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Scaling AI Literacy to Every American Worker with Arist's Michael Ioffe | GSVtv Podcast
00:08:28
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- [00:07]
A
Hi. Today we're diving into one of the most ambitious workforce efforts underway, and that's what it actually takes to make America AI Ready. I'm joined for a second summit in a row by Mike Ayoff, CEO of aris, who is partnering with the Department of Labor on a new Make America AI Ready course designed to reach workers at scale. So thank you, Michael, for joining us. Let's start off. Let's start at the top. What was inspiration for this course?
- [00:34]
B
Yeah, totally. I think, you know, all credit here goes to Taylor Stockton at the Department of Labor and Keith Sonderling, the Deputy Deputy Secretary. They realize that a lot of Americans are being left behind as we think about the level of AI transformation happening within talent today. So many Americans are not sufficiently literate to really make full use of a lot of the tools and technologies that are coming out. Right. And so they are very, very concerned about how do we ensure that no American is left behind. And we realized is that a lot of the AI literacy materials designed today and accessible today are really not designed around the American worker. Right. They're not designed around the fact that most American workers don't have time, don't have like multiple hours to take a course. They oftentimes don't have a laptop, don't have Internet access, et cetera. And so this course was designed very intentionally with the question of how do we meet people where they are and deliver learning fully in the flow of work in a way that will empower every single American worker?
- [01:27]
A
I think that is a great point. Can you talk a little bit more about what does it mean to actually meet people where they are?
- [01:32]
B
Yeah, totally. Yeah. So I think if you think about learning and education today, when people think about learning and education, most people think about like a video course or a click through experience, or like an AI coaching experience in like plot or OpenAI. The reality is that, you know, most Americans, if you think about the day to day life of like, you know, most Americans, they're in between shifts, they're on a bus ride home, you know, they're taking care of their kids, taking care of their parents. They simply don't have more than 10 minutes to go through a learning experience. And they definitely don't have, you know, a bunch of time to sign up for a platform, go to another platform. Like, if you actually think about the number of clicks that it takes to get to the right content, you know, today we're asking like, many learning platforms are asking learners to go through like 10 or 20 clicks to get to the right information. And so a lot of our focus is like, how do we reduce the number of clicks to zero, meet people where they are and make learning conversational and friendly. Like, learning should not feel like learning. It should feel like a conversation in front of a colleague.
- [02:29]
A
And I actually had the pleasure of taking the course. A lot of fun. Love a great meme. I was actually really curious, how do you decide what's the right content? Like, what does it mean to make America AI ready and what's critical for people to know?
- [02:41]
B
Yeah. So this course was very intentionally a one on one course. Right. The goal is now that you get like seven text messages and you become an AI expert. The goal is how do we help somebody go from 0 to 1, get them comfortable with using AI, address some of the fears and concerns that people have around AI usage adoption, and really get them to a baseline level of proficiency and understanding. So that was priority number one. And I think for us, the content was entirely designed by the Department of Labor. So this is largely based on their AI Literacy framework, which outlines five key pillars for AI literacy and adoption, including a lot of, like, core ethical considerations, you know, core considerations around privacy, etc.
- [03:23]
A
And how much iteration did it take to work with them to get that course curriculum correct?
- [03:27]
B
Yeah, totally. I mean, the course was very thoughtfully designed. So. So the, you know, the Department of Labor team spent a very meaningful amount of time fine tuning the course, being very intentional, all the resources, all the interactions. So. So, you know, to their credit, they've been just unbelievable in terms of the level of thoughtfulness to get this done.
- [03:43]
A
Yeah. And I think one of the things that always is top of mind when it comes to learning is like, how fresh is your content and when AI is changing at an incredibly rapid pace. How did you think about the durability within?
- [03:54]
B
Yeah, so the course is constantly being updated in real time. So even over the past, like, you know, few weeks since we launched, we've been making updates to the course in real time as new resources come up, as we get feedback from participants. And so it is a living course and it's automatically updated immediately as, as, you know, as people take it.
