The AI Shift: How Colossyan is Redefining Learning with Innovation

Introduction

Nolan: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Learning and Development Podcast sponsored by Infopro Learning. As always, I’m your host, Nolan Hout. Joining me today is a special guest. Today’s guest came in very high demand from our audience, who wanted more information on the specific tools dominating the AI and learning development landscape. So, there’s nobody better than our guest today, Dominik Kovacs, to help fill that void.

Dominik is the founder and CEO of a tool called Colossyan. We’ll let Dominik introduce himself, but a little bit about Colossyan if you haven’t heard of it. It’s an AI-powered tool that transforms the way businesses engage with their employees by turning text into dynamic and interactive videos. What I love most about this tool is that you don’t need a production environment. You don’t need expensive cameras or studios, and in my opinion, you don’t need a highly trained media producer to create fascinating videos. I’ve used this tool a lot. It’s breathtaking. The spelling is C-O-L-O-S-S-Y-A-N.

So that’s Colossyan. Today we’re not just talking about the tool, though. We’re learning about how AI itself has evolved over the past couple of years, which is particularly important. We’ll explore how organizations are leveraging some of these new developments. Now that I’ve become overly aware of how long this introduction is, let’s go ahead and meet our guest and begin the podcast. Dominik, welcome to the podcast.

Dominik: Thanks so much, Nolan. It’s a pleasure to be here. As you said, I had the pleasure of meeting a few members of Infopro’s community and audience. I’m pleased to tell you more about AI video and our field.

Dominik’s Journey to Founding Colossyan 

Nolan: Lovely. Before we do that, Dominik, can you start by telling us a little more about yourself? How did you get to founding Colossyan? What were you doing before then? Was this always a fascination of yours? Tell me a little bit about your origin story.

Dominik: Absolutely. I was always fascinated by the fields of AI, green energy, and space technology. I thought any of these fields would have a significant impact on our society. Originally, I had gone in a different direction, but I ended up pursuing research in mathematics, machine learning, and AI. Already in 2018, I was working with algorithms to generate AI, which allowed me to see the true impact of this technology and where it was heading. Back then, no one really cared about it other than those working with the technology. The outputs looked terrible back then, as you can imagine.

However, it was clear to me, and I have always been fascinated by movies. I’m a huge fan. I grew up watching classic movies like The Godfather and Star Wars. Overall, I was really fascinated by visual storytelling. So when it comes to technology and visuals, it was pretty obvious that I would work towards this field.

Originally, we founded a company focused on the cybersecurity aspects of this technology. We tried to build a detection platform to help media agencies fight visual fake news. We could not monetize it at all, and from the ashes of that company, which failed by 2020, Colossyan was born with a mission to make knowledge transfer easy. Coming from a pure technical background, this was the obvious next step.

Nolan: Interestingly, you mention the film component. One of the directors I really follow is Christopher Nolan. Many directors are moving away from digital effects and want more practical effects. It’s fascinating to see how the cinematic world is merging those two. It makes sense that film was an early passion of yours because when I use Colossyan, it feels like creating movies, not just clips. I can definitely see that enthusiasm in the tool.

Dominik: I want to add that what’s fascinating here is that now you can use AI not only to create these visual outputs and videos, but also to guide people who have no background or understanding of how to create a great cinematic experience. That is the roadmap we are working on.

I have no clue how to create a visually appealing video myself. I’ve worked with math my entire life and don’t have a creative mindset. Still, we can now leverage AI to provide a right-hand assistant to all professionals, like having Christopher Nolan guiding them to create a great visual experience. That’s the goal we want to achieve.

Colossyan: Smarter Learning at Scale 

Nolan: Yeah, and you’ve done it. I love the simplicity. That’s why I like the tool we’re on. Shout out to Riverside, my podcast tool. It makes it simple for people who don’t have an eye for these things. So let’s get into it, Dominik. I gave a brief introduction to Colossyan, but why don’t you provide a quick overview of what Colossyan does and how it helps L&D professionals?

