Artificial intelligence is reshaping how organizations create online courses. Tasks that once took hours — from drafting course content and generating assessments to producing voiceovers and visuals — can now be completed faster with the right AI tools.
Yet there is no threat of AI taking the place of instructional designers. The most effective learning processes depend on human knowledge for setting goals, verifying content, and designing engaging paths for learners. What AI does here is help automate routine processes of content creation.
In this guide, we’ll explain what AI tools for online course creation are, review the main categories, recommend eight tools for different stages of the production process, and show how to build an efficient AI-powered workflow. We’ll also discuss AI’s limitations and where human expertise remains essential.
At Blue Carrot, we combine the use of AI in e-learning with instructional design, visual design, localization, and quality assurance to help organizations develop scalable, production-ready e-learning for global audiences.
Summary
- What are AI tools for online course creation?
- Categories of AI tools for online course creation
- 8 AI tools we recommend for online course creation
- How to choose the right AI tool for your course creation workflow
- Limitations and risks of AI tools in course creation
- Conclusion
What are AI tools for online course creation?
AI is becoming part of educators’ everyday work. According to the OECD’s 2024 Teaching and Learning International Survey, 37 percent of teachers across participating OECD countries reported using AI in their teaching or to support student learning during the previous year. So, what is it all about?
AI tools for online course creation are software applications that use artificial intelligence to assist with designing, writing, producing, and localizing digital learning content. The current AI ecosystem comprises various forms of such applications, each of which is intended to be used at a particular stage in the production process.
Though great progress has been made in relation to generative AI, none of the existing platforms has yet replaced the entire process of creating e-learning content. Based on our observations across enterprise projects, the strongest production workflows combine several specialized AI tools, allowing each one to perform the tasks it handles best while experienced instructional designers shape the overall learning experience.
Categories of AI tools for online course creation
The variety of AI e-learning tools has increased dramatically over the past two years. This growth reflects broader adoption across learning and development. According to the 2025 AI in Learning Report, more than half of L&D teams are now actively using AI (Learning News – the Learning Sector’s Newswire. 2025), marking a shift from experimentation to everyday production workflows.
Despite everything said, AI is not a magic wand for creating online courses and learning resources in no time. Rather than searching for one platform that does everything, it’s more effective to divide the production process into several stages/activities and find a tool that best fits each of those. It is common to highlight the following AI tool categories:
- Full AI course generators – create initial course structures, lessons, quizzes, and microlearning experiences from prompts or source materials.
- AI-powered authoring tools – integrate AI directly into established e-learning development software such as Articulate Storyline.
- AI writing assistants – generate learning objectives, scripts, assessments, scenarios, and supporting content using large language models (LLMs).
- AI presentation builders – transform ideas into polished presentations and storyboards that accelerate SME reviews.
- AI video generators – create virtual video using AI avatars for training purposes, onboarding and product knowledge.
- AI voice generators – create realistic multilingual narrations using text-to-speech technology.
- AI image generators – generate illustrations, icons, concepts, and learning graphics.
- AI translation and localization tools – speed up multilingual course development while supporting consistent terminology across languages.
The following section reviews eight AI tools we recommend because they cover the complete production workflow — from initial course planning to final localization.
8 AI tools we recommend for online course creation
The tools we have chosen represent the strongest options across the entire e-learning production workflow. Our recommendations are based on feature maturity, enterprise readiness, ease of integration, and practical value for instructional design teams.
📌 Mindsmith
Mindsmith is an AI-first course generation tool built especially for learning & development purposes. It differs from generic AI writing tools in that its main purpose is creating structured content for learning, primarily microlearning modules, based on either prompts or source material.