- [04:11]
A
That's very cool. Can you give a, like, example? What does it mean for like a course to be updated?
- [04:15]
B
Yeah, totally. You know, we got feedback about, you know, one or two of the resources. Right. Or we've actually had some amazing situations where, like, learners recommend resources that resonate with them. And so we've been able to, like, switch in the links and it takes literally 20 seconds, like you switch out the link, it's automatically updated. We've adjusted some of the questions and some of the resources, you know, as sort of more models changed. So yeah, it's been pretty remarkable.
- [04:39]
A
I really enjoyed the Google doodling one. So I hope that one's still in there.
- [04:42]
B
Yes, that one's still in there. It is, yeah.
- [04:46]
A
I think the other thing that he mentioned is like you're getting information back from users based off of their response. What are you learning and seeing in these early stages about America's AI readiness and what people need?
- [05:00]
B
Yeah, totally. So first off, engagement for the course has been unbelievably high. Right now the course is at a 14x engagement rate compared to traditional elearning course from like a platform like Coursera, Udemy, et cetera. So the engagement level has been like unbelievable. Like really, really high levels of engagement, very clear rates of confidence lift and behavior change. Right. So we're seeing people actually report that they're using AI more, they're more confident in their ability to use AI. So that's been really unbelievable. So adoption has been very, very high. You know, We've had over 3,000 people sign up for the course and, and we're ramping, you know, enrollments very, very rapidly. The Department of Labor announced today that they're kicking off a nationwide ad campaign that will sort of encourage, you know, tons of Americans to sign up. So we're very excited about where this goes next.
- [05:50]
A
And so you've talked about some of the engagement that's happening. Can you also expand on, like what would you see a success here? Like yeah, but what is, what are you actually hoping to have people do is course completion? Is it application of some of this knowledge? Like how are you thinking about medicine?
- [06:05]
B
Yeah, application is really what matters here, right? Application and confidence. We want people to come away from this force being less fearful about AI and with a clear understanding of what AI is, how they can use it to fulfill their goals and ambitions and ultimately how AI can help every individual achieve their American dream. Right. That's the ultimate objective here. And so so far, you know, in terms of the self reported AI adoption lift, in terms of the self reported confidence lift, those are the metrics that are telling us, hey, this course is actually doing its job.
- [06:33]
A
I think one of the things that you'd mentioned is how people feel less fearful. GSB and Gallup also support with the Walton Family foundation recently did a survey and it showed that Gen Z is actually feeling significantly more anxious about the result of AI. And so I would love you to expand a little bit more on how you're building that trust and comfort.
- [06:51]
B
Yeah, totally. The first part is making the course very conversational and friendly. Right. So, so we designed the course intentionally to make it feel like a conversation with a friend or a colleague. Right. And so, and that's, you know, evident in the course from like the use of emojis to the use of GIFs and memes. Like, it's designed to be like super friendly. And I think a lot of this also comes down in terms of breaking down content into bite sized chunks. Right. Making it, you know, making it really easy for people to spend five minutes a day, or even three minutes a day engaging with content and being able to come back to it when they're ready. Right. That making it like conversational, bite sized, digestible goes such a long way.
- [07:27]
A
And then the other thing that I know about Arist, right, is that you guys are very much at the forefront of starting to use AI agents within the learning process. Should we expect a course on AI agents soon? Talk about that?
- [07:38]
B
Can't speak much to future courses. That's a bit outside of my wheelhouse, but yeah, we fundamentally believe that the role of an enterprise talent team and the role of talent teams more broadly, is to understand talent gaps and remediate them as fast as possible. And AI agents are perfect for doing that by combining AI analytics, AI voice, and then delivering the flow of work to really create the perfect enablement ecosystem for enterprises.
- [08:04]
A
Awesome. Well, I know you have to run to the airport, so I just wanted to say thank you. I think this is a wonderful example of how do we actually see real world impact and give people a sense of comfort and understanding of how to apply this not just in their daily life, but also in a professional. And so thank you again for breaking it down and joining us today.
- [08:22]
B
100%. Thanks for having me.
- [08:25]
A
It.