Skillable launches AI tools across lab training workflow

Skillable has launched AI features across its lab authoring, delivery and validation workflow. The tools are generally available in opted-in customer instances.

The release adds AI functions at each stage of hands-on lab creation and use, covering content writing, scripting, learner support and performance checking. It is aimed at training, enablement and certification teams looking to expand lab-based learning without adding the same level of administrative work or specialist support.

Across the workflow

Among the new tools, Instruction Assistant helps authors generate and revise lab instructions based on the lab environment and scenario. Dynamic Teaching creates supporting materials such as quizzes, additional instructional content and resource recommendations.

For more technical tasks, Script Assistant produces automation and scoring scripts through a chat-based process. Cloud Deployment Template Assistant creates Azure Resource Templates automatically, while Cloud Access Control Policy Assistant derives access control policies from lab instructions with measures intended to control cloud costs and reduce risk.

On the learner side, users can get contextual support inside the lab environment as they work through tasks. Practise Assistant also lets individuals ask for extra exercises, questions and step-by-step guidance beyond the original lab content.

Validation focus

Skillable has also extended AI into assessment. Its system can capture and evaluate screenshots of a learner's work in the lab environment to confirm whether a task or challenge has been completed successfully.

This adds to Skillable's broader focus on performance-based learning and skill validation, in which users are assessed through practical work rather than only through conventional testing. More than 400 customers have created 60 million labs on the platform since its launch in 2004.

Model choice

The new AI functions are model-agnostic. Customers can use a supported model provided through Skillable or connect their own models to align with internal governance requirements and existing AI investments.

That flexibility may matter for larger organisations that want tighter control over how AI tools are deployed in learning systems. It also reflects a broader trend in enterprise software, as vendors try to offer AI features without forcing customers into a single model provider.

Danny Abdo outlined the problem the launch is intended to address.

"Organisations increasingly need to deliver hands-on learning experiences faster, support larger audiences and demonstrate real-world proficiency, but the effort required to create and maintain those programs has historically constrained scale. Our AI capabilities transform the entire lab development lifecycle by helping authors create content more quickly, improving the quality and consistency of labs, accelerating updates and maintenance, supporting learners in real time and strengthening validation of skill attainment. The result is a faster, more efficient, and higher-quality experience for everyone involved, from the teams building and operating learning programs, to the learners developing critical skills, to the organizations that need confidence in workforce readiness," said Danny Abdo, Chief Operating Officer, Skillable.

The launch places AI at the centre of Skillable's product set rather than as a separate add-on. By covering content creation, learner assistance and task scoring in one system, Skillable is seeking to widen the use of practical lab-based training in corporate learning and certification programmes.