It works particularly well for:
- Employee onboarding;
- Product knowledge training;
- Compliance refreshers;
- Sales enablement;
- Microlearning libraries.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Communicates seamlessly with any SCORM-compliant LMS. |
Still requires constant observation and participation from instructional designers. |
|
Supports collaborative editing and is instructional teams friendly. |
To develop complex scenarios, one might need additional development in other dedicated tools. |
Based on the experience we have accumulated, Mindsmith would be most useful in the initial stage of the design process and not as a full-scale production system. This software greatly cuts down the amount of time spent developing the initial structure of the course, which enables the instructional designer to focus on improving learning efficiency.
📌 Articulate Storyline AI Assistant
Articulate Storyline has long been considered one of the leading tools for custom e-learning development. Its AI Assistant brings together generative AI within an authoring tool that instructional designers are already accustomed to working with.
AI Assistant is able to create quiz questions, rephrase text, simplify text, summarize text, create interactions, and create image placeholders in Storyline itself. With these features integrated into the authoring process, there is minimal context switching involved, and hence the process becomes fast. Articulate Storyline AI Assistant is best suited for:
- Enterprise compliance training;
- Software simulations;
- Scenario-based learning;
- Interactive assessments;
- Custom SCORM courses.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Integrated into one of the most popular authoring tools. |
Despite its price and variety of features, it still depends heavily on instructional design expertise. |
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Covers a wide range of complex learning experiences. |
|
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The content it produces is SCORM-compliant. |
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Can be easily integrated into already established enterprise workflows. |
If you’re comparing authoring platforms, it’s also worth checking our article on Articulate Rise vs. Storyline. Reviewing real Articulate Storyline examples can also help determine whether its capabilities match your training objectives.
📌 ChatGPT
ChatGPT is a highly versatile platform among all other AI tools for course creation, as it can facilitate nearly every phase of the instructional content development process. Using language models, ChatGPT helps course developers come up with ideas, structure information, create content, and improve already developed content. Here are the main tasks it can assist with:
- Learning objective development;
- Course outlines;
- Lesson scripts;
- Assessment generation;
- Scenario-based learning;
- Branching dialogue creation;
- Knowledge checks;
- SME interview preparation.
ChatGPT is also widely used to transform lengthy technical documentation into learner-friendly content, making it particularly valuable for subject matter experts who have deep expertise but limited instructional design experience. It is also extremely useful during the planning and writing stages of course development. It supports instructional designers, technical writers, and SMEs working on both instructor-led and self-paced learning.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Versatile and covers a wide spectrum of tasks. |
Can often provide irrelevant and fabricated information, so-called “hallucinations.” |
|
An excellent tool for brainstorming and gathering ideas. |
Lacks understanding of learning methodologies and psychological rules; therefore, requires precise guidance through the process. |
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Is convenient to use thanks to the conversational prompts it accepts. |
|
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Can be easily integrated into any existing workflow. |
We have found that ChatGPT performs best as a collaborative assistant rather than an autonomous course creator. It significantly accelerates drafting, but requires increased control from the side of instructional designers.
📌 Gamma
Gamma is an AI-driven presentation-building software that creates relevant content out of ideas and concepts in minutes. While it does not serve as an authoring tool, Gamma is quite useful in the initial phases of developing e-learning courses.
You can create presentations based on prompts, documents, and outlines and make quick changes to their layout and visuals. One of the important features offered by Gamma is collaboration; hence, getting input from SMEs and stakeholders becomes much simpler before starting the course development process. The app is used mainly for the following purposes:
- Storyboarding online courses;
- SME review sessions;
- Internal project pitches;
- Workshop materials;
- Rapid concept validation.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Generates presentations in almost no time. |
It is a presentation builder, not a full-scale course creation tool. Thus, it is best used in combination with authoring tools. |
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Offers modern and clear presentation layouts. |
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Has an extensive toolkit of collaboration features. |
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Drastically reduces storyboard development time. |
Our analysis has shown that Gamma works best before formal course development begins. By rapidly visualizing content structure, it shortens review cycles with stakeholders and reduces the number of revisions later in the production process.
