Hands-on Learning with GenAI Platforms

In this engaging episode, host Brandon Giella is joined by WeLearn regulars Sean Stowers and Loren Sanders, plus special guest Diane Gaa, a seasoned learning professional and innovative consultant. Together, they explore how generative AI is fundamentally changing how we process information, approach learning, and function in the workplace. From practical tool recommendations to philosophical discussions about the future of education, this conversation offers valuable insights for learning professionals looking to harness AI's potential.

Key Highlights:
• The evolution from reactive to proactive work as AI handles administrative tasks, allowing professionals to focus on being "orchestrators" rather than just "producers"
• How different GenAI tools (Gemini, Copilot, Claude, Perplexity) serve different purposes, with recommendations for specific use cases
• The productivity gains achieved through AI in learning development, particularly with translations, engagement activities, and overcoming "blank page fear"
• The integration of AI into learning workflows and delivery processes as the next frontier for L&D professionals
• Discussion on how traditional learning models won't disappear but will be "dethroned as the default" in favor of more customized, contextual approaches

Quotes:
• "I think it's allowing us to be less reactive and more proactive... the difference between being producers to being orchestrators and really thinking about how we are insightful." - Diane Gaa
• "AI isn't just a tool anymore... it's an extension of the way that we now process information." - Loren Sanders
• "Traditional learning models are not going to die, but they're going to be dethroned as the default. Their dominance is going to fade because we're entering an era defined by choice, context, and customization." - Loren Sanders

References:
• Perplexity - AI-powered search engine that synthesizes research and provides citations: https://www.perplexity.ai/
• Fireflies - AI note-taking tool for meeting transcription and summarization: https://fireflies.ai/
• Sora - Text-to-video AI generation tool: https://sora.com/
• Every - Publication focused on AI developments and applications: https://every.to/

Creators and Guests

Host

Loren Sanders

Author and Fortune 4 Learning Expert

Host

Sean Stowers

Founder, Chief Learning Officer, CEO

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Brandon Giella: Hello and welcome
back to another episode of the

Conversations We Learn From.

I have as always, Sean Stowers, Lauren
Sanders, thank you so much for joining

and we also have a special guest today.

Her name is Diane Gaa, and she is a
learning professional many, many years.

Uh, a background in in
corporate learning, uh.

What I understand, Diane, what you were
saying earlier, I, it feels like you're a

little entrepreneur, innovative consultant
within a lot of larger structures.

And so, uh, I'd love for you to introduce
yourself to our listeners just today.

Diane Gaa: Yeah.

Hi, I am Diane Gaa and I'm
passionate about this subject

around AI and really how we can
utilize that for, um, our benefit.

I think that there are a lot
of opportunities that, um, are

not maximized at this moment,
especially in the learning world.

So I'm excited to be here and just
have a conversation around all the

things that I love and the things that,
um, we've been experimenting with.

Brandon Giella: Beautiful.

So, yeah, so as Diane has mentioned
today, we are talking about, uh, the,

the title of this episode is Hands-On
Learning with Gen AI Platforms.

And so to set the table, we are in
a moment of, in history where it

seems as though the way we think.

Itself is even changing.

And I know that's very dramatic, but
I think there's some merit there.

I think that's legitimate.

And I think a lot of people
would, could, could argue that

and would agree with that.

And of course, everybody
talks about generative ai.

They have been talking about it
for weeks, for months, for years.

It's, it's the topic that's on every
publisher and magazine in the world.

But what I think is really interesting
is that there is this, this article

that came out a few months ago
in Wall Street Journal that said

that, uh, Google is for old people.

That was basically the, the headline.

And it was saying that, um, that
people that are more familiar

with these AI tools are actually
processing information differently.

They're searching for things differently,
so they're going to, uh, gen AI

platforms like Chacha or Perplexity.

Deepsea Canal was very popular a few weeks
ago, but what they're doing is they're

processing information in different ways.

They're having conversations.

With a robot that is
providing information to them.

And uh, there are a lot of people that
are looking at something like Notebook,

LLM and the way that they're taking
notes and processing and organizing

their own information in their heads
or the information that they're reading

about in class or at their work.

And they're structuring it differently
and processing it differently.

And I think there's a lot
of parallels in history.

Like the printing press where you
disseminated information and people

actually perceived information
differently, and it led to a lot of

radical, political, cultural, um,
even theological change throughout

the Renaissance and thereafter.

So I think we're in one of those
moments, and so that's one of the, the,

um, the backdrop of this conversation.

So I'm curious to, to start this.

And we will get very,
very practical after this.

