An Unconventional Way To Learn With AI

Author

Ross Stevenson
June 10th, 2025

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 TODAY’S THOUGHTS ☠️

Hey there 👋,

I often see the spread of AI across L&D like a game of 4D chess.

It looks complicated, but it is simpler than you imagine and requires a depth of thinking beyond the status quo.

I know I keep saying it, but you don’t want to use AI to accelerate outdated ideas and practices. Instead, we should focus on rewiring what we do.

This quest of rewiring what L&D can do with AI has led me to think of a world beyond the course or event as the default delivery for learning moments.

I’m going to share one of those experiments with you today.

Today, we’re unpacking an unconventional way I’m using AI to develop my understanding and skills in new markets through the power of conversation.

Get your tea or beverage of choice ready, 🍵.

We've got lots to discuss!

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 IN THIS DROP 📔

  • Why no one asks “Why?” enough these days

  • How to reverse engineer your decisions for a learning experience

  • There’s much more to AI avatars than you think

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 THE BIG THOUGHT 👀

An Unconventional Way To Learn With AI

The Breakfast Club Ngapa GIF

When curiosity strikes

As I become older, and allegedly wiser, I can’t help but keep asking - why did I do that thing?

That thing can be anything.

A purchase, a quick decision, a random Tuesday afternoon choice on which delicious tea to drink.

It’s probably why I ended up in L&D.

I always want to understand what makes people do what they do. Plus, the biggest goal of any L&D function worth its salt is to understand and influence behaviour.

Every time you’re asked to deliver “training”, it’s an ask to change behaviour.

Anyone who’s worked with me will know I ask questions, a lot of them.

I could be classed as either a psychologist or an FBI interrogator, based on the context of my deep line of questioning.

I’m not scared to turn this on myself either.

I know that sounds like some weird scene from The Matrix, but stay with me. I felt like this could be a great opportunity to do a little experiment with AI to engage in a bit of an unconventional learning strategy.

I also like to think of it as a “looking beyond a course” solution, because everything doesn’t need to be a course, ya know.

The email made me do it

Like you, I get a lot of messages about products and courses.

I skim a few and delete a lot.

There was one I’d be going back and forth with for about 6 - 8 months. It was about copywriting, which is an essential skill for all humans, imo. Even more important in my line of work with getting people’s attention and turning the complex into something simple to understand.

I’d seen lots of emails about the course.

I read the reviews and thought a lot about it. But still didn’t find my way to the “buy” button.

That changed in one afternoon.

One email about the course, which offered a limited-time discount, hit me at the right time, and I threw my money at it. A few hours later, I wondered what about ‘that email’ made me take the final step.

I’d seen numerous emails about the course over the past 6 - 8 months, but I did nothing.

That got me hooked…and slightly obsessed.

I think we can learn a lot from decisions like this. Not just about ourselves, but the techniques that others use to influence behaviour. This email could do both.

So, I decided to reverse engineer the email with the help of AI, as my coach.

This is an experimental learning experience, and you can see the results in the video below.

What you can take from this to transform your learning experiences with AI

What I’m sharing here is not conventional, not by workplace learning standards.

Most workforces view a “learning experience” as a form of content delivery, either by being in a room with others or consuming a static digital product.

That might have worked pre-2022, but we’re firmly in the realm of conversational experiences.

This opens up a new level of self-exploratory learning (not sure that’s a thing, but whatever) that doesn’t require a classroom or a course.

Here’s a few thoughts on why this approach is beneficial to both you and the people you serve:

1/ Focus on the ‘Why’

I strongly believe we don’t ask “Why” enough.

We used to do it all the time when we were young to help us understand the world we’re growing up in. Somewhere along the way, we lost our confidence to do that.

I think both school and the workplace make us scared to ask simple little things like “why” and just say “I don’t know”.

You’ll see in the video how I use AI to claw out the focus on ‘why’.

It reminded me of the useful decision-making framework called the “5 Whys”, which was created by Sakichi Toyoda at Toyota. It was so effective, it became part of Toyota’s much-loved “Lean Philosophy”.

The goal is to find the root cause of a failure, challenge or behaviour.

It’s so simple you might be tempted to discount it, but you’ll be surprised by its results. All you do is take the problem or challenge you’re obsessing over and ask ‘why’ 5 times.

Here’s an example from Kabanize.com

In a way, I feel like AI can re-ignite some of our childlike wonder through conversational experiences.

As a child of the 90s in a pre-Google era, most of my fascination and curiosity were satisfied through the children’s book series of “How Things Work”. Now, I use AI and moments with humans to navigate that same curiosity.

2/ Leveraging AI as a mind coach to uncover unknown perspectives

That title sounds vastly more sinister than what I’m trying to get at.

Sometimes my engagements with AI can feel like talking with a parrot, and at others, I feel like I’ve met a digital Buddha with profound insights. When it comes to reverse-engineering ideas, processes or anything, I find this style of conversation more rewarding than watching a presenter slowly murder my attention span with PowerPoint.

One of my favourite lines of convo with my local LLM of choice is “What am I missing here?”

I’ve had some wild revelations from that question alone.

3/ Skill Exploration

No one knows everything, nor do they have all the skills in the world.

Life isn’t some Marvel film where some angry guy is travelling the world collecting skills for their evil or not so evil plans. That doesn’t mean you shouldn't be curious about other skills and how they are used.

This is the exact thing that led to my analysis and reverse-engineering experience shown in the video.

I want to understand why I took an action, but I also want to learn how to craft such a skill myself in copywriting. As we become ever more focused on skills, I can only imagine this being a meaningful way to support people in developing the right skills.

Final thoughts

When I think about the future of learning with AI, I don’t imagine it as more content and courses.

A rewiring of what we do and how we do it is here.

While most teams are stuck at the point of innovations from 2 years back, we can be ahead of this. Perhaps, this is the new reality of learning in the flow.

Conversational, not transactional.

I can’t help but get excited about conversational-driven experiences that not only develop new skills but also reveal more about ourselves and how we think.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

Till next time, you stay classy, learning friend!

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 VIDEO THOUGHTS 💾

Here’s How Powerful Conversational AI Avatars Can Be For Learning

No scripts or human replacements here.

In this demo, I showcase a working prototype of an interactive AI avatar, powered by HeyGen, designed to support critical thinking and deeper learning.

I built it in under 20 minutes. This avatar engages with ideas, offers alternative perspectives, and encourages iterative inquiry.

Whether you’re an educator, student, or curious about the future of learning tech, this is a glimpse into what’s possible right now.

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