Dominik: As I mentioned, we built our company to facilitate easy knowledge transfer. We repurpose existing materials, whether it’s a PowerPoint, PDF, or Word document, into highly engaging videos. You can upload these materials and quickly create interactive videos where a realistic avatar talks to you and responds based on different outcomes.

Previously, this process required expensive production steps, including recording actors, or using multiple tools – one for video creation and another for making it interactive. We combined it under one umbrella to help companies and professionals save time, reduce third-party production costs, and localize content more effectively.

Localization is a key focus for us, allowing you to create videos in 10 or 20 different languages simultaneously. All of these are highly beneficial. Our unique value proposition is time to value – the ability to quickly repurpose content into video. Plus, videos remain recyclable, so even if you create one now, you can update it months later. They’re far more powerful than static assets that quickly become outdated.

Advancements in AI and Their Impact 

Nolan: Yeah, and thanks for providing that use case. I think that last point is the one that I tend to focus on when I’m talking to groups, and I’m like, listen, if video in particular is one area that you’re interested in. The cost of editing a video, including voiceover work, is astronomical, and being able to do both within the same tool is tremendous. I would assume that AI is leveraged pretty heavily in the video and in the content ingestion piece of that. How has that changed over the years?

Since you’re very connected to the tech and AI space, what are the advancements that you’ve seen, particularly in AI, over the past couple of years since you started creating the tool, and as a follow-up, how has that led you to rethink or redevelop some features within the tool?

Dominik: So, the primary example I want to mention is this predictability or predictive engine. What I mean by that is AI has changed fundamentally over the last months or years, and it has allowed us not just to create the video, but also to oversee the creation process

to offer recommendations during the creation process. We are utilizing the contextual awareness of AI to assist our creators. It’s essential to emphasize that so few companies excel in this area, and we aim to be the company that does it exceptionally well.

Dominik: And of course, everything related to our AI technology. Everything AI creates in the content realm is getting more realistic. The same applies to our avatars and overall video quality. That’s advancing every month, almost every week, as you can imagine. It’s really hard to keep up with it.

How to Decide Which Tool Features Matter Most 

Nolan: Yeah, I would assume a big part of having a tool in this space is deciding what not to go down, like what rabbit hole not to chase or what to develop. How do you make those choices of what you want in the tool versus what you are going to avoid for now?

Dominik: It’s really hard. We conduct in-depth user research, speaking with our most engaged audience and customers to inform our decisions. We determine the problems they face, as well as the technological advancements and solutions we can envision to address those issues. We also utilize our internal expertise, as we have an in-house AI research team comprising mathematicians and AI researchers. We examine where the field is headed, what we predict in terms of timelines, and whether we should build something from scratch or acquire it as a pre-existing technology, which could be ready in six months. Of course, there are inherent risks, but our customers also want solutions ASAP, most of the time. That’s a fine balance to nail, which you can learn from your mistakes most of the time.

Common Use Cases for Colossyan 

Nolan: So, you mentioned that you speak with a lot of your power users, and I’m sure other users as well. What are the top four or five use cases for the L&D world who think, oh, maybe I could use Colossyan? Where do you see those primary use cases where people are using these tools 90% of the time, and that’s where most of your usage comes? What are they building with these tools?

Dominik: It’s typically onboarding videos, compliance training, cybersecurity training, how-to videos, and how to use the software. We are being used instead of tools like Loom because of our screen recording functionalities. Additionally, SaaS enablement is becoming increasingly common, as is product marketing, and now customer education as well. These are all categories of training videos and internal communications. So, these are the most typical use cases.

Measuring ROI with Colossyan 

Nolan: And you mentioned that, and I forgot how you phrased it, but one of the unique value propositions was the ROI. Have you been able to conduct some ROI studies, such as comparing my previous spending of X to my current spending of Y?

Dominik: Yes, exactly. We normally correlate that with typical past production costs. That’s not relevant to all companies, but it applies to most. That’s quite important to flag, but also time savings, which are associated with what else the given individual in the company can work on. That’s why they can save time on both the content creation process and the content ideation process. Both of those are ROI pillars, and we educate our customers and ensure that we meet those success metrics. What we see is that the ROI is normally visible only after a month of usage in an annual period. Most video creation budgets and translation, primarily, are significantly more expensive compared to AI tools like ours.