We'll talk about actual individual
tools, but to start this conversation,

I'm curious how you all have been
processing information differently over

the last year or two that you, you feel
like maybe is a fundamental change in

the way that you're either reading.

Writing, producing information,
creating charts, you know, uh,

analyzing charts or spreadsheets, you
know, just the way that your brain is

inputting and outputting information
differently now than in years prior.

Does that hold up?

Are y'all feeling that too?

Or is it just me?

What do you think?

Sean Stowers: Yeah.

I think it, I think it holds up.

I think one of the things I'll just
observe, Brenda, and, and it's, I've

talked about this a lot, is that I
think to your point, right, we are in

a moment and I look at, you know, when
we talk about the conversation with

GenAI Um, you know, we're about two
years into that being readily available,

accessible to us as human beings.

Um, and, and you know, and that's two
years ago when ChatGPT kind of came out.

And, um, a number of us who are on
this, uh, podcast were at a conference,

uh, in the learning profession
two years ago when that happened.

And 50% of the people that we know and
love at that conference were like, oh

my God, I'm gonna go back and my boss
is gonna tell me to fire half my team.

Because this is gonna take all my jobs.

And the other 50% were like looking
for, um, opportunities to go

and, um, uh, to learn about ai.

I think a year later at that
very same conference, the

conversation had matured a bit.

I think my reflect and, and, and now,
like we have a variety of tools that we

can use whether, um, you know, you're
talking about ChatGPT whether you're

talking about Claude with anthropic,
whether you're talking about copilot,

whether you're talking about Gemini.

Whether you're talking about
DeepSeek there's a number of tools.

Um, and by the way, there's
a number of other tools.

So for example, you know, I use
a, a Notetaker, an AI notetaker

called fireflies, right?

Fireflies.

And I'm big on notebooks
and I write stuff down.

But fireflies has become
indispensable for me.

So I

Brandon Giella: I love fireflies.

Sean Stowers: has changed.

Um, the la the last thing I'll say, and I
was reading an article yesterday was super

interesting, that was talking about, you
know, what's gonna happen in the world

of work as it relates to ai, and think
about this like we've been talking about.

The robots are coming for a long time.

And you know, the, the article said,
you know, this isn't going to be like,

um, you know, what happened in the early
nineties, uh, late nineties, early two

thousands when manufacturing jobs began to
shift offshore to China and what happened

in, you know, industrial towns across
the country, they actually said that the

shift to AI is gonna be more key to what
happened with, um, administrative workers.

Right?

With the advent of Microsoft office
and productivity type of software

that, you know, we, you, you
begin to see at the, the work of.

Admins change very differently.

And that AI's gonna be much more like
that, that the impacts of it are gonna

be distributed across the country.

They're not going to be in, you
know, specific communities that,

where maybe manufacturing grew up
that it's really gonna touch us all.

And so I think it's, um, as
l and d professionals and.

I'm gonna then get off my soapbox and
allow Lord and Diane to get on theirs.

I think the thing that, you know, and
what I'm looking for to unpacking a

little bit here is that I think in the
l and d conversation, I see a lot of

conversation about how do we use AI to
improve learning experience, to generate

content, to, to change the way what we
do and, and that's a great conversation.

I don't see as many l and d
professionals talking about how do

we make sure that our employees.

Know how to effectively use ai.

And I think part of that is we don't, we,
if we don't know how to effectively use

it, then we don't want to talk about how
to help our employees effectively use it.

And I hope we get to talk a
little bit about that today.

Brandon Giella: Yes.

Sean Stowers: So I'll open it.

I'm gonna open it up to you guys.

Loren Sanders: I'll take, I'll
take the real talk approach.

Um, honestly, I feel a little bit
like the mad scientist in a digital

lab testing everything because
apparently I don't like to sleep.

And when I think about everything
that Sean said, spot on.

But AI isn't just a tool anymore.

First of all, it's always been here.

This is not new.

Just the way we're using it is different.

It.

It's not just a tool, it's an extension of
the way that we now process information.

So my relationship with learning
may have gone from, 'cause I

like to research everything.

Let me Google that to let me see what
five different AI models say, and

then let me triangulate the truth.

And I feel a little like a conspiracy
theorist with a bulletin board full of

red stringing, trying to connect all the
dots to see which is the right thing.

Brandon Giella: That's
right, that's right.

Diane, how about you?

What, what do you, how are you
processing information these

days and how do you see this?

Maybe the shift in kind of, um, yeah.

Learning and thinking itself.

Diane Gaa: I, I think it, it's
allowing us to be, um, less

reactive and more proactive.

