How Cruise rapidly trained everyone to keep up with rapid growth

How Cruise rapidly trained everyone to keep up with rapid growth

All it took was a simple shift: bringing learning into the flow of Slack so adoption and efficacy skyrocketed

Size

>5,000

Industry

Technology and Automotive

Location

San Francisco, CA

Core impact

Rapid skill development

Money saved

>$1 million

97% completion for optional courses

43% confidence lift for managers

The story

The client

As the company pioneering self-driving cars, Cruise knows what it means to be innovative. With 5,000 employees in 2023, the company's rapid success also means rapid growth.

The challenge

As Cruise continues to grow, people are busier than ever. They have an unprecedented amount of new employees, new managers, and important information that's not communicated. The toughest part? Employees can't make time to learn, which doesn't mix well with a hypergrowth startup.

The solution and implementation

With Arist, Cruise launched 30+ courses in the first few months all entirely via Slack - where the average Cruiser spends their entire day. They launched courses on manager and career development, compliance, engineering basics and more.

The Impact

For employees

In one click, Cruisers could access important and timely information directly in their Slack DMs. For managers and ICs alike, this meant far more access to career development and learning opportunities. The average manager felt 43% more confident, which changed the entire workday.

For the L&D team

The L&D team is quite humble, but really had something to brag about - they saw 97.3% completion rates among optional courses, and had functionally built a learning culture. They were also able to save over $500,000 by streamlining tools.

For the organization

Cruise now had a learning solution that was as fast, dynamic and innovative as them, boasting a new time to employee competency of under a month. Cruise also saw increased employee engagement, which is crucial during such competitive hypergrowth.

30+

courses launched in 6 months

97%

optional course completion rate

43%

average manager confidence lift

In today's world, it’s rare to find a partner such as Arist — one that offers an outstanding and effective product, but more importantly one who truly cares about their customers.

Brent Bernier

AVP, Talent, MAPFRE

Explore

See more client stories

See more client stories

Baxter

How Baxter made reps dramatically more successful, one bite-size lesson at a time.

Baxter

How Baxter made reps dramatically more successful, one bite-size lesson at a time.

Baxter

How Baxter made reps dramatically more successful, one bite-size lesson at a time.

HP

How HP scaled training to thousands of people, all in one click.

HP

How HP scaled training to thousands of people, all in one click.

HP

How HP scaled training to thousands of people, all in one click.

BMO

How BMO onboarded ​thousands while future-​proofing the organization

BMO

How BMO onboarded ​thousands while future-​proofing the organization

BMO

How BMO onboarded ​thousands while future-​proofing the organization

FAQ

FAQ

Is Arist an LMS or an LXP? Can I use it instead of my existing tools?

Arist has all of the functionality of an LMS and LXP, including course creation, hosting, assignment, learner management, and analytics. But it's an entirely new category.

The main difference between Arist and a traditional LMS is that Arist uses Stanford research to deliver interactive content via existing messaging tools like SMS, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams instead of traditional video courses and e-learning modules that don't get adoption.

By meeting learners where they are, Arist sees much higher completion, adoption, and satisfaction rates than courses delivered via an LMS (over 90%). Arist is also far more behaviorally effective.

Some of our clients use Arist alongside their existing LMS and LXP, and Arist can easily integrate with your existing learning ecosystem. Some of our clients replace their ecosystem with Arist — it's up to you.

My employees are hourly or don't get work devices. Can they use Arist?

Yes. Arist has industry-leading technology that enables employees to securely and compliantly learn on their personal device. This includes seamless opt-in and opt-out features, automatic phone number encryption, toll-free message delivery, and FLSA-compliant shift locking for hourly employees.

Arist also has built-in wage & hour compliance and shift scheduling integration, which lets hourly employees use their personal devices for learning in a compliant and secure way without incurring additional costs.

Arist works with carriers to ensure that all messages are toll-free.

Do certain age groups prefer Arist more than others?

No. Our research has found no meaningful difference in adoption or satisfaction rates by age group, with older learners enjoying Arist courses more by a few percentage points.

The core reason: nearly everyone uses texting or email to communicate with their friends, colleagues, and loved ones, making messages a comfortable medium for all.

