The Toolkit

Enterprise XR platform for immersive training. Walmart trained 1.5M+ employees on it. Verizon & BMW use it for frontline staff. Particularly effective for scenarios that benefit from spatial awareness.

AI-powered sales training platform. Creates realistic AI 'buyers' that sales reps can practice against. Adapts scenarios based on performance & gives detailed feedback on technique.

Real-time AI coaching for contact center agents. Analyzes conversation dynamics & delivers live guidance on empathy, engagement, & effectiveness during actual customer calls.

Collaborative whiteboard with AI-powered agenda generation, real-time summarization, thematic clustering, & diagram generation. The workshop tool for visual collaboration.

Dedicated workshop planning platform with an AI assistant that transforms outlines into detailed session plans with timing & activities. Library of 1,300+ facilitation methods.

Workshop-first video conferencing with built-in facilitation features: timers, polls, breakout rooms, agenda management, & engagement tools designed specifically for interactive sessions.

Real-time transcription & note-taking with speaker identification, automated summaries, & AI chat for querying transcripts. Indispensable for capturing workshop insights.

AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, & analyzes conversations. Auto-generates action items, key topics, & searchable transcripts across all major video platforms.

Facilitation training & community platform. Not an AI tool per se, but the leading resource for facilitation methodology — certification programs & a practitioner community worth knowing about. If you facilitate, you should know these people.

The general-purpose AI workhorse. Workshop content, role-play scenarios, case studies, assessment questions, facilitator guides, & pre-reading materials. Best with detailed system prompts & context.

Anthropic's AI assistant. Particularly strong for long-form content, nuanced analysis, & tasks requiring careful reasoning. Dr. Hardman recommends it for the creative & analytical phases of instructional design. Our go-to for anything that needs to think before it writes.

Google's multimodal AI. Strong for research-backed content creation, data analysis, & anything that benefits from Google Workspace integration. Solid for brainstorming & ideation.

AI-powered content creation from Docebo. Transforms existing materials into multi-format learning assets — documents become courses, decks become modules.

Web-based e-learning authoring with AI-powered content assistance. Responsive, mobile-friendly courses with interactive elements. The industry standard for rapid e-learning development.

Design platform with AI-powered features for workshop materials, handouts, social graphics, & visual aids. Magic Write generates copy; Magic Design creates layouts from prompts.

AI-powered presentation tool that generates polished decks from prompts or documents. Solid for rapid workshop material creation with a modern, clean aesthetic.

Presentation software that automatically applies design rules as you build. Professional-looking results even for non-designers.

AI-native storytelling tool that generates narrative presentations from prompts. Good for workshop narratives & stakeholder decks.

AI video generation platform. Professional training videos with AI avatars in 120+ languages. No camera, studio, or actors needed. Major enterprises use it for scalable video training.

AI voice generation & cloning. Natural-sounding narration for training videos, e-learning modules, & audio guides. Industry-leading voice quality.

AI video platform for personalized training videos at scale. AI avatars, video translation, & the ability to go from script to finished video in minutes.

All-in-one video & audio editing. Edit video by editing text transcripts. Filler word removal, eye contact correction, & studio sound. The editing paradigm shift nobody talks about enough.

AI-native learning platform that personalizes the experience for each employee — adaptive content delivery, skills tracking, & AI-powered search across all learning content. One of the more interesting players in the space.

Mobile-first learning platform with AI-powered Sidekick for creating & delivering bite-sized content via text, Slack, & Teams. Reaches learners where they already are.

Collaborative learning platform combining AI with peer learning. Enables subject matter experts to create courses quickly with AI assistance while keeping collaborative feedback loops intact.

Skills-based learning platform that aggregates content from multiple sources & uses AI to recommend personalized paths based on skill gaps & career goals.

AI-powered learning experience platform (LXP) that curates & recommends content from internal & external sources. Now part of Cornerstone OnDemand.

Audience engagement platform with AI-powered presentation maker, quiz generator, survey maker, & automatic response grouping. If you run interactive workshops, you probably already know this one.

Audience interaction platform (now part of Cisco Webex) for live polls, Q&A, quizzes, & word clouds. Seamless integration with presentation tools & video conferencing.

Audience engagement platform with AI-powered question creation for polls, real-time word clouds, & ranking visualizations. The anonymous Q&A feature is genuinely strong.

Real-time audience response system with live polls, quizzes, word clouds, & Q&A. Deep integration with PowerPoint, Keynote, & Google Slides.

AI-powered talent intelligence platform that maps employee skills, identifies gaps, & recommends learning paths. Workforce planning & skills-based talent management.

People analytics platform with AI-powered insights into workforce trends, skills gaps, & learning effectiveness. Helps L&D teams demonstrate ROI with actual data.

Not a single tool, but the Kirkpatrick Four Levels framework (Reaction, Learning, Behavior, Results) is being enhanced by AI across multiple platforms for automated training evaluation. The framework is old. The AI application of it is not.

AI-powered research assistant that provides sourced, cited answers. Dr. Hardman recommends it for the research phase of instructional design. Excellent for finding evidence-based content quickly.

AI-powered academic search engine that finds & synthesizes peer-reviewed research. For evidence-based instructional design & backing up training content with real science.

AI research assistant that finds, summarizes, & extracts data from academic papers. Particularly useful for systematic literature reviews on learning science topics.

Google's AI-powered research notebook. Upload documents, papers, & notes, then ask questions across your entire knowledge base. The audio overview feature is surprisingly good.

Megan Torrance's team specializes in xAPI-powered learning ecosystems. Their approach to AI implementation in L&D — start small, iterate fast — is documented in the upcoming ATD Press book 'The AI Implementation Guide for L&D' (June 2026). Worth watching.

AI-powered virtual learning assistant that uses NLP to engage learners in open-response conversations. Real-time formative assessment & personalized tutoring through conversational AI.

AI-powered employee experience platform that automates HR queries, onboarding, & training recommendations. Conversational AI delivers personalized learning paths based on role & performance data.

AI-powered microlearning platform built for frontline workers. Adaptive algorithms deliver personalized, bite-sized training based on individual knowledge gaps & job requirements.

AI agent platform for building purpose-built tools & automating complex workflows. Particularly powerful for L&D teams that need to spin up custom training tools, research assistants, or content creation pipelines fast. (Yes, this site was built with it.)