So what I've seen is, you know,
really around the efficiencies

around the day-to-day use.

What efficiencies do you bring
as far as the administrative

work, the things that we.

You know, don't really
wanna do what we have to do.

And how can you then lift and
shift that to where then you have

a breath of, you know, time to
be able to really be curious, be

inspirational, think proactively
of where you want to take something

versus I've just gotta, you know.

Basically produce something.

So it's, it's, I call it the difference
between being, um, the workplace as it is

of being producers to being orchestrators
and really thinking about how we are

insightful and thinking about how we want
to use the technology or technologies

in ways to be able to make us more.

Uh, productive, successful,
and, and more curious.

So I think that's proactive kind of
thinking versus just being asked to

do something and then reacting to it.

Brandon Giella: I like how you
mentioned the word orchestrating, and

it reminds me of this article that I
read in a really great publication.

If you're into ai, uh, look up every,
to, every to, it's a great magazine.

Uh, a lot of very.

Hands-on interesting concepts about ai.

But one thing that, they had an article,
um, a few weeks ago that came out

and it talked about how the knowledge
economy is changing from, uh, you know,

producers of insight and now more of like
management of, you know, orchestration

between different tools and different
processes and things like that, which

I found is a really interesting shift.

If, if we think about
what knowledge economy is.

To what it could be.

So with that in mind, I'm gonna
do a hard pivot into getting

really, really practical.

What are some tools, and
Diane, I'll start with you.

What are some tools that you have
found very, very helpful over the

last, let's say six months, and
I'm time boxing it there because,

uh, this stuff is always changing.

These models are.

Or up and down.

I saw just yesterday, I think Jim
and I released its latest model

and now it's topping a lot of the
benchmarks that are out there.

Uh, which is unusual because
Jim and I and Google have been a

little bit behind the curve on some
things and have pushback for that.

So I'm curious what, yeah, what,
uh, tools you've been interested in,

but also how are you using them and
maybe some ways that, maybe a little

counterintuitive, but you found this
really, really clever prompt, or, you

know, a, a way to use it that is unusual.

Anything like that come to mind?

Diane Gaa: Yeah, I mean, I use
it for a variety of things.

It depends on what, what's on my
mind or what's, you know, in my

list of things to accomplish really.

Um, I am, I'm kind of like
Lauren and, and, and Sean.

I have a wide variety of tools.

Um, I have my go-tos, uh, for
certain things and other things

that, you know, I use other things.

But, um, uh, you know, I use Gemini on
more of a regular basis for my personal.

Needs.

Um, I use copilot for
some of my work needs.

I also, um, I like the integration
of some of those tools into the

apps that they have from their
product, um, their work, the desktop

product productivity perspective.

But I also, um, I like to play with
Claude because I think it gives me more.

Better results on different
things I might ask.

Um, and it gives me, I guess, a lot of
different responses that I didn't expect.

So, you know, it, it really
depends on what I'm trying to do.

Um, I've also played around with some
of the design tools that we have from

a learning and development perspective
that have ai, you know, integrated,

powered, um, you know, beyond.

I like, I like.

Creating some of those little short
takes, um, uh, of videos and things

of that nature just from a, a prompt.

Um, that's a lot of fun.

Um, but what I'm finding is that,
you know, whatever is on my list

to do, there's always a tool.

Um, and sometimes it's just exploring and
figuring out the right tool to make it.

Work for you.

Brandon Giella: Hmm.

Diane Gaa: and I think that that's where
people get overwhelmed a little bit where

they're like, oh, these, all these tools
and I don't know what to do with them.

Right.

And I don't know where to start.

And, and I guess my opinion is,
is just start with something I.

Um, open the package on something
and then, you know, you'll figure out

where you're gonna be comfortable with.

Um, I just played with
SOA just the other day.

I signed up for the chat JPT
plus, so I could get soa.

That was amazing.

Um, and I am going to, after this
call, go back on it and kind of play

with creating, you know, a video, um,
basically from prompts and, um, I think.

Whatever gets you excited,
um, gets you, um, curious.

I think that's, that's where
you know, it needs to take you.

Brandon Giella: Hmm, I, I wanna
push on something a little bit

further and then I'll, I'll
turn to the, the others as well.

But, um, there's, there's part
of AI that is just fascinating.

You know, like, oh, I just, I generated
this video and that was inter, I was

amazing that what I was able to create, I.

But I, there's also a, an important
component of productivity and efficiency.

Is there, uh, a process or a set of tasks
that you've had in your daily work life?