Nolan: Yeah, Infopro Learning – a part of what we do is translation work. I shouldn’t say a big part, but that’s a significant part of many of our projects. Since we work with large global clients, the need is always present. How do you translate and localize this? Having tools like Colossyan has significantly accelerated our workflow. We’ve also passed those cost savings on to the customer. Because at the end of the day, that’s the expectation – if you’re producing these tools, you should be able to do so better, faster, and less expensively. An example I often share with people is that you mentioned getting the ROI back within one month. I see that. I feel like it’s almost back within one asset.

If you were to create one asset through your internal network or hire an agency to do it, the cost would likely pay for itself. Just look at any of the videos you mentioned – a talking head video, where you’re getting somebody mic’d up or getting them comfortable to talk. I was just at a conference in Tulsa, giving a demo of Colossyan, when a lady raised her hand and said, ‘Wait a minute.’ So, can I get my CEO? I can upload pictures of my CEO and some voice recordings, and I can use our CEO in training videos without him? Yeah, she said, my gosh.

She said, ‘My execs all want to be on video, but when it comes to actually creating the asset, it’s hard. They can’t find the time; we can’t get a studio out there.’ I think the cost savings are absolutely there, but for many people, the lack of headache of setting up a production environment must be huge for your clients. Speaking of that, the setup.

Ease of Use and Onboarding Process 

Nolan: How hard is the tool? I mean, you’re the CEO, so I’m sure you’ll say the tool is extremely simple. But realistically, when someone buys Colossyan, when do you see them starting to create things?

Dominik: That’s a great question. We wanted to build it in a way that anyone who can use PowerPoint would find it even simpler than PowerPoint. I struggle sometimes with using PowerPoint because I lack the creative energy or mindset. So, we wanted to really hold their hand.

And I believe we’ve achieved it because we see so many individuals who have never created anything beyond Word documents. We are becoming like Microsoft Word, but for video creation for companies. That was the goal. I’m not saying you can create an amazing-looking video within your first week, but the learning curve is incredibly fast. We aim to ensure that by the end of the first month, it’s there and you’re producing high-quality assets.

Nolan: Yeah, I was talking, Dominik, to Anil – I think he was the CEO, or Chief of Staff, VP of Operations – and he was telling me that every new employee at Colossyan has to send a video of themselves using the tool within the first week as part of onboarding. And to me, I thought, wow.

Dominik: Our VP of Operations, yes.

Nolan: That really speaks to how easy this tool must be. Because you’re hiring all kinds of people – coders, mathematicians like yourself, marketing, operations, sales, not video people, if nothing else, that speaks to the ease of use because nobody would force that upon themselves if it were a headache.

Dominik: Well, it’s quite funny because on the second day, our design team oversees all new hires. They have a one-hour block session where they must create videos, or perhaps it’s 90 minutes. There’s one designer in the room observing how they create videos. That’s an amazing opportunity for us because it’s like free user testing. Most new hires haven’t used Colossyan much.

They ask questions that people sometimes feel are stupid, but those are the highest value questions because if someone asks, “Why is this button here?” or “Where can I find this option?” then we know if it’s actually easy enough and obvious for first-time users. We really embed this into our culture and processes. People use the solution, and we learn from them by observing and applying the lessons learned.

Ensuring Security In AI Conversion 

Nolan: Yeah, so there you go. Within the first two days, they have all these new onboarders. That’s a great litmus test of the tool. One of the key concerns that is often raised in every AI presentation is security. You mentioned converting Word docs and PDFs into videos. Obviously, I’m putting my content in there. As they leverage it more, for product training videos and such, I’m putting more of my IP into this tool. How do you ensure that people’s data is protected?

