How to assess AI skills before and after training

A fluent email that leaves the reader unsure what we want

The team practises replying to a customer on the basis of earlier correspondence. Before the training, an employee writes a fluent email, but the reader cannot tell what the company needs from them. In the sessions the employee works on choosing the purpose of the message, the context for AI and the editing. After the training they get a new case of comparable difficulty, with different content, the same access to the tool and a similar amount of material.

The statement „I use AI every day” describes how often. A finished task with an explanation of the choices shows how the employee uses the tool. The employee points to the passages they relied on, so you can tell an accurate result from a text the model happened to get right. The CIPD on evaluating learning links evaluation to the gaps identified in the work and to business goals.

What it costs and when it pays back

We measure the hours in the scenario before the training and after 30 days, on the same team tasks. If after a month checking AI texts takes as long as writing from scratch, we change the exercises or the scope of the tool.

According to Microsoft's Work Trend Index (2024), 59% of leaders worry about quantifying the productivity gains of AI. A trial before and after the training gives the manager a first measurement without a separate tool.

A general quiz will not show the work

A general quiz about AI tests knowledge of the tool and does not show whether the employee can do a task from their department. For a service team the task is a reply to a customer message, for purchasing a comparison of offers, and for operations a case handover. The method described here serves to plan learning and further practice, and we leave the assessment of employees in the HR sense to the company's own rules. Before choosing a programme, ask the provider to walk you through a sample task, as described in how to choose an AI training provider.

Where to start

With the person responsible for development and the manager, we choose the tasks where employees should use AI and set the criteria. For the call, a description of the task employees should do on their own and of who receives the result is enough. We run the workshop as part of team training. For the free analysis, a description of one task the team does every week and of the tools it uses is enough. You get the written training programme within 2 working days.