Smarter Design: A Practical Guide to Integrating AI into Your ID Workflow

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Are you looking for practical ways to integrate AI into your instructional design workflow? Wondering how it can add real value to your process? Or hoping to work more efficiently while boosting creativity? When used thoughtfully, AI can enhance your thinking, help you expand your ideas, and offer fresh perspectives.

So, where should you begin? Let’s walk through how AI can support different phases of instructional design—especially in content development.

Discover

During the research phase, AI can be your research partner. Whether you're reviewing SME materials or doing independent research, AI tools can help speed things up. You can upload source documents and ask ChatGPT to summarize the content, generate outlines, define key terms, or answer questions. You can also use ChatGPT to identify any missing content or ask it to add more to what you already have. 

Want more audience-specific insight? Try asking ChatGPT to role-play your learner personas. While it can't replace thoughtful consultation or root-cause analysis, it can help you explore how a learner might respond to your content or what questions they might ask. You can also use it to rehearse how you'd explain the material to that persona—and even have it quiz you to reinforce key points. Used this way, AI becomes a thought partner that helps you refine your learner-centered design. Our Director of Learning Experience, Jenny Fedullo says this about the limitations of AI use: 

"I wouldn’t use AI to determine what a learner truly needs or to define the root cause of a performance problem. That kind of insight requires human analysis, thoughtful questioning, and collaboration with the client—something AI can’t replicate. It’s a great support tool, but not a replacement for consultation and expertise."

What about data? Do you have learner surveys or interview responses that you’re unsure how to analyze? ChatGPT is a great tool to use to analyze that data, giving you insights quicker and easier than before. ChatGPT can identify common themes, pain points, or areas of confusion.

Imagine

AI shines in the brainstorming phase. Need scenario ideas? Want to create a game or story but don’t know where to start? ChatGPT makes ideation fast and flexible. No perfect prompt needed—just speak naturally. For example: “I’m working on an asynchronous game about energy consumption. I want it to give points for correct answers as the learner moves through a house answering questions about the topic. I want them to be rewarded with stickers or badges as they answer questions correctly. Help me build it out.” That’s enough detail to get started. You can even ask it to improve your prompt or generate one for you. The more you use it, the better your results will be.

Ashlea Novalis, Instructional Designer/Project Manager at d’Vinci gave this example of how she uses AI during brainstorming:

“I’ll ask for ideas on how to break down a complex topic as a way to get "unstuck" when I’m staring at a blank screen.”

With recent advances in ChatGPT’s image generation, you can now create mock-ups, avatars, graphs, and more to visualize ideas quickly and clearly. When our team was developing a game concept, our developer Grady Shingler used ChatGPT to generate interface mock-ups that became the foundation for a playthrough demo. Instead of relying on generic visuals or waiting on a designer, he turned those mock-ups into a functional preview that brought our concept to life. The client immediately grasped the gameplay and design, thanks to the realistic visuals—and we saved valuable development time in the process.

Create

Writing learning objectives or drafting a storyboard? AI can save you valuable time. Give it your source materials or a rough draft, and it can generate objectives aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy or refine what you’ve already written. When I use ChatGPT to write learning objectives, the results are usually strong—I often just tweak the verbs to better match the intended cognitive level.
AI also helps elevate the tone of your writing. I use it to turn my matter-of-fact first drafts into something more creative and learner-friendly. I simply ask ChatGPT to improve readability and adapt the tone for the audience. The result is still my voice—just with a bit more polish.

Beth Buchanan, a Senior Instructional Designer/Project Manager at d’Vinci, shared this example: 

“I often use AI to generate knowledge check distractors. I find that it creates strong and realistic alternate answers when I feed it the correct one. I used to struggle with crafting distractors that weren’t obviously wrong, but AI seems to pull in adjacent and plausible information that works well.”

Even this blog post was drafted with the help of ChatGPT. I used it to organize my thoughts, clarify my goals, and shape a coherent structure. It’s like having a behind-the-scenes writing coach that helps turn your ideas into polished content.

Review

The final phase of instructional design is all about testing and refining—and AI makes a great second set of eyes. ChatGPT can review your work for grammar, clarity, structure, and tone, ensuring your content is clean and professional. It can also assist with accessibility tasks like writing alt text, simplifying language, or ensuring instructions are universally understandable.

Want a fresh perspective? Ask AI to review your learning objectives or assessments for alignment. It can flag potential gaps, suggest improvements, or evaluate if the questions truly measure the intended outcomes. You can even use it to create a checklist of what to test during your review cycle.

One standout feature to try is Canvas by OpenAI—a visual workspace that makes reviewing and refining content more collaborative and intuitive. If you haven’t explored it yet, it’s definitely worth a look.

If you started this post wondering how AI could actually support your instructional design work, hopefully you now have some real answers—and a few new ideas. From early research to final review, AI can enhance your process, expand your thinking, and help you work more creatively and efficiently.

You don’t need to overhaul your workflow. Just pick one task—like refining a storyboard, generating distractors, or simplifying content—and give AI a shot. The more you experiment, the more value you’ll find.

In the end, AI isn’t here to replace your expertise. It’s here to support it—one thoughtful, time-saving idea at a time.
 

Related Posts:

How to Customize ChatGPT to Get the Results You Want

d’Vinci’s Use of Generative AI Tools: Our Company Point-of-View (POV)

Learn more about Canvas by OpenAI