In this video, I brought together a panel of experienced instructional designers from my advisory committee (plus a few folks I worked with in the bootcamp years ago) to give you a real-world, unfiltered look at what it’s actually like to work in instructional design right now. We kept it casual—no day-long conference vibes—just honest stories from the field across corporate, higher ed, cybersecurity, leadership training, and large-scale government implementations. A big theme that came up right away was AI. The panel talked about how AI is disrupting everything, but also why it’s not a magic replacement for good instructional designers. If you treat AI like a tool—using it for outlines, feedback, scenario inspiration, voice cleanup, or speeding up drafts—while still bringing the human element, judgment, and ethics, you’ll be in a much stronger position. We also talked about the shift from “instructional design” to “learning experience design,” where the focus is more on the full journey, engagement, systems thinking, and change. We also shared examples of impactful projects (onboarding, infection control training during COVID, global sales/service rollouts, and large-scale systems training). And we closed with practical advice for breaking in: explore different lanes in the field, build a portfolio that shows real problem-solving, “fail privately” in a sandbox, and stop being an order taker—ask “why” so you can be a strategic partner.