Dominik: We have various security processes, and we use security vendors who do it much better than we could. We are SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, ensuring all necessary enterprise security investments are in place. The combination of AI verifications, content checks, and enterprise-grade security provides a seamless experience for all companies we serve, including the world’s largest pharmaceutical and financial services companies.

Nolan: Right, so these are already clients of yours using the tool, who have rigorous security checks. I don’t know how long it took you to get in there. For those listening, you can be assured, and I know you have all that published.

Dominik: An eternity.

Future Predictions for AI in Learning 

Nolan: But for us who don’t want to dig into the details, sometimes it’s nice to say, if it’s good enough for them, it’s probably good enough for me. Dominik, before we let you go, what do you think is on the horizon? Let’s start with AI in general. Today is May 27th, 2025. What do you project for the rest of this year and two to three years down the road? How will AI be applied to change our world?

Dominik: I find this question tricky because everything is happening so much faster than I predicted. Maybe I should divide my predictions by a certain amount. Overall, let’s talk about quality, not just speed. Everyone’s talking about speed and delivery when it comes to AI solutions.

I aim to explore how AI can enable us to deliver higher-quality content at a faster pace. That’s what we are doing, and what AI enables us to do. How can we create higher-performing content, much faster, of course, but content that outperforms the engagement rate and quality perception of traditional videos and content pieces? That’s our focus, and we enable that through interactivity.

AI now enables us to create interactive video experiences that used to take months, but now take hours using our solution. That significantly enhances the engagement level and quality perception compared to traditional content. I believe that in the coming months and years, AI will play a significant role in predictive modeling, as I mentioned earlier.

It will also guide you through the creation process and ensure you focus on what truly matters by providing context to an editing engine like ours, ultimately guiding you towards a higher-quality output. We not only want functionalities that allow you to create high-quality content, but we also want our system to guide you through the process. Consider Mayer’s multimedia principles or the ADDIE model, both of which are highly relevant to content creation. Most practitioners still struggle to remember each learning experience from them, but all are invaluable. I think AI is a perfect companion and partner to help us. We want to embed it into our systems.

More reactive experiences are on the way, and user experiences will be significantly improved. It’s going to be quicker but also higher quality. That’s my prediction. This is a step-by-step process, and we will explore how LLMs transformed the field in 2022 and 2023, and how software vendors and companies are now learning to utilize them to deliver value. That’s my prediction in summary.

Nolan: Yeah, so it sounds like your take on it is expanding a little bit more, but I feel this way as well – that in the AI race to be first, people just did things. You had people with 13 heads and 15 fingers. It was all fast, fast, fast, but the focus wasn’t quality. Now the focus is, okay, we understand what you can do, but if it’s not accurate, it doesn’t work. I agree. Quality is becoming the star of the show, especially with ChatGPT-4 and Gemini producing deepfake videos with speaking avatars.

As it moves forward, like you mentioned, tool providers like Colossyan are recognizing that if my tool is only as good as the person using it, that’s a limitation. I need to help the user understand the best way to use me and generate what they’re trying to do. Like the old days of Clippy from Microsoft, “I see you’re trying to write a resume, let me offer some help.” Similarly, “I see you’re creating a training program, but I didn’t see you put business outcomes. Help me understand them so I can create a better training program.”

Agree. These are things not only AI will help with, but we as users will start to look for in tools. It’s not just how quickly I can churn a video, but if I can get that video right the first or second time within minutes, all the better.

Closing Thoughts

Nolan: Well, Dominik, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us this evening. I know it’s late for you. I appreciate it and look forward to seeing what Colossyan creates in the future.

Dominik: Thank you so much, Nolan. I appreciate it and look forward to hearing thoughts from the audience as well. Feel free to approach me on LinkedIn. I’m available and would love to initiate conversations and hear everyone’s thoughts. Let’s keep in touch.

Nolan: Yeah, and not only is Dominik on LinkedIn, he’s at every single L&D event you can think of – he or his team. So, if you’re attending an upcoming event, visit his booth, get a demo, and get your hands on this tool. It’s phenomenal. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for listening in, and thank you again, Dominik. Talk to you soon.

Dominik: Thank you. Appreciate it.