10 Best AI Instructional Design Tools For Continuing Education In 2025

Continuing education is seeing exciting changes, and AI is leading the way. For educators and organizations, AI-powered tools are making it easier to design, deliver, and manage learning experiences that truly meet the needs of learners. Whether you’re working on professional certifications or leadership development, AI is simplifying the process while improving outcomes.

What’s special about AI instructional design tools is how they streamline the work of creating engaging and effective courses. They save time, personalize learning for different audiences, and provide insights to help you make informed decisions. If you’re looking to make your programs more impactful and efficient, AI is the way forward.

The Impact of AI on Continuing Education

AI is changing how continuing education programs are built and delivered, making them faster to develop and easier to improve. Instead of spending hours on repetitive tasks like structuring content or creating quizzes, educators can rely on AI to handle those steps. This means more time to focus on meaningful teaching.

AI also enhances how learners interact with programs. With tools that adapt to individual progress and learning styles, participants receive content that feels relevant and engaging. Features like interactive modules and adaptive assessments keep learners involved and motivated.

Another benefit is how AI provides clear, actionable data. Educators can track progress, identify where learners might be struggling, and make adjustments to improve the experience. Programs can become more effective over time, meeting the needs of both learners and organizations.

Reasons to Adopt AI Tools

AI tools are transforming how we design and deliver learning programs by streamlining the most time-consuming tasks. Think of the hours spent juggling administrative duties, creating assessments, or organizing content updates. AI steps in to automate these workflows, letting your team focus on crafting meaningful learning experiences instead of getting buried in busy work.

What sets AI apart is its ability to provide data-backed insights. By analyzing learner performance in real time, AI offers a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t. You can track progress, measure outcomes, and fine-tune your programs with precision. The result? A smarter, more responsive approach to achieving mastery for every learner.

AI also makes learning more engaging and collaborative. It powers adaptive content that evolves with learners’ needs, offers instant feedback, and integrates seamlessly with social learning features. This creates a dynamic environment where participants feel more connected and motivated to learn.

Accessibility is another powerful reason to adopt AI. It supports multilingual content and ensures materials are available in formats that work for all learners. From translating resources to adapting for different learning styles, AI helps your programs reach and resonate with diverse audiences.

Top AI Solutions Revolutionizing Instructional Design in 2025

AI instructional design tools are reshaping how continuing education programs are created and delivered. Below is a concise comparison of the standout tools shaping the future of learning:

Disco

Disco was built from the ground up as an AI-first platform to make learning and community engagement seamless and impactful. By combining smart automation with tools for social connection, Disco makes it possible to create, operate, and scale learning programs without the usual complexities.

Key features bring everything together into one cohesive experience:

• AI-Driven Course Creation: Instead of starting from scratch, AI helps generate course modules, quizzes, and engaging activities in minutes, saving time and making content creation more approachable.
• Unified Community & Learning: Built-in discussion forums, Q&A spaces, and networking tools encourage learners to connect and collaborate, turning courses into shared experiences.
• Operational Support: Tasks like enrollments, progress tracking, and reminders are handled automatically, simplifying program management and giving teams more time to focus on learners.
• Flexible Design: With custom branding and an intuitive interface, every learning experience feels tailored to your organization’s identity.

Everything about Disco is designed to meet the needs of modern learning operators, whether you’re running a virtual academy, professional certification program, or internal training initiative. By putting AI and community at the heart of the platform, Disco redefines how organizations approach learning.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT has become a go-to resource for educators, offering instant support in crafting and managing learning materials. With its ability to quickly generate content, brainstorm ideas, and refine existing text, it acts as a creative partner for instructors. Whether you’re drafting a lesson plan or reworking course materials, ChatGPT simplifies the process and saves time.

What sets ChatGPT apart is its natural language interaction, making it feel like you’re collaborating with a colleague. You can ask it to structure a course outline, refine a paragraph, or even come up with scenarios for role-playing exercises. For teams operating across languages, ChatGPT’s translation assistance ensures content is localized with ease, creating a more inclusive learning environment.

Its text summarization feature is equally impactful, condensing lengthy resources into concise, actionable insights. This is particularly helpful when you need to extract key points from dense materials quickly. By combining creativity, efficiency, and flexibility, ChatGPT helps educators focus on what matters most—delivering meaningful learning experiences.

Grammarly

Grammarly is more than a spell checker—it’s a tool that helps you write with clarity and precision while keeping your unique voice intact. For instructional designers, it’s like having a writing coach on hand for every email, lesson outline, or course guide.

Grammarly’s AI-powered features support every step of the writing process. It catches grammar and spelling errors, ensuring that lesson materials are error-free. Its tone suggestions help you adapt your voice to match your audience, whether you’re communicating with learners or stakeholders. Plus, its plagiarism checker ensures originality, critical when creating coursework that stands out.

What makes Grammarly especially practical is its ability to integrate with tools you already use, like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. This means you can refine your content directly within your workflow. Whether you’re finessing an assessment or crafting learner communications, Grammarly turns good writing into great learning experiences.

Synthesia

Synthesia makes video creation as seamless as writing a script. It’s an AI-powered tool that turns text into professional video presentations without the need for cameras, studios, or production crews. For learning program creators, it’s a practical way to produce engaging course intros, visual walkthroughs, or explainer videos that resonate with learners.

One standout feature is the use of AI avatars—digital presenters who deliver your content with lifelike clarity and tone, adding a human element to your videos without requiring on-screen talent. Synthesia also supports 140+ languages, ensuring your content speaks to global audiences and meets learners where they are. Customizable templates allow you to reflect your brand’s identity consistently across all materials, and the platform’s efficiency means you can produce polished videos in a fraction of the time traditional methods require.

