I'll be honest: I was skeptical.
When AI tools started showing up everywhere in 2023, my first thought was "great, now everyone thinks they're an instructional designer." I worried it would devalue the expertise that comes from understanding learning theory, knowing your audience, and making intentional design decisions.
And yet, I tried using AI for something specific: copy editing technical documentation. It changed how I work—not by replacing my design decisions, but by freeing me up to make better ones.
What I Use AI For
Copy editing and consistency checks. That is, I feed AI a draft of technical training content and ask it to check for:
- Clarity—are there confusing sentences or jargon without context?
- Consistency—am I using terms the same way throughout?
- Accessibility—can someone without deep technical background follow this?
This catches things I'd miss in the 15th revision. It's faster than manual proofreading—and it's surprisingly good at spotting where I've assumed too much knowledge.
What I Don't Use AI For
Design decisions. AI doesn't know:
- Whether learners need hands-on practice or conceptual understanding first
- What cognitive load is appropriate for this audience
- Which scenarios will resonate with IT professionals vs. educators
- How to sequence content so it builds confidence, not confusion
Those decisions require understanding the learner, the context, and the desired outcome. That's the instructional designer's job.
What Changed
Before AI: I'd spend 40% of my time on copy editing and consistency reviews. After AI: That dropped to about 15%.
The time I saved didn't go to producing more content faster. It went to designing better learning experiences—more time interviewing SMEs, more time analyzing where learners struggle, more time prototyping different approaches.
AI made me more effective, not more productive. And that's exactly how it should work.
The Bottom Line
If you're an instructional designer worried about AI: focus on what AI can't do. It can't interview stakeholders. It can't observe where learners struggle. It can't make trade-offs between depth and time. It can't design assessments that reveal understanding, not memorization.
But it can read your draft faster than you can, catch inconsistencies you'd miss, and free you up to do the work that actually requires expertise.
Use it like a tool, not a replacement. And spend your energy on the things that make learning work.