It could be, you know, designing,
learning curricula or just,

you know, working through your
email or whatever it might be.

Um, that AI has really helped you in a
lot of ways where it's actually like.

You know, four x your output or
reduced your time by 20% or whatever,

you know, anything like that,
where on a productivity basis, it's

actually really been valuable to you.

Diane Gaa: Oh yeah.

Um, I would say a lot of things, I mean,
just, uh, you know, your basic day-to-day

writing, um, but also from a learning
and development perspective, I would say

translations, um, where it really made
a huge difference as far as the amount

of time spent, um, using AI enabled
translations versus, um, you know, what

we might have been doing in the past.

Um, and we found, um.

It, it really gave us quite.

Certain tools gave us better accuracy than
others, but we would get a higher, um, uh,

rate of, um, of, um, return, I guess on
our capacity from, from that perspective.

Um, I think also, um, creating
engagements like, um, activities I.

Especially when you're doing instructor
led, um, or other kind of engagements,

meeting engagements where you wanna
have engagements, really great to

be able to create those scenarios.

Uh, video scripting, I mean,
all those things would take

hours and hours and hours.

Um.

Writing a podcast, you know,
you know, a script for a

podcast or writing a blog post.

All those things, um, you know,
are a good starter for 10.

Obviously a human needs to be involved
to be able to finesse it, but really

getting, um, a good start on these things
is really, really where, um, you can get

some capacity gains outside of just, you
know, make my email sound a little better.

Brandon Giella: Yeah, and it's kind of,
uh, getting over that, starting with a

blank page, fear, you know, now you've
got a good draft that you can actually

edit and, and create that sort of thing.

Yeah, I love that.

Diane Gaa: Yeah.

I'm really excited about going
a little further into how can

we integrate into workflows.

That's the next thing, is really looking
at the efficiencies of how we are

able to be more efficient as learning
development professionals and be able

to build capacity, but really how do
we integrate into our workflows to be

able to integrate AI in our delivery?

And that's gonna be the
exciting part that, uh, I'm.

Curious about focusing on next, um,
is, is what are those opportunities

and um, and where's the opportunity
from the end-to-end experience.

Brandon Giella: Mm mm Lauren, how about
you are, have there been some tools or

some prompts or things like that that
have been really, really useful for you?

Loren Sanders: I think beyond what Diane
said, yes to all of that, by the way.

Um, perplexity is pretty.

Great.

throw it a question and instead of
sending you back SEO chart choked

garbage, it will synthesize research
like you've got an intern handy.

It's designed for you to ask
questions in natural language.

It interprets the request and
will summarize the results

in a more synthesized way.

That will include citations, which can
save you the hassle of having to sift

through pages and pages of search results.

Um, as I.

I also teach in an MBA program.

This is a great tool
for something like that.

It saves you the hassle of having to
sift through the the pages, whereas

generative AI models like ChatGPT and
Claude, it uses them to understand the

context and nuances of your inquiry.

Um, rock three.

I've tried, I feel like it is.

Um.

Reminiscent and should be
based on who created it.

he who shall not be named.

Um, it's like talking to somebody
that might have spent too much

time on Twitter, but still has
some shockingly good insights.

And then chat, DPT, which is everybody's
pretty much go-to, I feel like it

is good in answering questions,
writing code, and creating content.

But it's a pattern matching tool.

It's not really a search engine, and I
feel like a lot of people use it as a

search engine, and it relies on extensive
training data to produce responses.

But depending on your plan and
the version you're using, you may

not have real time access to the
web or to the latest information.

So I feel like it's a better tool
for creative tasks and brainstorming

versus anything that you need to
be fact-based and research-based.

Brandon Giella: Hmm, I've, I found
the deep research tools are pretty

helpful, but you definitely have
to check your sources and check the

argumentation and things like that.

I'm curious, as a, as a teacher, you
mentioned your professor, MBA students, do

you allow your students to write papers?

I.

Using ai or do you just
not assign papers anymore?

I'm, I'm

Loren Sanders: It's, it's
funny that you asked that.

So, um, the class I'm teaching right
now, they have to come up with an

executive summary of a report that
they're given, and I told them to use ai.

To help generate it, but I have
also used AI to help generate it,

and I don't wanna see what I have.

And if all your papers look the
same, then I'm gonna know that

you didn't do any thinking at all.

But I also asked them
a question of the day.

So the other day I asked
them, is AI making you dumber?

And we had a really
good debate about that.

Brandon Giella: Ah, that's, yeah,
that's the pretext of kinda some of

the things I was mentioning before.

