Over the past 15 years, I’ve developed a lot of learning content, especially during my time with an association overseas. In that role, developing a comprehensive 60-hour course often required a team of a dozen people or more. We’d spend several months or sometimes over a year developing strategies, writing outlines, designing materials, building activities, testing the course, and training teachers to deliver it. It was rewarding work, but it was time and resource intensive, to say the least.
When I joined Sidecar, I started working with a tool that has completely changed how I think about content development: the Learning Content Agent, or LCA.
Whether you’re managing education for a large association or building courses with a small team, the LCA opens up new possibilities for speed, precision, and customization that no one would have thought possible. Imagine cutting down one year of work to only a few weeks. Impossible? Not anymore.
Here's what that actually looks like.
From Just an Idea to a Finished Product — In Days
What used to take several months and a multi-person team can now happen in a matter of weeks (and in some cases, even days). With the LCA, we’re able to transform core content into a ready-to-use learning experience that includes:
That kind of turnaround used to be out of reach for many associations. Now, even smaller teams can produce high-quality, professional learning content without needing to rely on outside agencies or complex tech stacks.
How the LCA Delivers Customization at Scale
The LCA works through a combination of Settings and a Dictionary feature that power its ability to personalize content—without rewriting or reshooting.
The Settings allow you to control things like voice tone, pacing, and avatar delivery. We currently work with ElevenLabs and OpenAI voice tools, but the LCA is designed to support a wide range of avatar and audio platforms. Whether you're aiming for a conversational explainer or a more formal tone for compliance content, you can fine-tune the delivery to match your audience.
The Dictionary is where content customization really accelerates. By mapping key language to coded variables, the LCA can take a general script and automatically localize it adjusting terms, examples, and phrasing to fit specific audiences like marketing professionals, board members, or regional chapters. You don’t have to rewrite your content every time your audience changes. The transformation happens in minutes, not weeks.
Why This Matters for Associations
If you’ve ever tried to build a learning program in an association, you know the pain. It’s expensive. It’s slow. And it often ends up being too generic or too stale before it even launches.
With the LCA, I’ve seen that process go from a year-long committee project to a single-week sprint. And the output? Better. Smarter. Sharper. More aligned to your members’ actual needs.
This isn’t about replacing your education team. It’s about giving them superpowers.
Curious?
I don’t want to sound like a late-night infomercial here, so I won’t end this with “but wait, there’s more!” (even though… there is more). I’ll just say this: the LCA has completely redefined how I think about content development, and I’ve been doing this a while.
If you’re even a little curious about what this could look like inside your own association, head over to learn.sidecar.ai. We’ve got hands-on demos, real-world use cases, and enough “aha” moments to fill your next three coffee breaks.
See you there.