As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly choose an online course for an employee.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the current course pages and copy the title, syllabus, level, format, duration, assessment details, provider information, accessibility information, price and availability for each candidate.
   2. Ask the employee and manager to state the development goal, the required skill level, available study time, preferred format, accessibility or work-pattern requirements and budget.
   3. Paste those answers and the course details into the prompt, keeping each course separate and including its current link.
   4. Compare the ranked table with the original development goal and remove any recommendation based on an unknown or unsupported feature.
   5. Open the recommended provider page and check the syllabus, level, duration, assessment, accessibility, price and availability against the table.
   6. Send the shortlist and the unresolved questions to the employee and manager, then record the human decision and the reason for selecting the course.

   Prompt

   Choose an online course for an employee using only the information I provide below. Do not invent course features, prices, accreditation, reviews, outcomes or availability. If a fact is missing, mark it as unknown. First state the employee's development goal in one sentence. Then define the selection criteria and weight them: relevance to the role, coverage of the skills gap, level, learning format, time commitment, assessment or practical work, accessibility, provider credibility and cost. Rank the courses in a table with columns for course, evidence for fit, unknowns, risks, and score against each criterion. Recommend one course only if the evidence supports it; otherwise recommend a shortlist and say what a manager must resolve first. Do not make assumptions about the employee's ability, health, disability, age, nationality, protected characteristics or commitment. Do not use the choice to make a performance, promotion, disciplinary or recruitment decision. End with five questions for the employee and manager, and a factual checklist for verifying the recommendation on the provider's current course page.
   
   Employee's role: [role]
   Development goal or skills gap: [goal or skills gap]
   Current skill level: [beginner, intermediate, advanced or unknown]
   Preferred learning format: [format or unknown]
   Available study time: [time or unknown]
   Budget: [budget or unknown]
   Required completion date: [date or unknown]
   Accessibility or work-pattern requirements: [requirements or unknown]
   Courses to compare, including their current links and any supplied details:
   [courses]

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.