📌 Synthesia
Synthesia is a video generator that enables AI course creators to produce professional training videos using AI avatars and synthetic voiceovers. Instead of filming presenters in a studio, users can generate videos by simply entering a script, making it one of the most popular AI tools for online course creation.
The platform includes a library of AI avatars, multilingual voiceovers, screen recording capabilities, and customizable templates. It integrates well into corporate training workflows and is commonly used for:
- Employee onboarding;
- Compliance training;
- Software tutorials;
- Product training;
- Internal communications.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Produces professional-looking videos without cameras or studios. |
AI avatars may appear less natural than human presenters in emotionally engaging training. |
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Supports more than 140 languages and accents. |
Advanced customization requires higher-tier plans. |
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Includes a large library of customizable AI avatars. |
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Significantly reduces video production time and costs. |
Synthesia is a great supporting tool whenever you need to enhance your course with video materials, spending significantly fewer resources. Nevertheless, we would still not recommend fully relying on it as emotional connection is still an important part of any training, and AI avatars fail in providing it. It is best to mix generated videos with the old-style studio ones.
📌 ElevenLabs
ElevenLabs is AI voice generation software that focuses on realistic text-to-speech narration. This software enables course developers to create voiceovers in different languages without hiring any human voice actors.
This platform offers voice cloning, narration in different languages, control of emotions, and many other features. ElevenLabs is widely used for:
- E-learning voiceovers;
- Multilingual course localization;
- Software tutorials;
- Accessibility improvements;
- Rapid voiceover revisions.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Creates some of the most natural AI voiceovers currently available. |
May struggle with pronouncing branch-specific lexis and technical terminology. |
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Can be quickly integrated into any existing workflow. |
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Has a wide variety of languages and accents in its bank. |
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Accelerates the overall process of dubbing and voiceovering significantly. |
ElevenLabs is a great way to save on budget for dubbing or recording traditional voiceovers. It also drastically speeds up the process. Of course, it requires additional control from the instructional designers, but the benefits you get in return are totally worth it.
📌 Adobe Firefly
Adobe does not stand aside from the whole AI trend and offers course creators its AI platform for creating various visual assets — Adobe Firefly. It is seamlessly integrated into the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, providing a commercial-level solution for image generation.
Using the Firefly app, users can generate images based on text prompts, edit images, extend backgrounds, and make images for branded illustrations. It is commonly used for:
- Course illustrations;
- Icons and graphical assets;
- Learning infographics;
- Background images;
- Visual concepts and storyboards.
|
Pros |
Cons |
|
Offers commercially friendly licensing, which is ideally suited for enterprise use. |
Infographics, tables, and more specific generated images often require further refinement. |
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Generates various assets quickly. |
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Supports image editing in addition to image generation. |
Despite all said above, we would recommend using Firefly as a supplementary tool rather than a 100 percent substitute for designers. It helps to decrease the time spent on creating visual assets, while experienced designers ensure consistency with brand guidelines and instructional goals.
📌 DeepL
DeepL covers the AI translation domain and is widely recognized for its accuracy and natural-sounding results. For organizations delivering global training, it provides e-learning content localization services while maintaining consistent terminology.
The platform supports document translation, glossary management, API integration, and secure enterprise deployment. It is frequently used for:
- E-learning content localization;
- Training documentation;
- Employee handbooks;
- Course subtitles;
- Multilingual learning materials.
|
Pros |
Cons |
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The translations it produces are natural sounding and accurate. |
Struggles with cultural context or instructional design and thus requires human linguistic review in these cases. |
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Can be easily integrated into any localization workflow. |
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Boasts great security and privacy features. |
DeepL is a great tool to shorten localization timelines. However, you should still consider that successful e-learning localization goes far beyond simple translation. Thus, as with any AI tool, control from the instructional designers’ side is mandatory here.
