From Denial to Acceptance: The LX Path to AI Adoption
You cannot go anywhere without thinking or talking about Artificial Intelligence (AI), and this is true for LX Design. I was out for dinner at the weekend and it struck me how many people are saddened at the impact of AI and worried about its role in their careers, and rightly so. Whilst there are many useful applications, there are many considerations about how and why they will impact the individual. It got me thinking about the human in all of this, and how, as educators, learner experience designers, and people; we have or are going through the grieving process; a loss of sorts, to understand where we now fit in the equation and what it means for you.
Let’s consider AI in the role of LX Design, and the apps that are appearing left right and centre that will automatically create a course for you, or provide intelligent tutoring, or data-driven insights to make recommendations for changes to courses. So, what does that mean for you as an LX Designer; let’s take a look through the lens of the Kubler-Ross five stages of grief.
1. Denial
You may initially deny the potential of AI to significantly impact LX Design, and that it can’t be done without the human element. You may believe that your design conversations cannot be replaced by algorithms and machine learning. This denial can be the result of too much information about AI, or lack of understanding of AI and its capabilities that could benefit you, or fear of change.
2. Anger
By now you realise AI isn’t going away and there are many conversations around the ethical use of it, what data is gathered, and ways in which it can take your role, and your experience, and turn it into an algorithm. This is where you might start to feel angry and feel that AI is taking away your creativity and the control to create an authentic learner experience.
3. Bargaining
At this stage, you might be trying to find the middle ground; finding the ways in which you can leverage your experience with AI-driven apps to maximise the learner experience design. You might argue for the selective use of AI in areas where it can augment human capabilities rather than replace them.
4. Sadness
Have you ever heard of the expression “you don’t know what you don’t know until you don’t know it?” This is the point where you know enough about AI to know it isn’t going anywhere fast but rather impacting you; so it can lead to a sense of loss. It is at this stage you may start to worry about your role and the value of your skills in an AI-driven landscape.
5. Acceptance
Some will be here already, and with the amount of information around AI, will most likely accept that AI can be integrated into LX Design. With acceptance comes a new reality; rather than one that will negatively impact their work, it will be one that can enhance their work. By accepting AI, you are best placed to determine the ways in which you can leverage it to create more engaging, more personalised, and more effective learner experiences.
Why is this important?
Although AI has been around for some time, ChatGPT catapulted everyones’ awareness of AI into another stratosphere, so it is okay to feel overwhelmed as to where you are at, and how AI will impact you in the future. Take some time to identify where you are at and work through the emotions to get through to the acceptance stage as it is only at this point that you will be able to evaluate the ways in which AI can work with you rather than against you.
References:
Kubler, E. (2019) Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Foundation, https://www.ekrfoundation.org/, accessed 2023
