Featured Topic: Enhance, Not Replace: How AI Elevates Learning & Development
AI has helped many of us be more productive at work. We use AI to draft content, summarize reports, analyze data, answer questions, and more. Such shortcuts to knowledge often replace learning and even threaten to replace employees in many industries; a concern that keeps many HR professionals up at night.
But what if we could use AI to make us sharper, smarter and better at applying new skills? Many learning and development initiatives stop at introducing new skills, but real behavior change comes from practice. This session introduces an AI-powered practice and coaching platform that enables learners to rehearse real-world scenarios, strengthen decision-making, receive on-demand mentorship, and assess their skill mastery.
Attendees will explore how AI can enhance and scale L&D programs, support individualized skill development, and create safe spaces for training participants to learn by doing. You’ll gain practical strategies and examples to integrate AI practice into your learning and development initiatives.
Speaker: Kelly Gust, HR Full Circle
Kelly Gust got her start in HR working at the bar her parents owned in Wisconsin. Why DID so many people like to drink cocktails and complain about their jobs? With a liberal arts degree from the University of Minnesota, she was worried she’d ALSO end up bartending, so she pursued her master’s from California State University, then worked at great companies like Starwood Hotels and Hot Topic. Her 20-year career has been spent making work BETTER; better hiring, onboarding, leader development, employee engagement and team building. Kelly now owns a business, but instead of a bar it’s HR Full Circle, where she helps organizations hire, inspire and engage their teams to make work better. She also stays busy raising 2 teenage sons, cooking healthy food that they refuse to eat as well as running, gardening, travel, trying to improve her golf game and spending time at the lake. She serves as HR Expert-in-Residence for University of Illinois Research Park and is a Springfield Business Journal columnist. She serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity, Women Entrepreneurs and her local SHRM chapter.
Recertification Credits:
-1 hour of general HRCI and 1 SHRM PDC will be shared with attendees after the meeting.
Meeting Agenda:
-11:30-11:50 Check-in & Networking
-11:50-12:00 Chapter Announcements & Speaker Introduction
-12:00-1:00 Presentation, Q&A
Guests:
-Member: $30
-Non-Member: $40
-First-time guests can join for free - reach out to Allison Gottwald at agottwald@eastersealsci.com for more information.
Registration Deadline: Monday, March 9 @ 5 pm
Location:
-The Warehouse on State: 736 SW Washington St Peoria, IL
