Writing the AI Playbook in Real Time With Danny Barrow

In this episode of The Learning & Development Podcast, David James is joined by Danny Barrow, Lead Learning Program Manager at Ridgeline - an innovative Investment Management company - to explore how AI has reshaped what Danny believes his function is capable of delivering, and the practical, sometimes messy, process of turning that belief into something tangible. From solving live business needs to a project built for interns.

Danny shares how he's laying the groundwork for taking AI to the next level, including the knowledge repository he's building and where his early experiments with AI agents are taking him. Along the way, David and Danny get into what this shift is doing to Danny's own sense of his role, and what it might mean for where the L&D profession is headed next.

For anyone wanting to experiment more with AI in their own L&D practice but unsure where to begin, this episode offers a grounded, honest look at what it actually takes.

Take your L&D to the next level

Take advantage of thousands of hours of analysis. Hundreds of conversations with industry innovators and 25+ years of hands-on global L&D leadership.

It's all distilled into one framework to help you level up L&D. Access the L&D Maturity Model here - https://360learning.com/maturity-model

KEY TAKEAWAYS

You need a human in the loop. When you chain multiple AI steps together without human review, small inaccuracies compound and your final output can be seriously off. At step 1 it will be about 90% correct, take that content unchecked through 5 AI driven steps and you end up with something that is only 59% right.

Grounding AI in SME interviews, recordings, and a curated knowledge repository and a fact-checking process or tool is critical to avoid hallucinations and keep content fresh.  

You don’t need to be a coder to build useful AI workflows: start with small “unit tests,” then turn repeatable wins into reusable skills your whole team can leverage. 

AI creates space for L&D to stop being order takers and instead act as strategic consultants, orchestrating ecosystems, agents, and knowledge flows that solve real business problems.  

BEST MOMENTS