OpenSesame has launched an AI Innovation Lab in Austin, Texas, to speed up how it builds and tests workforce development tools for the artificial intelligence (AI) era.
The lab will bring together OpenSesame staff, industry partners and customers to prototype and validate new tools. Early work will focus on AI-powered personalized learning, intelligent content curation, and new ways for employees to find and apply learning while they work.
“We’re entering an era of workforce reinvention unlike anything we’ve seen before, and it’s incredibly exciting,” said Don Spear, CEO and co-founder of OpenSesame. “Employees are moving from executing tasks to working alongside and overseeing AI agents, a shift that can eliminate manual work and refocus teams on what drives real business impact. But that transition doesn’t happen automatically. It requires new skills and new kinds of support. The AI Innovation Lab is how we help organizations build the skills and systems to make it real.”
The lab uses an AI-native model in which intelligent agents write code and run tests, while human teams focus on product vision, customer insight and decision-making. OpenSesame said the approach can move features from idea to beta testing in three weeks.
Hiring and customer access
As part of the investment, OpenSesame is expanding its Austin presence and hiring across product, engineering and AI roles.
The company is inviting executives, learning leaders and industry partners to visit the lab and work directly with its teams. Visitors will see AI-native product development in action, share workforce challenges and help shape solutions.
“The biggest risk in product development is not building the wrong thing, it’s moving too slowly to learn,” said Josh Blank, president, chief product officer and co-founder of OpenSesame. “Our model lets us compress the distance between an idea and real customer feedback from months to days. We are not guessing what businesses need, we are putting working software in their hands and using real-world feedback to shape what comes next.”
Retraining pressure
The company cited research from the World Economic Forum projecting that 59 per cent of workers will need to be retrained or upskilled by 2030 as AI takes on more tasks once done by humans.
OpenSesame said the launch reflects a shift for the company from a provider of enterprise learning content to one that shapes how workforce development tools are designed and delivered.
Founded in 2011 and based in Austin, OpenSesame offers a catalogue of curated elearning courses from more than 150 publishers in over 70 languages.
