, are they known to present well?
3. Originality - Have I heard this one before? The idea may not always be original, but I always look for a new take or application.
4. Applicability - Will this session help you do something new or improve something old? If the answer to both is no, then why attend?

It’s important to note that we all have some biases when it comes to picking sessions at events. For this reason, I’ve tried to explain my rationale for each choice in this article. Each category has its own set of suggestions, so you can skip through to the subjects you are most interested in.

AI & Technology

There’s no ignoring it; AI is the headline right now—not just in the learning tech space but in almost every industry! Naturally, this has led to many sessions at the conference and exhibition.

For these suggestions, I tried to find sessions that could better inform and equip you to make strategic and near-term decisions about using AI tools.

Delivering personalized, skills-based content experiences using AI

Wednesday, 17th April
10:40 - 10:55
Bitesize Learning Zone 2

This session with Chriss Giddings and Adam Atkins from Cornerstone promises to examine the importance of better curating and personalizing content and AI's role in supporting these activities.

At a time when ‘more content’ is often the default response, this session's focus on curation and personalization stood out.

T1S4 - Artificial intelligence

Thursday, 18th April
11:15 - 12:25
Conference Theatre 1

This roundtable, chaired by Donald H. Taylor and featuring Egle Vinauskaite and Markus Bernhardt, promises to explore AI's potential beyond content creation.

At an event packed with expert-led sessions, this stands out as bringing together three no-nonsense voices we should all listen to.

A world in flux: AI and the forces transforming work, and what we can - and should - do about it

Wednesday, 17th April
9:30 - 10:30
Conference Theatre 1

The conference's opening address, given by Daniel Susskind, explored the opportunities and challenges presented by the development of AI and what it all means for the future of work.

For those wondering where we are in the AI ethics debate, you couldn't ask for a better grounding.

The vital role of human skills in leveraging AI effectively

Wednesday, 17th April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 10

This exhibition seminar, featuring Remy Reurling from Goodhabitz, draws attention to the essential human skills required to use AI in the workplace successfully.

This session will prove helpful for anyone starting their AI implementation journey or struggling with one already in progress.

AI, AI everywhere, but what will work for me?

Thursday, 18th April
12:30 - 13:00
Seminar Theatre 1

Okay, perhaps I’m a little biased here, but we wouldn’t be speaking if we didn’t have something worthwhile to share. I’ll share a helpful process and tool to help you build an effective and efficient L&D techstack.

At a time when there are more options and more noise than I’ve seen in a long time, this session will help you discern the signal you need to make better technology and partnering decisions.

From hype to reality - Using AI to create, learn & upskill

Wednesday, 17 April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 7

Niloufar Zarin and Helen Marshall will discuss how AI can support effective social learning experiences. With so much talk about how AI risks removing the human element, this is a refreshing topic of discussion.

This session brings together two experts in their fields and opens an interesting conversation about AI's role and potential.

Honourable mentions

Look, whittling down so many sessions was tough. And a few deserve a mention and your time if you can make it.

T2S3 - Learning personalisation

Wednesday 17 April
15:50 - 17:00
Conference Theatre 2

This session, chaired by Nial Gavin and featuring Peter Manniche Riber and Tiffany Abinsay, explores how data and AI can revolutionize learning personalization.

Choosing the Best Learning Standard to Future-Proof Your Tech Stack

Thursday 18 April
10:40 - 10:55
Bitesize Learning Zone 2

Chris Tompkins from Rustici Software will discuss CMI5 adoption and selecting the right learning standard. This may not seem as revolutionary as some other topics this year, but getting this right is vital to building your L&D tech stack.

Assessment & Measurement

The importance of assessment and measurement cannot be overstated. As an industry, we are being challenged to show value more clearly than ever before, and that’s a good thing.

For these suggestions, I’ve focused on sessions that will empower you to track, measure, and report unquestionable value to your organization.

T4S4 - Learning Impact

Thursday 18 April
11:15 - 12:25
Conference Theatre 4

This session, chaired by Anthony Williams and featuring Alice Thompson, Fran Butler, and Tayn Pavelic, promises to explore the demonstration of strategic value to your organization.

Roundtables like this are always excellent opportunities to crowdsource the very best thinking on a subject.

Your golden ticket to quantifiable ROI

Thursday 18 April
14:45 - 15:15
Seminar Theatre 4

Adrian Harvey, CEO of Elephants Don't Forget, will deliver a session showing how a client has done it right. These case studies are useful because they provide examples of exactly what those who are seeing success are doing.

If you’re not sure where to start in terms of showing ROI in your organization, this session is for you.

How to Optimize Employee Evaluation to Drive Business Forward

Wednesday, 17 April
13:15 - 13:45
Seminar Theatre 5

Nadya Stels, Global Partnerships Head at iSpring Solutions, will be running a session on looking beyond the moment of assessment and exploring how we communicate results to learners. This topic interests me because it's not one I see being discussed often.

If you’re trying to engage learners in a longer learning journey beyond the point of assessment, this session is worth seeing.

Compliance

Compliance remains the constant in the world of L&D. It may not be the most exciting content we engage with, but it’s one of L&D’s biggest opportunities to make a real-world impact.

