As part of Advantexe’s tradition at ATD, we like to feature a special business simulation designed just for conference learners. Something timely, relevant, and hands-on. This year, we introduced a new experience focused on a hot-topic business challenge: tariffs.

Rather than just talking about simulation-centric learning, we invited attendees to experience it through a scenario that put them in the role of a decision-maker responding to a sudden surge in global tariffs.

The goal wasn’t to teach global trade policy. It was to demonstrate how external business disruptions ripple across everyday business decisions and how simulation, combined with our new AI feedback tool, Simi™, can create immersive and hands-on learning that makes an impact.

It’s trade show season, and Advantexe is heading to the ATD International Conference & EXPO, the talent development industry’s largest and most influential event. With thousands of attendees and hundreds of booths, one thing is clear: AI will dominate the conversation.

My guess is that nearly every vendor on the floor will be showcasing or name-dropping some form of AI. Whether it’s “AI-powered coaching,” “AI personalization,” or “AI-generated learning,” the buzz will be everywhere. But as a participant, how do you cut through the hype?

Not all AI is created equal. And not all vendors are using it in the same way, or with the same level of responsibility, transparency, or actual impact on learning outcomes.

One of the most interesting and relevant things about Advantexe’s business acumen simulations is that they track all user inputs and results as they set and execute a business strategy in a learning-by-doing format. We recently conducted an intensive business acumen workshop for a group of emerging leaders, and we used AI to analyze the simulation data from more than 50 teams, each with about 5 participants. We leveraged our new and innovative machine learning tool developed by our internal AI team, which we are building into all our simulations. Our goal? To uncover trends in R&D investment and innovation focus so that we can share insights and data with our clients about the trends and culture of participants in our simulation-centric workshops. More and more, our clients are asking for training programs that help to push innovation, especially within their R&D teams.

The results were astounding! Even in a risk-free simulation, where participants could test strategies without real-world consequences, there was a strong apprehension about investing in short-term and long-term R&D. Most teams seem to prioritize short-term efficiencies and cost management to drive margins over long-term innovation and “being bold.”

So why the hesitation? Based on our data and interviews with participants, here are three thoughts and suggestions on how to address the issues we uncovered.

Last week, I posted an article on our blog called Beyond the Hype: How AI Enhances Learning in Business Simulations. The post focused on how Advantexe uses real AI tools and machine learning to enhance learning in business simulations. In the post, I discussed how our digital business simulations are using AI to analyze data for results and provide valuable customer feedback in bite-sized formats like AI-generated tweets to improve the learning experience. This week at a program, I saw something both scary and, to be transparent, ingenious. Participants took screenshots of their simulation results, decisions, and competitive data and fed them into ChatGPT to analyze outcomes and strategize their next moves.

Is this a brilliant move by the team for learning, or is this hurting the learning experience by taking a shortcut and diminishing the learner’s ability to think critically and learn through exploration? I thought about this for a while, and the answer isn’t so cut and dry. In this post, I'm going to look at three key aspects of how AI was used in this manner and review the positives and negatives of AI-assisted learning when using business simulations.

I guess I’m stating the obvious when I say, “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere.” From content creation to customer service, AI is transforming almost all industries. For those of us who work in Corporate Talent Development, AI is reshaping how employees learn and how learning professionals create and deliver content.

But with all the buzz, the real question remains: How can AI be used to make learning more effective? How can AI be leveraged to do more than create efficiencies by using ChatGPT to help with ideas, writing, and putting together PowerPoint slides?

At Advantexe, we have been focusing on practical applications of AI to enhance our business simulations and accelerate learning at scale. With the growing need for asynchronous learning and reduced training times, AI helps deliver impactful learning experiences in shorter sessions. More than ever, our clients are asking, “What can you do in an hour or two?” AI is now enabling us to provide meaningful, high-impact learning in condensed formats. Rather than using AI for AI’s sake, we have been working on integrating it into our digital business simulations to provide learners with deeper insights, real-time feedback, and a more immersive experience. Here are two ways we are currently leveraging AI: