Podcast Summary – Balancing Technology and Humanity in Modern L&D with Robert Panetti of Avetta
Turning Outsiders into Insiders: Meet Robert Panetti
As Revenue Enablement Program Manager at Avetta, Robert Panetti is responsible for helping a fast-growing sales organization onboard “outsiders into insiders” quickly, without wasting a single minute of selling time. That pressure has shaped his entire view of learning and development.
“I do sales training and enablement,” he told TrainingPros President Leigh Anne Lankford. “We’re a growing company and we’re hiring lots of folks, and I work with the sales leadership to put together programs to turn outsiders into insiders and help them get up to speed quickly.” That lens of business growth, velocity, and relevance shows up in everything he shared on the Learning Leader Spotlight episode.
It also makes him an ideal voice for L&D leaders who are trying to balance AI, speed, and quality.
From Psychology Major to Instructional Systems Pro
Like many guests on the TrainingPros podcast, Robert didn’t wander into L&D by accident. He was recruited. While studying psychology at Florida State University and wondering, “What’s next?” an instructional design program director pitched him: come study instructional systems, and you’ll get a job.
“The instructional systems program at Florida State was a real game changer for me,” he said. “It opened so many doors and expanded so many horizons for me. I cannot speak highly enough of the program there and the people there, and the network… Go ‘Noles.” That foundation in instructional systems design is important, because the rest of his story is about how the discipline has changed, especially with AI.
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“Words Are Cheap”: AI Turned L&D into a Curation Job
When asked about the biggest shift in L&D in recent years, Robert didn’t hesitate: AI. But not in the “AI will take our jobs” way. More in the “AI made it way too easy to create bad content” way.
“AI has had the most impact, for better and worse,” he said. “The challenge now is not developing content. It’s curating the AI slop and making sure everything is of a certain quality that actually delivers a learning experience.”
He walks through a scenario most L&D pros have lived: a stakeholder uses Copilot or ChatGPT to generate five paragraphs of “strategy,” sends it to L&D, and expects a course. AI can do that in seconds, but that doesn’t mean learners should have to sit through it. “Words are cheap with AI,” Robert said. “It will take three paragraphs to explain something that could have been explained in one.”
That’s where the L&D role is maturing. We’re not just content curators anymore; we’re quality filters. We ask:
- Is this accurate?
- Is this how we talk about it?
- Can we be more concise?
- Does this belong in a course or in performance support?
Minimum Viable Dose: Don’t Make a Root Canal Out of a PDF
One of the most useful phrases Robert dropped in the interview was this:
I’ve always believed in a minimum viable dose when it comes to training.
That’s the sales enablement mindset talking. His logic:
- Don’t make people sit through a day-long course if a 30-minute eLearning will do.
- Don’t make people take a 30-minute eLearning if a one-page PDF will do.
- Don’t make people read a PDF if an in-the-moment AI bot can tell them the answer.
“It’s really about enabling people to perform the behaviors that you’ve identified and do them at a certain level,” he said. “And if you can get them there with less, that’s a more powerful solution.”
He even jokes about stakeholder requests: “A four-hour webinar is like getting a root canal. You don’t want to put anybody through that.” That line alone belongs in every performance consulting conversation.
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Where L&D Is Headed: AI as Performance Support (Not Just Courseware)
Robert is optimistic and specific about the future. “AI is going to get better and better,” he said, “and I can see lots of training becoming performance support with AI.”
He described an actual use case they’re working on: an objection-handling bot for sales. A seller could feed in the industry, the role of the person they’re talking to, and the objection they heard; and the bot produces suggested responses that match the company’s value propositions.
Is it meant to be read live on a call? Probably not. But is it a fantastic way to rapid-fire train new sellers so they know “this is the way we say it here”? Absolutely.
That’s a powerful example for L&D leaders who want to move from “courses” to “in-the-flow-of-work enablement” using AI.
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The Four A’s: Rethinking Work Through an L&D Lens
Maybe the most important throughline in Robert’s episode is advocacy. “We’ve got to represent and be an advocate for the human beings that actually have to consume training,” he said. If the SME’s source material is just a series of bullet lists, and L&D turns it into different bullet lists, and then it becomes a deck of bullet lists for the learner, nothing meaningful happened.
That’s where L&D earns its seat: by adding story, context, relevance, and restraint.
We’ve got to represent and be an advocate for the human beings that actually have to consume training.
Mentors Who Modeled Practical Leadership
Robert was quick to give credit. He named two mentors:
- Doug Dell, his boss at NCR, who taught him that “sometimes advancing the ball is enough.” Not every stakeholder will become a black-belt instructional designer, and that’s okay.
- Nicole Lee, his leader at Slalom, who helped him “understand the question behind the question” and navigate tough client meetings.
The Skill He Says Everyone Needs Right Now
When asked what skill people in the U.S. workforce need most right now, Robert brought it back to AI, but with boundaries.
“It is working with AI and not letting AI take over everything to the detriment of our learners,” he said. That means:
- Engaging with the technology
- Doing thorough quality assurance
- Staying the final human decision-maker
- Designing for the learner’s time, not for the tool’s output
The Book Rec: Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra
Robert’s book recommendation was a deep cut: Badass: Making Users Awesome by Kathy Sierra. He loves it because it reframes learning professionals as the Yoda in the hero’s journey. We’re not the hero, the learner is.
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