TTEC uses generative AI to automate and scale learning
design grounded in science

Challenge

TTEC, a leading global business process outsourcing company, has helped global brands deliver remarkable customer experiences for over 40 years. The company works with hundreds of customers across various industries, such as healthcare, financial services, retail, automotive, and travel. TTEC identifies clients’ learning needs, develops supporting assets, and delivers training.

“Learning has to be research-informed, learner-centric, skills-based, and data-driven,” says Dominik Rus, the Global Head of Learning Science, Innovation, and Technology at TTEC. “We developed a learning framework based on decades of scientific research on how humans learn, specifically how our attention and memory work, how we should practice better knowledge retention and skills transfer, and what the best learning techniques are. This framework is our ‘secret sauce’ that powers all of the learning materials we create and deliver.”

However, integrating TTEC’s learning framework into learning resources was a slow, manual process, making it difficult to consistently and effectively apply research-driven principles. It took the L&D team two weeks to conduct client needs assessments and another four to six weeks to design the learning assets. The lengthy and resource-intensive approach limited scalability and responsiveness to evolving client needs. This led Rus and his team to look for a solution to automate and scale their training design processes while maintaining and improving their high-quality standards.

Solution

After evaluating multiple generative AI solutions, TTEC chose Writer for its ability to automate their learning framework using features like Knowledge Graph and AI Studio. These tools allowed them to build an internal AI-powered app, nicknamed “Curriculum Wizard,” which automates the creation of curriculum assets such as knowledge assessments, video scripts, self-paced courses, gamified quizzes, and call simulations. By connecting to a Knowledge Graph containing their learning framework, TTEC ensures standardization and best practices across all assets.

“Writer AI Studio is extremely easy for anyone—no matter their technical skill level—to use,” says Rus. “The interface, speed, quality, and ability to deeply customize apps made Writer an absolute winner for us over other generative AI solutions.”

TTEC also set up Knowledge Graphs with white papers and academic articles about learning principles, which can be connected to their custom AI apps to ensure standardization across the team. “Writer Knowledge Graph allows us to not have to reinvent the wheel each time we create learning materials,” says Rus, “because our designers have all of our learning frameworks right at their fingertips. Our learning design is now standardized, formalized, and finally grounded in learning science.”

Results

Since adopting Writer, TTEC has seen significant gains in efficiency, cutting asset creation time by an average of 50% — with some assets achieving up to 80% time savings. “Not only has Writer drastically made our design processes more efficient, but the quality and consistency across different assets and curriculum modules has also dramatically improved,” Rus says.

By integrating Knowledge Graph with their custom AI apps, TTEC has built a resilient internal knowledge management system. Manual research time for needs assessments and curriculum design has been reduced from weeks to days, allowing for faster, more effective learning solutions.

“Writer has helped our team deliver more efficient and effective learning journeys, allowing us to serve our clients with greater speed and precision,” says Rus.

Advice

Rus emphasizes that successfully adopting generative AI requires a clear end goal. TTEC focused on defining their challenges, aligning AI with their unique business needs, and experimenting to refine their approach. For Writer AI Studio, this meant taking the time to understand their unique business needs, socializing the most critical learning science principles, and then experimenting with the platform to develop the right prompts.

“Technology itself is not the end, it’s a means,” says Rus. “In everything we do, we should start with the mindset, skillset, and toolset approach — in that order. Technology should augment research-informed processes and methodologies. For us, Writer has been the best solution to augment our processes and make learning stick.”