AI assessments: The future of competency evaluation | Learning Pool

Have you ever rolled out a training program and then wondered afterwards, ‘Did this actually work?’

If you have, then you’re not alone, and you’re also certainly asking the right question. An insight from the CIPD Learning at Work Survey Report 2023 stated, ‘To work smarter, we need to understand what is working and what isn’t.’ This highlights a key priority for organisations today - proving that L&D efforts are being translated into real world competency, and using this evidence to inform decision making and future training. 

Take compliance training, for example. Your finance team might have passed the end-of-course quiz on anti-money laundering regulations, but when faced with a suspicious transaction months later, will they recognize the red flags and take the right action? 

With workplace learning and development, the ability to apply knowledge and skills in on-the-job situations is crucial. And assessment methods need to follow suit by going beyond simple knowledge checks, to evaluating application in practical context.

The challenges of assessments

While effective assessments are an important aspect of workplace training programs, they can be challenging to implement. This perhaps explains, in part, why only 50% of the respondents in the survey mentioned above agreed that they had a process in place to assess learning impact. Existing approaches, alongside their merits, have limitations:

• Multiple-choice questions test knowledge recall but can be difficult to construct properly, and often fail to assess higher-order learning or real-world application.
• Open-input responses offer valuable insights but are difficult to scale and evaluate consistently.
• Observational assessments provide strong evidence of competency but are time and resource-intensive.
• Performance reviews deliver useful feedback but often tend to be subjective and infrequent.

This gap in assessments can lead to persistent skills shortages, ineffective training interventions, and challenges in demonstrating the impact of learning to business leaders. 

At Learning Pool, we’ve been exploring ways to bridge this gap, and are excited to introduce AI Assess.

AI Assess

AI Assess is a generative AI-powered assessment solution that moves beyond simple knowledge checks to assess real competency in a scalable, consistent way. It does this through open-input, scenario-based questions, followed by immediate, qualitative feedback.

What makes AI Assess different? 

Unlike traditional assessment methods, AI Assess provides:

Real-world application

Learners actively demonstrate how they would apply their knowledge in practical situations, rather than just recalling facts or recognizing correct answers from options.

Instant, personalized feedback

Responses are assessed immediately, providing tailored insights to each learner.

Scalability

Open-input assessments that are viable at scale, reducing the burden on administrators, whilst ensuring all employees have access to the benefit of detailed, high-quality questions and feedback.

Consistency and fairness

AI-driven evaluation enhances objectivity, minimizing the potential for bias and human error to occur.

Here’s how the tool works:

1. Learners are given realistic, scenario-based questions that mirror workplace challenges on a specific topic. The questions are in open-input format, providing a ‘blank-page’ to act, as would be the experience in reality. 
2. They respond, explaining how they would handle the situation.
3. The tool then evaluates their answers against predefined assessment criteria, ensuring alignment with best practices and learning outcomes of the training content. 
4. Learners receive immediate, personalized feedback and scores, highlighting strengths and areas for improvements.
5. Admins gain meaningful insights into learner performance, gaps, and relevant trends across the organization.

This approach allows organizations to measure competency in a scalable, efficient, and consistent way, without losing depth and personalization. 

Understanding that data security and privacy are top concerns, AI Assess operates in line with Learning Pool’s robust security accreditations, ensuring data is used responsibly and not shared to train AI models. Its built-in moderation capabilities also helps maintain compliance and trust.

The future of workplace assessments

AI Assess is already transforming assessments across different industries. For example, a UK-based logistics organization is streamlining assessments for safety-critical roles, using AI Assess to provide structured feedback instantly where instructors would have spent time manually reviewing open-input responses, freeing them up to focus on higher-level review and decision-making. 

The solution is also being integrated into various other areas within organizations, including Health and Safety, DEI, Code of Conduct, Data Privacy, and more, at various stages of the learning journey. 

However, this is just the beginning. Upcoming developments to AI Assess will include enhanced analytics to unlock even deeper insights, along with support for over 30 languages.  

In today’s landscape, where workplace learning is seeking to align more closely with business outcomes, regulations, and even culture shifts, organizations need to understand their employees’ true competency levels. AI Assess offers this, and goes even further to help build mastery through the feedback it provides.

Ready to transform how you evidence competency? Download our whitepaper to learn more about AI Assess and how it can support your organizational development strategy.