Whether you’re creating a quick course intro or developing a multilingual training series, Synthesia keeps the focus on what matters—delivering clear, impactful content while minimizing effort.

Notion AI

Notion AI turns an already powerful productivity platform into a smarter, more collaborative workspace. With AI infused directly into its tools, Notion simplifies how teams and educators organize, plan, and execute their work.

What makes Notion AI stand out is how it transforms raw ideas and scattered information into structured, actionable content. Whether you’re crafting a lesson plan, organizing research, or managing a team project, Notion AI makes it faster and easier to build clarity.

Key features include document creation and organization, which centralize everything from project roadmaps to learning outlines. AI-generated summaries distill lengthy materials into the key points you need to move forward. For teams, real-time collaboration means edits, comments, and brainstorming happen seamlessly. And with a library of templates, you can quickly jumpstart e-learning projects with less time spent on setup.

Quizizz

Quizizz brings a playful and interactive twist to assessments, turning otherwise standard quizzes into engaging, gamified experiences. Designed with educators in mind, it offers tools that make learning assessments competitive, fun, and impactful.

At its core, Quizizz streamlines the creation process with automated quiz generation, allowing educators to turn text inputs or uploaded documents into ready-to-use quizzes in moments. Its gamified features—like leaderboards, timers, and themed visuals—bring an element of friendly competition that keeps learners invested and energized.

What sets Quizizz apart is its focus on real-time feedback. As learners engage, the platform identifies knowledge gaps instantly, empowering facilitators to address these areas without delay. And with seamless LMS integration, educators can sync grades, track performance, and manage activities efficiently, fitting smoothly into existing workflows.

MagicSchool

MagicSchool is designed to make teaching simpler and more effective by putting AI-powered tools directly into educators’ hands. Whether you’re building lessons for kindergarteners or preparing professional development workshops, MagicSchool adapts to meet the needs of any audience.

One standout feature is Automated Lesson Construction, which takes the guesswork out of planning by generating complete lesson outlines and pacing guides in seconds. This allows teachers to focus on what matters most—connecting with their learners. The platform also includes an AI Chatbot Assistant to provide instant support, clarifying concepts, offering prompts, and even delivering quick feedback to streamline preparation time.

MagicSchool’s Resource Library offers a curated collection of teaching templates, activities, and worksheets that can be customized to fit unique classroom goals. Its Simple Interface ensures that even teachers new to AI can get started without a steep learning curve, making it accessible and approachable for all skill levels.

By integrating these tools into everyday workflows, MagicSchool helps educators save time and elevate the quality of their teaching materials, creating better outcomes for learners while reducing the workload for teachers.

Fathom

Fathom makes meetings smarter by recording, transcribing, and summarizing them automatically. For teams running continuing education programs or engaging in curriculum design discussions, Fathom captures the details, so you can focus on meaningful collaboration instead of scrambling to take notes.

Its transcription feature works seamlessly across platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams, producing accurate, searchable transcripts in over 25 languages. Need to revisit a key moment? Fathom extracts highlights and offers time-stamped replays, which means you can quickly pinpoint the insights that matter most without sifting through hours of recordings.

Fathom also transforms how teams collaborate. With annotated transcripts and editable notes, it’s easy to share decisions, follow up on action items, and keep everyone on the same page. Whether you’re planning a new course or reviewing feedback from instructors, Fathom simplifies the process while keeping everything organized and accessible.

AudioPen

AudioPen transforms spoken words into structured text, making it a go-to tool for instructors and course designers who think best out loud. Whether you’re capturing a burst of inspiration, outlining a course module, or drafting detailed instructions, AudioPen ensures your ideas flow seamlessly from voice to text.

Its fast transcription feature handles everything from quick thoughts to longer recordings, giving educators the freedom to focus on speaking while the AI takes care of the writing. AudioPen doesn’t stop there—it condenses lengthy recordings into concise summaries, saving time without losing the big ideas.

For teams working across languages, AudioPen’s multi-language support makes it inclusive for diverse instructors. And when you need to revisit your thoughts later, you can easily export files for offline use or integration into larger projects. It’s a smart, efficient way to keep up with your ideas—wherever they happen.

Gradescope

Gradescope is redefining how educators approach grading and assessments. By integrating AI into the process, it removes the manual bottlenecks of grading while maintaining fairness and consistency. For educators managing large cohorts or complex assignments, it offers a way to focus less on repetitive tasks and more on student outcomes.

One of its standout features is Automated Assessment, which processes both scanned and digital submissions with precision. Whether it’s grading bubble sheets or programming assignments, Gradescope adapts to the needs of diverse classrooms. Through Rubric-Based Consistency, it ensures students receive clear and standardized feedback, even when multiple graders are involved.

Beyond grading, Gradescope offers tools like Analytics & Reports to highlight trends, such as common errors or knowledge gaps. These insights empower educators to adjust their teaching strategies and improve learning outcomes. Its seamless integration with various LMS platforms ensures institutions can incorporate it without disrupting their existing systems, creating a smoother workflow for educators and learners alike.

Take the Next Step with AI for Continuing Education

AI is reshaping continuing education by making it simpler to design learning experiences that are adaptive, engaging, and effective. It’s not just about automating tasks—it’s about creating opportunities for richer, more impactful learning. Whether it’s streamlining instructional design, personalizing learner journeys, or building vibrant learning communities, AI is helping organizations deliver experiences that truly resonate.

If you’re curious about how AI can support your programs, start small. Experiment with tools that offer immediate benefits, like generating curriculum outlines or tailoring content for specific audiences. As you explore, consider how an AI-first platform like Disco can help you go further—not just in content creation, but in building stronger connections among learners. Start your free trial to see how effortless this can be. Or, if you’re ready to see the full potential of AI in action, book a demo now and let us show you what’s possible.