Then & Now
Hello, I'm İlkem.
I've always been the person who asks one too many questions. Not to test people, but to understand how they think. How they connect ideas. Where they get stuck and why.
That's what led me into learning design. I've spent 20+ years across universities, startups, and corporate teams in Turkey and Europe, and the pattern is always the same: when you take the time to understand someone's starting point, you can help them get surprisingly far. What I love most is being in the room. Facilitating, reading the energy, adjusting in real time. That's where learning actually happens, and it's the part of my work I'll never want to automate.
Here's what 20+ years of studying how people learn has taught me: 89% of corporate AI pilots never make it past the trial stage, and it's almost never the technology that kills them. It's that nobody designed for the humans who have to adopt it.
That's the gap I work in now, at the intersection of learning science and generative AI. I advise executives on AI adoption strategy, design corporate training programs with unusually high completion rates, 43% versus the ~15% industry average, and train teams and entrepreneurs on how to actually use AI, not just talk about it.
In 2025, after 12 years in academia, I left Sabancı University and moved from Istanbul to Utrecht to build inspaire, the bridge I kept seeing missing between how learning works and how companies try to roll out AI.
The thing that makes the biggest difference in my work is still the same thing it's always been:
I care, I listen, and I share.
İlkem Kayıcan Dipçin
Founder, inspaire
ICF Coaching
Professional coaching certification for transformative learning conversations.
Sola Unitas (ICF)
AI Learning Science
AI-powered instructional design and learning science: the "AI-Powered Learning Science Bootcamp".
Dr. Philippa Hardman
Ethics, Technology & Public Policy
Stanford Online programme: "Ethics, Technology, and Public Policy for Practitioners".
Stanford Online
2023 EAQUALS Award
EAQUALS Award for Innovation in Professional Learning, 2023.
EAQUALS
2023 EAQUALS Award
Award for Innovation in Professional Learning, recognizing work that bridges traditional pedagogy with AI-enhanced methodologies.
2027 · AI4ALL
Nominated for the AI4Her Future Award
Peers and participants in my training sessions nominated me for the award to women expanding AI literacy and opportunity for underserved communities.
The girl who asked too many questions
A natural curiosity about how people think and connect ideas. Every conversation was a learning experience.
L&D across universities, startups and corporate teams
Universities, startups, corporate teams, always starting by understanding where people are, then helping them get surprisingly far.
EAQUALS Award for Innovation in Professional Learning
Recognized for innovation in professional learning, bridging traditional pedagogy with AI-enhanced methodologies.
Learning Science × Generative AI
Designing corporate training programs with unusually high completion rates. Training teams on how to actually use AI.
Istanbul → Utrecht
Moved to the Netherlands to build InspAIre, an AI-powered platform for subject matter experts to design better learning experiences.
From Istanbul to Utrecht, curiosity has always been the compass.
Every role, every move, every pivot has been driven by the same question: How can we help people learn better?
The tools have changed. The mission hasn't.