This section is shorter as there were only a few sessions to choose from.

T5S2 - Compliance

Wednesday 17 April
13:55 - 15:05
Conference Theatre 5

This session, chaired by the one and only Michelle Parry-Slater, features Robert Waggot, Matt Price, and Sarah Twaites. The discussion of how technology can revolutionize compliance training is well-timed and much-needed.

Compliance training is a constant requirement in every organization I’ve worked in or with, making this session highly relevant for just about everyone.

A gamechanger to Compliance Learning with Dr. Martens

Thursday 18 April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 4

Simon Truckle and Catriona Razic from Skillcast will be discussing a real-world example of how to create engaging and effective compliance training.

My desire to include this session is simple: most compliance training doesn’t work. It’s dull, disengaging, and ineffective. If you want to start fixing this in your organization, this is worth attending.

Learning Methods and Approaches

This is always a busy collection of sessions. But, it's also a veritable treasure trove of case studies, blueprints and discussions that are immediately actionable.

For this section I selected the sessions I felt promised the most practical value.

Blended Learning Done a Lidl Differently

Thursday 18 April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 11

Alistair Cumming from Lidl will be joining Jack Quantrill of Learning Pool and will be sharing the award-winning blended learning program that delivered great results and saved the company millions.

These case studies are an excellent opportunity to see how the very best are doing it. This session is bound to yield many practical takeaways.

Mastering Competencies: The Met Office's Skill Mapping Blueprint

Thursday 18 April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 8

Brendan Kilshaw will be sharing a behind-the-scenes look at how competencies are used at the Met Office to develop a people framework.

If skills development is on your list, this is the session for you.

The 3 Laws of Attraction: Creating a “pull” approach to serious learning

Wednesday 17 April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 6

Ceri Jones from the LEGO Group will be sharing the three guiding principles that she uses at The LEGO Group to attract learners to serious learning topics.

This kind of practical, actionable session is what I love about Learning Technologies. One not to miss!

T2S2 - Storytelling

Wednesday, 17 April
13:55 - 15:05
Conference Theatre 2

Kinga Petrovai will chair this session, which will feature Hadiya Nuriddin, exploring how we take business data and use it to craft stories with impact.

Storytelling is a skill that unlocks a world of potential. This is a great way to develop your skills in building stories that matter.

T5S3 - Business-aligned learning

Wednesday, 17 April
15:50 - 17:00
Conference Theatre 5

Michelle Parry-Slater will chair a session featuring Laura Overton on aligning learning to organizational objectives. Need I say more? When we talk about delivering unquestionable value, this is what it's all about.

This session features 2 of my favorite L&D voices and covers a topic we must all learn to do better. If you can attend, you should.

Learning Platforms and Tools

Learning platforms can seem a little dull, but nothing could be further from the truth. Almost every learning intervention today is experienced through the lens of the platform in which it lives.

For this section I looked for session focussed on universally application processes. Sessions that are only useful with a specific product can be great, but obviously have limited application.

Systems Training 101: The Ultimate Guide

Wednesday, 17 April
14:00 - 14:30
Seminar Theatre 1

Leena Randhawa from Omniplex will share some best practices for systems training. We’ll all have had some experience with this topic; whether it's an update to the office suite or a proprietary billing platform, system training can be tough.

Omniplex has an excellent reputation for delivering value in its sessions. Although this topic may not grab headlines, it has the potential to offer massive value.

When is an LMS Like a Writing Desk?

Thursday, 18 April
11:45 - 12:15
Seminar Theatre 7

In this session, Jessica Myles will share a real-world use of eLearning authoring tools, platforms, and processes. 

I’m always on the lookout for speakers I’ve never heard before, and this session stood out.

eLearning for International Audiences: Strategies for Effective Learning Transfer across diverse markets

Wednesday, 17 April
13:15 - 13:45
Seminar Theatre 9

Designing great learning experiences is tough; deploying them effectively across diverse markets is another level. In this talk, Chetan Khushal promises to explore the cultural preferences and expectations we need to consider.

Localization is critical to success in multi-cultural and location workplaces. Any opportunity to discuss cultural preferences and their impact on learning is worth looking at.

Engagement and Development

Engagement and development is a broad theme, but there are some standout sessions here. Given the need for so much change in this field, I’m pleased to see a good range of topics.

I chose these topics for their focus on real-world deliverables and their variety. From coaching to performance support and finishing up in the world of mentoring, there’s a lot to see.

Unlock your potential - reflective coaching workshop with Behavioural Scientists

Wednesday, 17 April
15:40 - 15:55
Bitesize Learning Zone 1

In this session, Mat Piaggi and Sarah Henson discuss reflective coaching. They promise valuable tools and strategies to enhance self-awareness, manage transitions, and cultivate resilience in the face of change.

I love to see practitioners take a scientific approach. If reflective coaching is new to you or you want to improve your skills, this is the session for you.

T1S3 - Performance support

Wednesday, 17 April
15:50 - 17:00
Conference Theatre 1

This session, chaired by Sarah Ratcliff and featuring Ben Kirby and Daniel Redman, is about the pivot we need to make from content to performance outcomes. This is what modern learning and development is all about: workplace performance outcomes.

