Microsoft Learn Advisor: personalized learning plans, generated by AI.

The primary objective of Microsoft Learn Advisor is to use AI to generate personalized learning plans for people aiming to achieve specific goals.

The feature builds on existing personalized plans by improving their ability to tailor educational and developmental pathways based on user input. By leveraging AI, the plan designer creates customized learning experiences that adapt to each user's needs, preferences, and progress.

Imagine this…

Imagine you're five years old and you love building LEGO castles. But every time you open the box, there are so many pieces and no clear instructions. It's confusing.

Now imagine your teacher gives you a special plan — just for you. It uses your favorite colors, your favorite shapes, and even tells you exactly what to build next. Suddenly, building becomes fun and easy.

That's what we did for our users. We gave them their own special plan — but instead of a teacher, it was AI that created it. These AI-generated plans looked at what each user needed, what they liked, and where they were stuck, then built a step-by-step path just for them. Users felt more confident, more focused, and more successful.

As the design lead for AI-Generated Plans, I led the design efforts and collaborated closely with other designers through critiques and feedback sessions. Those collaborative critiques helped refine the work, resulting in a polished and effective solution.

The primary goal is to harness artificial intelligence to create highly personalized learning paths tailored to individual user preferences and goals — revolutionizing how people engage with learning content through a customized, efficient experience.

This project represents a significant step forward in personalized learning, combining cutting-edge AI with user-centric design to create an innovative and impactful solution. By leveraging AI, the project seeks to:

• Enhance learning efficiency: ensure users gain relevant skills in the most efficient way, through paths designed to meet their unique needs and objectives.
• Improve user engagement: increase motivation with a structured, supportive journey that includes clear milestones and progress tracking.
• Provide flexibility and customization: let users adjust plans to fit their schedules and learning styles for a more adaptable experience.

Primary users

• Students and educators: access to comprehensive resources and teaching materials for innovative technology education.
• IT professionals and developers: interactive training, certification prep, and in-depth articles on Microsoft products.
• Business users: self-paced learning to gain new skills and excel in their roles.

Before the design phase, extensive research helped us understand the potential of AI in the learning landscape. The study collected feedback on how AI-driven features can be tailored to support learning and career advancement, asking users about their expectations for AI-enabled experiences and the workflows they expected when creating a personalized learning plan.

Key findings

1. Users want an AI chat experience that is conversational, persistent, proactive, and engaging throughout their learning journey.
2. A holistic trial experience is crucial for adoption, letting users explore features before committing time, money, or data.
3. Users prefer a personalized experience tailored to their specific needs and goals, rather than one based on aggregated customer data.
4. Accurate, relevant plans are essential for professional development — instilling trust and carrying value.

Creating effective AI prompts for personalized plans (for example, "What are your career aspirations?") started with understanding our audience's career goals and preferences through surveys.

We defined clear use cases — skill enhancement, certification pursuits, networking — and designed engaging conversation flows, like asking about career aspirations for tailored advice. We tested and refined prompts based on user feedback, then integrated them into the AI system at optimal moments such as onboarding or user inquiries.

A brainstorming session with the team produced three initial ideas: a personalized welcome page, LinkedIn integration, and a simplified, effortless welcome page.

The decision to choose the "Simplified UI" option for the final design was influenced by technical limitations and time constraints. This design ensures users can easily navigate the platform and access the content that best suits their learning needs, focusing on straightforward options for tailored learning plans.

Wireframing was a critical step. It let me visualize the layout and functionality before development, identify potential issues early, and ensure the experience was intuitive and engaging. Using a pre-existing design library made wireframing smooth and enabled efficient collaboration and feedback.

During prototyping I initially used Axure RP for its robust handling of interactions and dynamic elements. I later switched to Figma because the team was less familiar with Axure, which would have made collaboration harder — Figma's real-time collaboration let us work together and iterate more quickly.

The starting page offers two options: "Create a plan for myself" and "Create a plan for others." Below these, six learning goals are displayed with descriptions and "Start" buttons, providing clear options for creating personalized plans — plus an example plan to help users understand the benefits.

The impact of generated plans has been significant, enhancing many aspects of user experience and satisfaction:

1. Enhanced engagement: personalized pathways increase user satisfaction.
2. Customization: users tailor plans to their specific goals and preferences.
3. Alignment with career goals: plans help users grow their skills toward what matters to them.
4. AI integration: feedback from subject-matter experts improves the quality of generated plans.
5. Overall impact: a more engaging and satisfying learning experience.