Comparison of AI tools for course development
|
Tool |
Best for |
Free Plan |
SCORM/LMS |
Starting price |
|
Mindsmith |
AI-powered course generation and microlearning |
✅ |
✅ |
Custom |
|
Articulate Storyline AI Assistant |
Interactive SCORM courses |
❌ (has trial) |
✅ |
Part of subscription or $1449/year |
|
ChatGPT |
Content creation, assessments, and instructional design support |
✅ |
❌ |
$8/month |
|
Gamma |
Storyboards and presentations |
✅ |
❌ |
$9/month |
|
Synthesia |
AI avatar training videos |
Limited |
❌ |
$18/month |
|
ElevenLabs |
AI voiceover and text-to-speech |
✅ |
❌ |
$5/month |
|
Adobe Firefly |
AI image generation |
Limited |
❌ |
$9.99/month |
|
DeepL |
Translation and localization |
✅ |
❌ |
$8.74/month |
How to choose the right AI tool for your course creation workflow
With all the tools mentioned and many more available, choosing the right combination can be more challenging than using the tools themselves. In addition to that, an ideal tool that covers all the aspects of instructional design simply does not exist, so the need to choose several is unavoidable. That is why AI for online course creation works best as a flexible toolkit rather than a single-platform solution. Thus, you should consider several aspects when building your ideal setup.
👉 Course complexity
If you are developing basic training programs, microlearning activities, small projects, or operate in simple areas that do not require deep specialized knowledge, an AI course generator like Mindsmith will handle almost all aspects of your process. However, for more complex needs such as interactive simulations or branching scenarios, a professional authoring tool such as Articulate Storyline, will be needed.
👉 Audience size
Training for a small group internally differs from enterprise learning, which is conducted for large numbers of people. Bigger groups may call for the need to purchase an enterprise-level solution with collaboration and governance features.
👉 SCORM and LMS compatibility
If you use an LMS for providing training to your employees, then make sure that your content authoring tool complies with SCORM or any other required standard. AI writers and slide creators produce content, but they do not publish LMS courses.
👉 Video production requirements
Organizations producing instructor-led videos, onboarding content, or product demonstrations can significantly reduce production time with AI avatars and synthetic video. However, highly engaging marketing or customer-facing training may still benefit from traditional video production.
👉 Localization needs
If your courses serve multilingual audiences, look for tools that simplify AI translation, multilingual voiceovers, and terminology management. This becomes especially important for global compliance training and enterprise onboarding.
👉 Collaboration
Course development usually involves instructional designers, SMEs, reviewers, designers, and project managers. Platforms with built-in collaboration features can shorten review cycles and reduce production bottlenecks.
👉 Budget
Many AI tools offer generous free plans, making it possible to experiment before investing. However, enterprise features such as security controls, team workspaces, API access, and commercial licensing are typically available only in paid plans.
👉 Enterprise security
Organizations working with confidential information should evaluate data privacy, compliance certifications, and AI data handling policies before adopting any platform.
It is very common for organizations to combine three to five specialized solutions (rarely more) that complement one another throughout the course development process.
Limitations and risks of AI tools in course creation
We want to reiterate this key point and emphasize its importance: although artificial intelligence has become an invaluable production assistant, it’s not a complete replacement for experienced learning professionals.
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Where AI does well: |
Where human expertise is essential: |
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In simple words, AI tools are great for gathering information and generating resources. They do not understand organizational culture, business goals, motivation, psychological factors, etc.
Blue Carrot’s insight: Based on our production experience, AI delivers the greatest value when treated as a collaborative production tool — not an autonomous course creator. The strongest learning experiences combine AI-powered efficiency with human creativity, instructional expertise, and precise quality assurance.
Conclusion
While AI applications can speed up the process of creating online courses, they will never replace instructional design expertise. A good workflow will involve the use of specialized AI applications for the generation of content, video, audio, visuals, and localization, along with human review.
At Blue Carrot, we provide assistance to businesses in applying AI in custom e-learning production that meets instructional standards. If you are interested, do not hesitate to explore our course development section for details.
