Hello Community,

Is AI making us more productive?

However, doing more does not equal doing it better.

Now that AI is becoming part of more workflows, the value of human expertise comes to the foreground. This is especially important in L&D, where we often use AI to generate ideas, structure content, create assessments, and accelerate production.

In this edition, we explore why keeping human judgment at the center will define the future of L&D and how to move from individual AI tools toward AI orchestration.

For years, expertise in L&D was partly demonstrated by our ability to produce: write the content, build the course, create the assessment, and develop the materials.

Now anyone can generate a polished course outline, examples, activities, or assessments in minutes. A couple of months ago, Chalkbeat found apparently AI-generated teaching materials with factual errors, strange images, typos, and even an alphabet worksheet missing the letter F on a platform used by 85% of pre-K-12 educators in the US. The example is a bit extreme, but it shows how quickly the ability to produce learning materials at scale can outpace the scrutiny we apply to them.

The higher the stakes, the more scrutiny we should apply to AI-generated content and recommendations.

🛡 Verify before you trust:  Treat outputs as drafts that require professional review, especially in areas like compliance, safety, healthcare, finance, or technical training.

🔒 Know what you can share: You must understand your organization’s privacy and security policies and any client restrictions before entering organizational, employee, or client information into AI tools. Remove or generalize sensitive information when necessary. 

🤖 Be transparent about AI use: Depending on the context, you may need to disclose that you're using AI. Within an organization, you must follow internal policies and guidelines. If you work with clients, you may need to disclose that AI is part of your workflow and consider reflecting that in the contract.

✅ Stay accountable: Especially when you are under pressure to deliver, don’t let speed replace critical thinking. You are responsible for the final result. Whatever AI helped with, including structure, examples, assessments, or recommendations, you still need to question those choices.

Even if the content is accurate, safe, and appropriately reviewed, how do we know whether it's good learning content? Human judgment is the quality check. The SURE framework offers four criteria you can use to review learning content created with AI assistance: 

Then, the Learner experience gives us the evidence we need to learn, refine, and improve.

Connecting these layers across the learning workflow is where AI orchestration begins.

This will be one of the focus areas of the conversations in the upcoming iSpring AI Days 2026, a free virtual conference on October 28 for L&D, instructional design, HR and talent development professionals, eLearning developers, educators, consultants, and business leaders.

And if you’re ready to strengthen your own ability to lead AI transformation, we have something starting next week.

Next week, we are kicking off “Women Leading AI Transformation,” a 5-week Micro Certificate Program led by Malvika Jethmalani, and you don’t want to miss it!

Malvika is a three-time CHRO who has spent nearly 20 years leading People teams across technology, healthcare, consumer goods, professional services, and manufacturing. Her experience includes supporting 5,000 employees across 50 countries and serving as an interim CFO and COO.

Today, as the founder of Atvis Group and Women Shaping AI, she advises CEOs and boards on AI transformation through the human, governance, and leadership lens.

Participants will learn how to assess AI readiness, redesign work, build workforce capability, strengthen governance, and lead through uncertainty.

📅 Wednesdays, October 14–November 11

⏰ 8:00–10:00 AM Pacific Time

💻 Live & online | No technical background required

📜 Get a digital diploma, a Pearson badge and gain 10 HR Credits

Looking a little further ahead, BUILD is taking shape, and we have more people to introduce. 🎉

On March 10, 2027, HR and People leaders will come together in Scottsdale for a full day of practical conversations, new ideas, and meaningful connections.

Places are filling up quickly, and every week we’re updating the BUILD website with more of the people joining us.

We’re also excited to welcome our conference MCs:

Need help getting approval? We’ve prepared a ready-to-send letter to help you make the case to your manager.

📍 Where: Scottsdale, Arizona

📅 Optional workshops: March 9

🎤 BUILD Conference: March 10

🎟️ Early-bird registration: $199 | Group rates available

Beyond our events, there are more ways to deepen your leadership practice and connect with peers across the Hacking HR community.

The Hacking HR Executive Network is a curated, application-based network for CHROs, CPOs, and VP-level People leaders at organizations with 100 to 5,000 employees. The Network is intentionally application-based.

➡️ Explore the Hacking HR Executive Network

The PCSI-GSAIL Global Strategic AI Leadership Certification is designed for senior HR, People, AI strategy, and transformation leaders who want to validate those capabilities through a rigorous professional assessment. ➡️ Explore the GSAIL Certification

Three community-led events are coming up. Click on the links to learn more and register!

Every avoidable disaster deserves a victory sip. Better make it caffeinated. 😉

There’s probably another one waiting.

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If you are a CMO in the HR Tech space, we would love to connect. Every Friday we host a Hacking HR Live Webinar Planning session with Q&A at 09:00 AM Pacific Time. 👉 Register here→