The tools we already use — like Slack, Teams, SMS, and WhatsApp — have the lowest barrier to entry or adoption. Learning and comms become accessible in 1-click to everyone, versus 7 clicks in an LMS or portal.

Is Arist an LMS or an LXP? Can I use it instead of my existing tools?

Arist has all of the functionality of an LMS and LXP, including course creation, hosting, assignment, learner management, and analytics. But it's an entirely new category.

The main difference between Arist and a traditional LMS is that Arist uses Stanford research to deliver interactive content via existing messaging tools like SMS, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams instead of traditional video courses and e-learning modules that don't get adoption.

By meeting learners where they are, Arist sees much higher completion, adoption, and satisfaction rates than courses delivered via an LMS (over 90%). Arist is also far more behaviorally effective.

Some of our clients use Arist alongside their existing LMS and LXP, and Arist can easily integrate with your existing learning ecosystem. Some of our clients replace their ecosystem with Arist — it's up to you.

My employees are hourly or don't get work devices. Can they use Arist?

Yes. Arist has industry-leading technology that enables employees to securely and compliantly learn on their personal device. This includes seamless opt-in and opt-out features, automatic phone number encryption, toll-free message delivery, and FLSA-compliant shift locking for hourly employees.

Arist also has built-in wage & hour compliance and shift scheduling integration, which lets hourly employees use their personal devices for learning in a compliant and secure way without incurring additional costs.

Arist works with carriers to ensure that all messages are toll-free.

Do certain age groups prefer Arist more than others?

No. Our research has found no meaningful difference in adoption or satisfaction rates by age group, with older learners enjoying Arist courses more by a few percentage points.

The core reason: nearly everyone uses texting or email to communicate with their friends, colleagues, and loved ones, making messages a comfortable medium for all.

The tools we already use — like Slack, Teams, SMS, and WhatsApp — have the lowest barrier to entry or adoption. Learning and comms become accessible in 1-click to everyone, versus 7 clicks in an LMS or portal.

Is Arist an LMS or an LXP? Can I use it instead of my existing tools?

Arist has all of the functionality of an LMS and LXP, including course creation, hosting, assignment, learner management, and analytics. But it's an entirely new category.

The main difference between Arist and a traditional LMS is that Arist uses Stanford research to deliver interactive content via existing messaging tools like SMS, WhatsApp, and Microsoft Teams instead of traditional video courses and e-learning modules that don't get adoption.

By meeting learners where they are, Arist sees much higher completion, adoption, and satisfaction rates than courses delivered via an LMS (over 90%). Arist is also far more behaviorally effective.

Some of our clients use Arist alongside their existing LMS and LXP, and Arist can easily integrate with your existing learning ecosystem. Some of our clients replace their ecosystem with Arist — it's up to you.

My employees are hourly or don't get work devices. Can they use Arist?

Yes. Arist has industry-leading technology that enables employees to securely and compliantly learn on their personal device. This includes seamless opt-in and opt-out features, automatic phone number encryption, toll-free message delivery, and FLSA-compliant shift locking for hourly employees.

Arist also has built-in wage & hour compliance and shift scheduling integration, which lets hourly employees use their personal devices for learning in a compliant and secure way without incurring additional costs.

Arist works with carriers to ensure that all messages are toll-free.

Do certain age groups prefer Arist more than others?

No. Our research has found no meaningful difference in adoption or satisfaction rates by age group, with older learners enjoying Arist courses more by a few percentage points.

The core reason: nearly everyone uses texting or email to communicate with their friends, colleagues, and loved ones, making messages a comfortable medium for all.

The tools we already use — like Slack, Teams, SMS, and WhatsApp — have the lowest barrier to entry or adoption. Learning and comms become accessible in 1-click to everyone, versus 7 clicks in an LMS or portal.

Get a demo


The world's leading teams use Arist's platform and AI to train faster and drive real performance impact. See why first-hand.


© All rights reserved.

2261 Market Street #4320. San Francisco, CA 94114

Get a demo


The world's leading teams use Arist's platform and AI to train faster and drive real performance impact. See why first-hand.


© All rights reserved.

2261 Market Street #4320. San

Francisco, CA 94114

Get a demo


The world's leading teams use Arist's platform and AI to train faster and drive real performance impact. See why first-hand.


© All rights reserved.

2261 Market Street #4320. San Francisco, CA 94114