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AI is reshaping how L&D teams work – and the conversation has moved well beyond “should we use it?” Now the question is: “how do we use it well?”
That comes down to two things: choosing the right tool for the job and knowing how to get the best from it – the latter having become a skill in its own right.
For course creators working in Articulate Rise, AI Assistant has become one of the most valuable tools in the kit. Built with instructional designers in mind and grounded in learning science, it’s been shaped around how L&D teams work – not bolted on as an afterthought. That means courses can be created up to nine times faster, freeing up your time to focus on learning design, not the production tasks.
But speed only follows when you know what you’re doing with it. Here are six smart tips for getting the most out of AI Assistant, without compromising on quality.
1. Start with source material, not a blank prompt
Forget the blank page. Before you start prompting, give AI Assistant as much context as possible – the richer the input, the stronger the output, and the less back-and-forth you’ll need along the way.
Feed it whatever source material you have: SME notes, policy documents, existing lesson content, in formats including PDFs, Word docs, PowerPoint slides and more. AI Assistant can take that unstructured expertise and shape it into outlines, blocks or summaries that reflect your organisation’s actual language and knowledge – not generic web content.
Worth knowing: Don’t have a full file to upload? You can paste text directly into the source field, which is also handy when you’re working from a small section of a larger document.
2. Use it to shape structure, not just fill content
When people think of AI-powered course creation, they tend to skip straight to the content it can generate. But there’s an important step before that – and it starts before a single word is drafted: the structuring stage.
When generating list or interactive blocks, AI Assistant presents an outline first, so you can see the shape of what’s coming before any detail is filled in. You can then check whether the topics make sense, whether the order is logical, and whether anything’s missing – and then adjust the structure as needed.
Use this step as a design checkpoint. Catching a structural problem early saves a lot of rework down the line.
Worth knowing: When you select source documents, AI Assistant surfaces relevant topic suggestions as quick-action buttons above the prompt box – useful if you’re not sure where to start.
3. Transform existing content – and make it work harder
Good content buried in a wall of text rarely sticks. Learners skim, miss key points and retain very little – not because the content is poor, but because the format is doing it no favours.
AI Assistant gives you two ways to fix this without rebuilding from scratch.
The inline editor lets you work right inside the authoring environment, meaning no tab switching and no copy-pasting into a separate tool. Use it to tighten overwritten copy, simplify technical language, adjust tone for a specific audience or reformat dense paragraphs into something more scannable. It’s especially useful when you’re working with SME content that’s accurate but written for the wrong audience.
Magic Text Import goes further. Select it from the AI blocks library, choose your block type, paste in your text, and AI Assistant transforms it into an interactive block – without you having to build it section by section.
If you’ve tried Magic Text Import before and found it limited, it’s worth another look – Articulate has recently added 11 new block types to the feature.
Worth knowing: Need to explain a complex concept? Ask AI Assistant to generate an analogy. It can also turn selected content into a scenario, which is useful when you want learners to apply what they’ve just read.
4. Speed up knowledge check creation
Designing good assessment questions is one of those tasks that’s easy to rush and even easier to get wrong. AI Assistant’s quiz and knowledge check generation saves significant time – especially if you feed it strong source material first. Get that right, and the questions will reflect the knowledge you actually want learners to walk away with.
Knowledge check generation works at lesson level – ideal for retrieval practice mid-course. Quiz generation works across the whole course, pulling from all lessons. Either way, set your focus topic, learning objective and difficulty level to get started.
The first pass is done in seconds. The refinement is all yours: prompt it to make any changes needed until it’s just right.
Worth knowing: Hover over any supported block, click AI Block Tools and select Instant Convert to turn it into a knowledge check on the spot – a great way to test understanding where it’s needed.
5. Use image generation for the gaps stock can’t fill
Stock libraries are great, but they do have limits. For the straightforward stuff, they’re fast and reliable. But for something specific or stylised, AI image generation can save a huge amount of time.
It’s particularly valuable for context-specific imagery – the kind that stock photography struggles to get right. For example, a scene that reflects your learners’ actual environment, or a visual that makes a concept click rather than just filling space.
With AI, the difference between a useful image and a generic one comes down to how specific your prompt is. Vague inputs produce vague outputs. Instead of “team meeting”, try: “Three office colleagues collaborating around a laptop in a bright, modern meeting room – relaxed but focused atmosphere.” The more detail you give around setting, mood and context, the closer the result will be to what you had in mind.
Worth knowing: Even the same prompt won’t produce the same image twice. If you land on something you like, save it before experimenting with different styles or variations.
6. Turn summaries into behaviour prompts
AI Assistant can generate lesson summaries at the click of a button – but a straight recap of what was just covered is a missed opportunity.
Instead, prompt it to create something more purposeful. Rather than “summarise this lesson”, go for something like, “Summarise this lesson as three actions a new manager should take after a difficult conversation with a team member.”
That’s no longer just a summary – it’s a behaviour prompt. A moment that bridges learning and application. Used well, these work as reflection prompts, reinforcement nudges or microlearning takeaways that stick long after the course has finished.
Worth knowing: The more specific you are about the audience, the situation and the action you want to drive, the better the output.
Use AI for the draft. Own the design
AI Assistant is built to speed up the drafting process – to move you past the production tasks faster so you can spend more time on the thinking. It doesn’t replace instructional design expertise. It creates space for more of it.
The teams getting the most from AI Assistant aren’t the ones letting it build courses for them. They’re the ones using it to move faster through the mechanics, so they can spend more time on what really makes learning work: the structure, the narrative and the moments that drive real behaviour change.
Explore what AI Assistant could do for your team. Get in touch to find out how Articulate 360 could fit into your L&D toolkit.