From Dabbling to Delegating: How Are Facilitators Embracing AI in Their Practice?

In Episode 4 of Season 3 of the AI for the Average Joe podcast, we sat down with the brilliant Kirsty Lewis, founder of School of Facilitation and a leading light in the training and facilitation space. What followed was an honest, insightful and at times hilarious conversation about how facilitators are embracing AI in their practice and finding new ways to bring their human expertise to the table.

The Honest Starting Point: “I dabble”

Kirsty opened with a truth many can relate to: she’s been dabbling with AI, aware that it can help her work smarter but unsure where to start. As someone who trains facilitators and designs workshops for a living, Kirsty knew AI could be useful but the sheer volume of tools and the fear of getting it “wrong” had been a blocker.

Yet, even small experiments have sparked big ideas.

From PowerPoint to Personal AI Avatars

One of Kirsty’s first wow moments came from feeding a sponsorship deck into a tool (Google NotebookLM) and hearing it turned into a slick voiceover script. But the real shift came when she started using ChatGPT more intentionally, training it on her own facilitation principles and even creating her own persona, Daniel the Designer. Their chats help her test ideas, shape workshops and escape the dreaded blank page.

“It’s not cheating,” she says. “It’s collaborating.”

The key takeaway?

Strong prompts = strong output. The more context you give AI, the better it can support you.

Live Co-Facilitation? Yes, Please.

Could AI one day co-facilitate sessions with us? It’s already happening in small ways: from generating quiz content to summarising flipchart notes in real time.

While voice input isn’t quite there yet, Kirsty shared her excitement about a future where AI tools listen in on live delivery and support the facilitator by generating insight, summaries and next steps on the fly.

And learners are getting involved too. Some now use ChatGPT during sessions to generate deeper, more challenging questions, turning passive learning into active, curious participation.

But Isn’t That Outsourcing Thinking?

Not if you do it right. Critical thinking isn’t dead; it’s evolving. The role of the facilitator is now even more vital: pushing learners to explain why they asked a question, why it matters and what insight it could lead to. AI helps open doors, but it’s the human that decides which ones to walk through.

AI for Facilitation: Practical Tools and Tips

Here are a few tools that are great for facilitators and L&D professionals:

ChatGPT (4.0) – The default go-to for workshop plans, prompts, ideas and more
SessionLab AI – Upload thinking docs and get suggested flows and timings
Google NotebookLM – Great for pulling insights from complex documents
Gamma – A more visual alternative to PowerPoint (with mixed results)
Google Gemini/Copilot – Useful, particularly in corporate client settings.

Keep it simple and master one tool well, especially ChatGPT. The features now include anticipation (“Shall I create a doc for you?”) which saves even more time.

Proposals, Personality and the Power of Play

One area Kirsty’s keen to explore next is proposal writing. By training her AI with past successes, tone of voice and client types, she’s hoping to reduce hours of work to just 30 minutes per proposal. This is not only efficient but also frees up time to be more strategic and creative.

The Final Word: Have a Go

“You can’t break it. You don’t have to take what it gives you. Just try things out and keep the human in the loop.” – Kirsty Lewis

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or still figuring out your AI style, the message is clear—don’t wait for permission. Try, tweak, talk about it, and most importantly, stay curious.

Blog post co created with ChatGPT 12.05.2025