If you’d like to move toward delivering measurable performance outcomes in your business, this is worth attending. Sarah is a passionate and engaged L&D pro, so you’re in safe hands!

AI is not the (only) answer: unlock the power of your workforce with mentoring

Wednesday, 17 April
10:15 - 10:45
Seminar Theatre 6

Mike Pryke and Hattie Pursell from Guider will share their thoughts on why human-centric mentoring programs are essential to L&D’s future success.

I included this session precisely because we need to know when AI is and isn’t helping us. Mentoring is a vital part of our work, so if you’re not utilizing it already, this is a great place to start.

Professional Development

One of the things I love most about our field is our openness to professional development. Events like learning technologies are a hotbed for discovering new ways of working and defining our next steps.

I’ve chosen these sessions because they address some of the biggest development needs in our industry today.

The L&D Strategy Equation: A pragmatic approach for the busy Learning Leader

Thursday, 18 April
11:00 - 11:30
Seminar Theatre 6

Josh Cardoz from Sponge will run this session and share a framework for aligning with your organization's strategic objectives. This may sound simple, but I know many of us struggle to do it.

This is a big focus in our industry right now. To deliver value, we must help the business achieve its stated objectives.

Amplifying your business reach with extended enterprise training

Wednesday, 17 April
15:30 - 16:00
Seminar Theatre 3

Sven Becker and Karien Stroucken from IMC will discuss how to extend enterprise training to external stakeholders. If you’ve ever tried training external contractors, you’ll know how tough this can be.

Everyone should attend this session if they can. The ability to deliver results in external contexts is becoming increasingly important.

L2S1 - L&D and Sustainability

Thursday, 18 April
12:40 - 13:20

This session, chaired by Rob Hubbard and featuring Natalie Ainsworth, Jodie Pritchard, and Bryan Hopkins, is totally different and very important. Sustainability is a hot topic, but we leave it to others often. Here, we’ll hear exactly what we can do to effect positive change.

I’ve included this talk because the speakers are excellent, and the topic is one we rarely hear about. We have much to learn in this area, so let's begin.

Social, Ethical, and Accessibility

Some of the sessions I enjoyed most fall under this theme. From accessibility to social learning and psychological safety, these sessions make you think.

My choices here were tough, as I wanted to include all of them. I chose these three based on where I would start on these topics.

The True Cost of Accessibility

Wednesday, 17 April
14:45 - 15:15
Seminar Theatre 6

Gemma Nunn from Mint will share the costs to organizations for not delivering accessible learning experiences. This is often overlooked or, perhaps worse, paid lip service to.

Gemma is a fantastic speaker and an expert practitioner in creating accessible content.

Is there a right way to get it wrong? Three ways to build psychological safety at work

Wednesday, 17 April
15:30 - 16:00
Seminar Theatre 10

Simon Riddlesden, Dr. Hazel Harrison, and Dani Saadu will discuss one of my favorite topics: failure. More accurately, they will discuss psychological safety and the need to get things wrong and learn from them.

This session is worth attending if you want scientific insight into this process and what is needed to support it.

T4S2 - Social learning

Wednesday, 17 April
13:55 - 15:05
Conference Theatre 4

Claire Doody and Starling Hunter will discuss social learning and, more specifically, enhancing communication and knowledge flow. This area is too often ignored, and in-depth content is not the answer.

This is a must-attend conference session if you want to implement a social learning program.

Organizational and Cultural Considerations

This theme is an opportunity to engage more broadly with the businesses in which we work. After all, L&D is a servant enterprise to the wider organization. We work to support others in achieving objectives, so we need to engage with those around us and understand the broader culture in which we work.

My choices here are aimed to give you an idea of just how varied this space is and how much we have to learn.

Let's Build a Winning L&D Business Case [Live Workshop]

Wednesday, 17 April
14:50 - 15:05
Bitesize Learning Zone 1

Chris Chesterman is running this workshop to share how to create effective business cases. I have struggled with this skill for a long time, and I am pleased to see it featured here.

This is a skill everyone in L&D needs, so if you’re not sure about your ability to do this, I suggest you make 15 minutes for this session.

T3S5 - Learning leadership

Thursday, 18 April
13:55 - 15:05
Conference Theatre 3

This session, chaired by Donald H. Taylor and featuring Heather Stefanski and Chara Balasubramaniam, explores the skills needed to lead L&D and what the future looks like in terms of L&D roles and our place in the broader businesses in which we work.

Great leaders in L&D are rare indeed. If you are a leader in your function or want to be one, this is an ideal session for you.

What didn’t I include?

Well, there's lots of stuff! With so many sessions and competing priorities, it’s impossible to include everything. The sessions listed in this article stood out to me as having the most evident and immediate value.

That said, I will definitely have missed some. So, if there is a great session that is not on this list, please let me know! Similarly, on both days, I’ll be roaming the corridors of the Learning Technologies Exhibition, mic in hand, searching for your thoughts on the event. If you see me, say hello and share what you’re taking back to the office.