The Missing Link: Automating the Development of Training Materials and User Guides from Video Demos

One of my software companies needed a User’s Guide and training materials, I thought it was the perfect opportunity for AI to load a video demo of the product and turn it into these materials…not so fast. Generic AI Chat tools couldn’t do it, nor could I find specialized tools to handle the task for me. Given the pace of development in the AI market, it’s just a matter of time, but there are some tools that can help with discrete steps in the process.

The Challenge

There are three primary phases to building training materials: Planning, Execution, and Evaluation. These can be further separated into distinct steps, all of which are very manual and time-consuming:

• Analysis/Needs Assessment: Identifying the gap in either physical or cognitive performance that the training aims to address.
• Design: Structuring the content and determining the best delivery method.
• Development: Creating the actual content, including writing instructions and capturing visuals.
• Implementation: Delivering the training materials to the intended audience.
• Evaluation: Assessing the effectiveness of the training materials and making necessary adjustments.

This multi-step process is often inefficient, error-prone, and requires significant human effort. The remainder of this post will focus on the Development step, with a use case of AI-based tools turning a user demo into training materials. It assumes that the other steps are handled separately. The ultimate solution to handle this step is not available yet, but there are tools that can facilitate specific aspects of the Development step.

Existing Tools: Filling the Gaps

Here are several tools that can streamline specific aspects of the process:

• Video Transcription Tools: Services like Descript, Otter.ai, and Rev offer accurate transcriptions, providing a textual foundation for further analysis.
• Video Editing Software: Tools like Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and InVideo can be used to extract key segments from the video and create focused training modules. You might record a full product run-through and then snip it into short videos focused on specific tasks.
• Authoring Tools: Platforms like Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate facilitate the creation of interactive training courses, but they require manual content input.
• Document Creation Tools: Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Adobe InDesign are essential for formatting and designing user guides, but they don't automate content generation. I found MS Word to be better than Google Docs for placing and framing screenshots.
• Creating a Table of Contents and Index: AI Chat tools are good at consuming a document and creating these items. It’s best to upload the final PDF so you have the correct pagination and then ask for ToC and Index pages to be generated.

The Need for Innovation

The potential benefits of an AI-powered solution that could automatically generate training materials and user guides from video demos are immense:

• Time Savings: Dramatically reduce the time and effort required to create documentation.
• Improved Accuracy: Minimize errors by automating the content creation process.
• Consistency: Ensure consistent messaging and style across all training materials.
• Scalability: Easily create documentation for multiple products and features.

As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect to see further developments in this area. Until then, organizations must rely on a combination of human expertise and existing tools to bridge the gap between video demos and effective documentation.

The Future is Bright

Once you have the training materials, you can create high-quality general-purpose videos with tools like heygen.com, but those combine text call-outs and AI avatars speaking. It doesn’t incorporate a screen walk-through yet. Given the pace of development, I expect that within 18 months, there will be tools built on foundational AI and large language models, that consume a video walk-through and then incorporate the avatar, text call-outs, and create user on-boarding tools that are fully interactive. In other words, it can open an online meeting and walk you through the product in a series of educational videos while showing the steps onscreen and answering your questions. This will enable custom on-boarding at scale that is not hampered by time zones and trainer availability.

Conclusion

While companies focused on training materials are busy leveraging GenAI to address the full lifecycle, including Planning, Execution, and Evaluation, those will take some time to come to market. In the meantime, my personal need for developing training materials based on user demos of software is not yet ready for the market. While current tools can aid in specific steps, the journey toward a fully automated solution is ongoing. By leveraging a combination of AI tools and human expertise, we can develop more efficient, accurate, and scalable training solutions.

What do you think? Is there a specific tool or approach you've found particularly helpful in this process? Share your experiences in the comments below.

If you're exploring AI to streamline your customer support, we compiled a list of things that you need to know on building GenAI Chatbots here.