Unlocking Organisational Value with Domain+
An Adult Learning Collaboratory (ALC) collaboration with Certis Group’s Certis Corporate University (CCU) and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) Academy
“We are investing in the AI capability of our workforce, and we need stronger pathways to impact. Domain+ gives us a science-backed way to translate AI training more confidently into business gains.”
— Pao Pai Tse, Head, Institute for Technology Learning, Certis Corporate University
+40%
Gains in
originality
+20%
Gains in
business relevance
+25%
Engagement gains among weaker employee profiles
+79%
Endorsement of
AI- collaboration tool
The Challenge
The Organisational Value from AI Training
Certis Corporate University (CCU) actively organises its employees for AI training and needs a strong pathway to business outcomes. Its training partner, SUTD Academy, the Continuing Education and Training (CET) arm of the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), plays an active role in facilitating the training and guiding Certis employees through the learning process.
Through this partnership, CCU and SUTD Academy observed a clear gap. While the courses are rigorous and well-structured, the AI applications developed by learners require further strengthening to achieve stronger business relevance and adoption.
Key issues observed include:
AI use cases are too similar to trainer examples, and not sufficiently tied to Certis’ business needs.
Less technical employees are not sufficiently engaged.
This raises a key question:
What support do learners need to create stronger organisational value from AI training?
The Experiment
Domain+ Activation
Domain+ was infused into the standard design of SUTD Academy’s 3-day Natural Language Processing and Generative Artificial Intelligence course for CCU. SUTD Academy also developed an AI collaborative tool that works with Domain+, helping learners develop AI use cases with clearer relevance to Certis’ business context.
A total of 86 Certis employees participated in the experiment, with 21 participants in the control group and 65 participants in two experiment groups.
What changed:
Leveraging Domain+, SUTD Academy identifies that the missing piece may be how learners’ business contexts are brought in. Learners may be producing similar outputs because they are following trainer-led examples, rather than working from their own real-world problems.
In the Domain+ approach:
Shifting the
Starting Point
01
Across the 3-day course, solution-building was continuous.
Learners first surfaced how their work is currently done, then explored how AI could reshape these workflows into better ways of working.
From Final-Day
Activity to Iterative
Learning Activities
In the third group, learners used an AI-supported collaboration tool alongside the Domain+ approach.
Learners entered their ideas into the tool as they worked.
AI-Supported
Collaboration Tool:
Making Ideas Visible
In the standard training, group solution-building came at the end.
With Domain+, learners’ work contexts are brought into the training at the onset to shape group projects.
This shift fundamentally changes the learning dynamic—from learning about AI tools to creating business value with AI from the get-go.
02
03
The Impact
From Replication to Originality
The redesigned approach delivers clear outcomes, when group projects are assessed by SUTD Academy trainers and Certis subject-matter experts:
40% net gains in originality across Domain+ groups, compared to control group
20% net gains in business relevance across Domain+ groups, compared to control group
From Passive Literacy to Active Value
Higher engagement from weaker employee profiles
Accounting for reflexive AI use, mid-skilled workers became more engaged and confident, producing solutions that show greater capacity to design critical and ethical AI solutions.
79% endorsed STUD’s AI collaborative tool to support teams to build on each other’s ideas
The Takeaway
AI capability is not built through tools alone—but through how learning is designed.
When learning designs activate the learners’ business contexts, they engage with the same AI tools differently. It builds a strong pathway for CCU to nurture employees who can create with AI, not just use it.
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