I love that.

Well, Sean, I, I'll end with you last
few minutes that we have on this.

What tools have you found really useful?

You mentioned fireflies, kinda
summarizing your, your meeting

notes and things like that.

Are there other tools that you found that
have been really helpful or, or processes

Sean Stowers: I tend to play with Chad,
GBT, philanthropic and fireflies, although

now I'm gonna go check out perplexity.

I just.

Um, I'm now gonna have
to go play with that.

Um, and I will say, like, you know what,
I, and, and by the way, a lot of times,

and I think Diane even talked about this,
you know, I, I will move across all three.

So I may get, uh, media transcripts
from, uh, fireflies, put them into

Chet GPT to generate a summary.

But then run it through anthropic because
anthro, Claude, because I get more

human sounding language from Claude.

Right?

So sometimes it's just knowing like
how to move across and transverse the,

the tools to, to get to where you want.

And so, um, I think that's, you
know, super, super important.

But I, you know, I, I want to go back
to something that Diane said, which is.

You know, I think that the, the kind
of paralysis of, oh my God, there's

so many tools out there, is is real.

And sometimes you just have to
take a step back and go, okay,

I'm gonna try one of them.

Right.

I'm gonna see where this takes me.

So

Brandon Giella: Yeah.

Yeah.

Has there been, uh, anything where
you've really felt like, uh, because I

use this tool or this process or this
prompt that it's just shaved off hours

out of your day or out of your week
because you're, you're able to see a

lot more productivity or efficiency?

I.

Sean Stowers: great question.

You know what I, I think for me,
like I'd write a lot of proposals

and do a lot of that sort of work.

Um, and certainly, you know, there
I've been times where, you know, being

sitting down and writing a proposal for
a client could take a number of days, and

I've been able to reduce that by being,
bringing in insights generated off of

conversations with the client that have
been captured by fireflies to make sure

that it's, it's super aligned right.

With, with what we've talked about.

And so I think that I've certainly seen
my proposal writing go down and, and

those sort of things, um, decrease based
on the fact that I've been able to use

these tools and, and bring those insights,
um, directly into the writing process.

Brandon Giella: Hmm.

I love that.

Okay, last question that I think
is, uh, could be very complex,

could be very controversial,
but I'm curious if you think.

This is kind of a yes or no, and
then maybe like one small comment

after, just to get like gut check.

But do you think that like, um,
traditional learning as it's been where

it's lecture style or your classic
webinars or where you've got kind of

expert at the front of the room, student
receiving that information at the back of

the room, do you think that that model.

We'll die in the next 10 years because of
the way that we're processing information.

This is something that I've been talking
about with my, my friends and fam, and

I wonder what you guys think about that.

Sean Stowers: No, it's not gonna die.

Brandon Giella: Okay.

Diane Gaa: I think it's
going to be reinterpreted.

Let's just say that.

I think there's always gonna be a human
element to it, but I think as we get

more comfortable with, um, bringing in
technology into the classroom, which I

think we need to do start now, um, because
I, I think we're missing opportunities.

I think that it will, it'll
be reimagined in a way that

won't look like it does today.

Brandon Giella: I like that.

Loren Sanders: I love the question.

I think it's big and bold, and in the
short answer I would say traditional

learning models are not gonna die.

Uh, but they're gonna be
dethroned as the default.

Their dominance is gonna fade because
we're entering an era defined by

choice, context, and customization.

So when you think about learning
and the flow of work, you're not

just reading, you're testing,
you're prompting, you're iterating.

And if traditional learning was reading
a cookbook, imagine ai like having you

preparing a dish while Gordon Ramsey's
yelling at you at the same time.

Brandon Giella: Mm.

Strikes fear in the hearts
of every home Chef Lauren.

Yeah, I love that answer.

'cause I, I, it, it, it seems like
you have, uh, lived through some.

Changes over the last

Loren Sanders: Sean's had me
thinking about recipes, so.

Brandon Giella: I love it.

I love it.

That's great.

Well, thank you to all three of you.

Um, I know your expertise, uh,
and your hands-on experience

with a lot of these tools.

It's a really nice blend to hear
how you guys are using them and,

and where you think maybe the
future is headed with these tools.

'cause it, it's, it's quite a change
and I know a lot of people are

saying that, but, but on the ground,
really processing information,

changing the way that we're learning.

The way organizations
themselves are even set up.

It's an exciting time.

So thank you for joining.

Thank you for your insight, and
we will see you next time on

the conversations we learn from.

Sean Stowers: thanks everyone.

Loren Sanders: Thank you.