You’re tasked with delivering elearning content across multiple languages and cultures. Where do you start? You’ve probably already seen development tools and LMS platforms that will provide content in multiple languages at a click of a button. But is this the right answer?
Traditionally, manual translation has been reliable but slow and costly. Can AI allow your organisation to make the next step? What is actually involved?
Let’s explore how top elearning providers are using AI to bridge content with culture, crafting localised, accessible learning experiences that will make the difference.
Every Elearning Director Needs to Know About the Power of AI and how it’s shaping the future of multilingual education. Are you ready to take your organisation forward?
The Rise of AI in elearning: Key Statistics
AI is driving a major shift in elearning, and the numbers speak for themselves:
- Corporate Adoption: 93% of businesses worldwide plan to adopt elearning by 2024, with AI central to this transition.
- Time Efficiency: AI-enhanced online learning requires 40-60% less time than traditional methods, making it a valuable time-saver.
- Market Growth: The AI in elearning market is expected to reach $20.8 billion by 2027, highlighting rapid adoption and investment.
- Educator Adoption: Around 60% of educators have incorporated AI into classrooms to streamline teaching and improve efficiency.
- Personalised Learning: Adaptive AI-powered learning systems can boost student performance by 30-60% through tailored content.
These figures underscore every Elearning Director Needs to Know About the Power of AI, not only in the rapid scaling of multilingual content but also in delivering efficient, personalised learning experiences. AI can help you drive the next phases of your strategic development.
The Localisation Challenge in Elearning
For Elearning Directors, creating globally relevant content involves more than just translation.
It requires nuanced localisation that captures cultural contexts and idioms without compromising educational quality. If you overlook this, then your content will fail.
Yet, a common misconception, as Scott Hewitt asks, is this: “Do Elearning Directors mistakenly believe they can’t use AI or assume there’s a company block on AI systems, while employees are likely already using AI in some way?”
AI can be a powerful ally, allowing providers to deliver quality localised content faster, while retaining depth and authenticity.
Collaboration: The Core of Effective AI Localisation
Localisation thrives on partnerships. Elearning teams need to refine content with real-time client feedback, adapting to audience-specific needs.
For instance, a partnership allowed one team to customise pacing and audio options, enhancing the learning experience.
Hewitt, drawing from his own work, asks, “For Directors hesitant to integrate AI, why not get a coach—someone already working with AI who can show you what’s possible? After all, it’s already in use, and understanding the why and how is essential.”
By emphasising collaboration, elearning providers ensure content meets both organisational and cultural needs.
Why AI? Automating with Precision and Purpose
Traditional AI tools often falter with idioms, industry terms, and cultural nuances.
A hybrid approach—combining AI with human oversight—helps.
This model lets AI handle translation while experts ensure precision, creating content that flows naturally and engages learners. The AI models may develop over time, but you need it is vital to have a human QA before you release.
Building an AI-Enhanced Workflow for Authenticity
A successful AI Localisation process relies on meticulous precision:
- Customised AI Models capture idiomatic expressions and maintain context.
- Pacing Adjustments ensure audio translations sound natural.
- Voice Selection maintains cultural authenticity, selecting voices that resonate with each language.
Reflecting on AI’s advancements, Hewitt notes a key consideration: “With AI pronunciation, while technology has come a long way, words are not always spoken accurately. Our team improved this by modifying spellings for pronunciation accuracy, then reverting them for subtitles, working with AI’s strengths rather than letting its limitations set us back.”
This AI-driven workflow, paired with human quality checks, produces high-quality, culturally relevant content. Would you release a product without a final QA? It is vital to ensure that your QA is in place.
Human Insight: The Final Layer of Quality Assurance
AI, while efficient, can sometimes lack human sensitivity.
Native speakers review translations to catch potential misinterpretations, ensuring that cultural references and technical terms are accurate. As Hewitt emphasises, “Human reviewers are essential for checking idioms, factual accuracy, and precise translations of key terms like ‘AI’ and ‘phishing.’
In fact, we often encountered mistaken translations, like QR codes being labelled as barcodes, which required native speaker insight to correct.” This two-tier review process avoids common pitfalls, upholding content integrity.
If you rely completely on AI for your translation and your process then you are going to run into problems. You still need human interaction at each stage of the process to ensure a quality product. You’ll learn as you develop and you’ll have the ability to refine your AI process.
The Impact of Continuous Collaboration
Real-time client feedback lets elearning teams prioritise languages, dialects, and content updates.
This approach ensures content aligns with learners’ needs.
For instance, demand for Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese underscores the importance of regional specificity, enhancing engagement. You can’t simply think that Spanish translation is going to be suitable for your audience in North and South America.
It is also vital that you get the content reviewed by native speakers and you are not just pushing out content from the AI model without getting it reviewed, even if you update your language model.
Enhanced Learning Through AI Insights
AI is enhanced more than translation; you have the ability to refine and update your metadata and elements like learning objectives to make them clear and relevant.
It isn’t as simple as a one hit prompt, but with the right development and analysis you can have automated quality assurance tools streamline the cross-checking of competencies and categories, boosting content consistency and trustworthiness.
These enhancements lead to greater engagement and improved learning outcomes. The importance is understanding what you need to build and why – this isn’t something that you want to build with one prompt. This is a strategic development that you’ll want to re-use.
Scaling Up: Efficiency in Multilingual Production
AI Localisation has enabled rapid scaling without losing quality.
With structured workflows, elearning providers can meet the demand for multilingual content across global markets, reinforcing their commitment to accessible, effective learning.
Like any IT development project you need to follow good procurement rules – this doesn’t mean that you need to be slow, but understand what your process is. If you need to use AI tools and set up processes, how are you going to evaluate them? What is the process for workflow?
Measuring Success: Engagement, Satisfaction, and Global Reach
AI-driven Localisation has redefined elearning success metrics.
With customer feedback loops, providers assess engagement, satisfaction, and impact, ensuring content remains relevant and valuable for a global audience.
You’ve got the opportunity to capture all of the feedback and respond quickly. If you are not using the data as part of your feedback you are falling behind.
Looking Forward: The Future of AI Localisation in Elearning
Hewitt foresees an evolving role for AI in reshaping workflows, asking, “What if Directors used tools like Otter, TextExpander, and ChatGPT to significantly improve their processes?”
This integration could go beyond content creation to transform the Elearning Director’s entire scope of work. If you are attending a conference, record the talk in Otter, extract, put into Chat GPT, use a prompt and share the key findings with your team. You can then also ask questions of the text you’ve captured.
For Elearning Directors, the message is clear: Every Elearning Director Needs to Know About the Power of AI—it isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about creating impactful, engaging experiences for learners everywhere.
Q&A
How is AI being used in elearning?
AI personalises learning paths, translates and localises content, automates administrative tasks, and analyses learning data to improve course quality and learner engagement.
How does AI transform the learning experience?
AI tailors content to individual learners, providing adaptive learning paths, instant feedback, and accessible content in multiple languages, making learning more efficient and engaging.
Will AI take over elearning?
AI will support and enhance elearning rather than completely taking over. It optimises content delivery and personalization but still requires human oversight for quality and cultural sensitivity.
How will AI transform education?
AI will make education more accessible, personalised, and efficient by adapting content to individual learning styles, automating grading, and enabling scalable multilingual content distribution.
