Welcome to Unpacked: Totara Thursdays, where each week we explore one Totara feature and its impact on modern learning strategy.

Why AI Matters in Learning Strategy

Artificial intelligence went unnoticed to become an integral part of everyday learning, working, and decision-making. The issue for L&D teams, however, is not so much adopting technology but using it strategically in order to drive engagement, personalization, and results in performance.

Totara’s AI features, introduced in Totara 19.1, feature a range of intelligent tools designed to support learners, administrators, content authors, and facilitators. These tools complete routine tasks, enhance the quality of content, and offer actionable insight with the ability to free up L&D teams to focus on strategy rather than administrative workload.

Whether your organization is striving to personalize learning at scale, enhance engagement in remote environments, or support continuous performance development, Totara’s AI capabilities provide the practical, strategic advantage needed to achieve these goals.

Feature Overview: What Totara AI Offers

Totara AI integrates seamlessly into the Totara Learn and Perform, offering multiple features that enhance productivity and learning experiences. Key capabilities include:

AI Form Assistant

Built directly into the Weka editor, this helper allows creators to:

  • Summarize: Condense long content into short summaries quickly.
  • Generate: Create new content, such as course descriptions or introductions, instantly.
  • Generate Images: Create visuals directly within the editor, without needing third-party applications.

AI Goal Assistant

Remotely usable within Totara Perform, this feature helps students establish SMART objectives through reflective questioning. It returns well-presented, actionable goals that align with personal or corporate improvement.

AI Knowledge Check-In

Teachers can import content, and the AI builds multiple-choice or true/false questions to produce low-stakes, reflective tests. This encourages participation, identifies knowledge areas of weakness, and facilitates ongoing learning.

AI Image Generation (Standalone)

Other than the editor, the feature is available for AI-created images wherever image uploads are supported. It offers a coherent, visually stimulating learning experience.

AI Course Tag Suggestions

AI provides content-based tag suggestions for courses to enhance visibility and alignment with learning paths.

AI-Driven Recommendations

An AI-driven recommendation engine suggests courses, microlearning, programs, or certifications through user interaction, content metadata, and learner learning profiles.

Each of these abilities can be customized and is optional, allowing L&D teams to tailor the utilization of AI to the specific organization’s requirements and correspond to their overall learning strategy.

Strategic Alignment: Why Totara AI Matters to L&D

AI within learning platforms is not a productivity tool; it is a strategic tool. Here is how Totara AI is in line with the most significant L&D priorities:

  • Personalized Learning at Scale: The AI-driven recommendation engine makes every learner receive content tailored to their abilities, job titles, and learning past. Such personalization boosts engagement and makes learners work on content that really counts in their learning process.
  • Empowering Learners: Tools like the AI Goal Assistant enable learners to take ownership of their own development by creating SMART goals with little intervention. This creates a culture of self-directed learning with organizational goal alignment.
  • Supporting Facilitators and Administrators: AI frees the administrative burden of content creation, testing, and course tagging. This enables L&D teams to focus on high-level initiatives such as learning journeys, succession planning, and performance enablement.
  • Enhancing Content Quality: By enabling content creation, summarizing, and visualizing in seconds, AI renders learning content high-quality and accessible. More quality content supports knowledge retention, engagement, and ultimately, performance.
  • Data-Driven Decision-Making: AI-driven recommendations and analytics provide actionable insights on learner behavior, content performance, and skill gaps. This empowers L&D leaders to make data-driven decisions that align with organizational priorities.

In brief, Totara AI helps organizations shift from administrative efficiency to strategic learning influence, where technology becomes a direct driver of outcomes like skills growth, engagement, and business performance.

Practical Application: Representative Examples

The following are representative examples that demonstrate the way L&D teams could make use of Totara AI capabilities. They are not real client case studies but are imagined based on realistic use cases:

Scenario 1: Personalized Learning Paths

An organization could use Totara AI to recommend courses based on role, learning record, and career goals. Those personalized recommendations will likely increase voluntary take-up and completion of learning.

Scenario 2: Minimizing Goal Setting Complexity

The AI Goal Assistant could lead learners through thoughtful questions to develop SMART goals that can be acted upon. This aligns personal development with business objectives and contributes to self-directed learning.

Scenario 3: Successful Content Creation

Content writers could utilize the AI Form Assistant to generate course summaries, author content blocks, and create matching images in Totara. This saves development time without reducing the quality of content.

Scenario 4: Ongoing Knowledge Check-Ins

AI Knowledge Check-Ins can automatically generate low-stakes quizzes from learning content. This aids retention, provides immediate feedback to learners, and alerts knowledge gaps without creating administrative burden.

Scenario 5: Enriching Content Discovery

AI-based tagging suggestions would help L&D teams maintain consistent course metadata. Content would be retrieved by learners more easily, while administrators have an easier time mapping content to learning journeys.

Each of the above examples illustrates how Totara AI can help with strategy, engagement, and efficiency of operations even in organizations of varying size and industry.

Impact & Takeaways: Features to Strategic Value

By leveraging Totara AI features, organizations do more than become efficient—more than that, they gain strategic alignment, enhanced learner engagement, and measurable impact.

  • Efficiency Facilitates Strategy: Automated content tagging, development, and assessments free up time for strategic initiatives like pathway mapping and skill alignment.
  • Personalization Drives Engagement: AI-powered recommendations ensure learners interact with content that’s relevant to their developmental needs and organizational goals.
  • Learner Empowerment Increases Performance: The AI Goal Assistant fuels self-directed learning and personal responsibility, connecting individual development to business outcome.
  • Data Insights Inform Evidence-Based L&D: AI analytics guide leaders to optimize programs, fill skills gaps, and see ROI on learning investments.
  • Flexible Implementation: All AI features are optional and configurable, allowing organizations to phase in technology while staying aligned with culture and strategy.

Reflection Prompt

Think about your organization’s learning challenges this quarter:

  • Where could AI reduce administrative workload while driving mental engagement?
  • What L&D activities such as goal setting, content development, or knowledge checks could benefit from intelligent automation?
  • How can tailored recommendations drive more effective strategic learning journeys in your organization?

Reflecting on these questions can help L&D teams identify the greatest-value opportunities for AI implementation.

Ready to see how Totara AI can transform your learning strategy? Reach out to our team for a schedule a 20 minute. FREE discovery call. Also, stay tuned for next Thursday’s instalment of Unpacked: Totara Thursdays, where we’ll explore another feature and its strategic impact on learning and performance.

Sources & Further Reading

  1. Totara Version 19.1 – What’s New
    Overview of new AI features in Totara 19.1.
    https://www.totara.com/articles/whats-new-totara-version-19-1/

  2. Totara’s Approach to AI
    Human-centric approach to AI in learning, including OpenAI integration.
    https://www.totara.com/us/approach-to-ai/
  3. Getting Started with AI in Totara
    Practical guide for using Totara’s AI tools.
    https://www.totara.com/articles/getting-started-ai/
  4. Totara Help – What Are Our AI Features
    Detailed documentation on AI features, functionalities, and applications.
    https://totara.help/docs/what-are-our-ai-features

Note: The scenarios presented in this article are illustrative examples designed to show potential applications of Totara AI. They are not actual client case studies.

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