Key Takeaways

  • Understand where existing courses and assessments fall short in preparing learners for real-world situations.
  • Explore how AI is expanding the possibilities for simulations, role-playing, and scenario-based practice.
  • Discover how practice labs can help learning providers extend the value of their content and differentiate their offerings.
  • Learn how to evaluate learner progress and competency development through practice-based assessments.
  • Gain insights from practitioners on their lessons learned and challenges in designing and building these learning experiences.

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Most learning providers have invested significantly in developing content, courses, and assessments. But how much opportunity do learners really get to practice what they’ve learned?

Think of a manager preparing for a difficult conversation, a safety professional making a judgment call, or an individual working toward a professional certification. A course can help them understand what to do. But being able to handle the situation in real-world takes practice.

Scenario-based learning and simulations aren’t new. What’s changing now is how AI can make these experiences more interactive and accessible. Instead of following a fixed set of choices, learners can engage in realistic conversations, respond to situations as they unfold, receive feedback, and try different approaches. And they can do this repeatedly, without needing an instructor for every practice session.

For digital publishers, training providers, and professional associations, this raises a bigger question. Could practice-based experiences become a natural extension of their existing content and expertise? Could they create greater value for learners while opening new opportunities for product innovation?

Join us for this Power Hour on Dec 9, 2026, at 11 am ET. The session will be hosted by Shrikant Pattathil, President and CTO, Harbinger Group, and joined by industry practitioners Allen Dunkle, Owner, Vital Learning and Umesh Kanade, VP – Center of Excellence, Harbinger Group, to discuss how they’re thinking about AI-powered practice labs, what they’re experimenting with, and the questions they’re still working through. The discussion will cover the learning value, business opportunities, and practical considerations involved in creating credible, effective practice experiences.

Know Your Panelists

Allen Dunkle is the Founder and CEO of NewSummit and the owner of Vital Learning, two Colorado training and development companies that help organizations build stronger leaders, teams, and salespeople. For more than 25 years, Allen has trained professionals at every level, from frontline staff and supervisors to senior executives, across a wide range of industries. He has led learning teams for companies including Oracle, Lucent Technologies, TriZetto, GeoLearning and Kenan Systems. Allen holds a master's degree in adult education and brings expertise in Six Sigma and change management to every program, with one goal: to achieve measurable results on the job.

With over 25 years of technology leadership experience, Umesh specializes in driving innovation across AI, data, cloud, and emerging technologies. He leads Harbinger’s Center of Excellence and Data practice, helping shape technology strategy, build differentiated solutions and IP, and translate technology opportunities into sustainable business value.

Meet Your Host

Shrikant has been with Harbinger for more than 25 years, during which time he has led offshore software development and the sales and marketing teams in various capacities. For customers and his team, Shrikant has been a source of cutting-edge knowledge of shifting technology paradigms such as client-server, web, cloud, and AI. He has recently been instrumental in helping customers in the HR and Learning domain solve their product integration and automation challenges.

About Harbinger Group

Harbinger is a global Advisory-Led Performance Enablement company. For more than three decades, we’ve partnered with organizations in the people business, helping Enterprises, B2B SaaS vendors, and Digital Publishers close the gap between where workforce and learning performance is today and where it needs to be.We work across Workforce Technology and Digital Learning domains. In each, we diagnose the friction limiting performance first, then engineer the fix, combining strategic advisory with digital product engineering and eLearning content development to deliver solutions built around the workflows, metrics, and outcomes each workforce owns.Our pedigree in product engineering and digital learning has built a culture of continuous learning. We apply technologies like Agentic AI where they deliver measurable performance gains for our customers not because they’re new, but because they close the gap.

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