AI can write your design doc. It can build your storyboard. It can draft your script, your rubric, your assessment, your video outline, and half of your e-learning module before lunch. So what's left for the instructional designer?

According to Jonathan De La Cruz, everything that actually matters.

Jonathan is an instructional designer at a supply chain company and at a Plano, Texas startup building an AI-assisted learning management system. But before all of that, he was a music educator. He taught at DePaul University and Indiana University. He played mariachi on weekends, jazz combos, cathedral gigs, Costa Rican punk reggae, full symphonies. He didn't know "instructional designer" was a job title. He just knew he loved video editing, building websites, and figuring out how learning actually happens.

In this conversation, Jonathan and I talk about the parts of instructional design AI is genuinely making faster and the parts no model will ever touch. The language you use when you collaborate. The way you receive feedback. The relationships you build before you ever press record on a training. The reason someone will or won't watch what you built.

Jonathan also breaks down the custom AI agent he trained on his reviewers' feedback patterns to cut his iteration cycles from version 5 down to version 2. He shares how he manages a tech stack that includes Articulate, Camtasia, Arcade, Figma Make, Claude Code, Gemini, NotebookLM, and Perplexity, and why he just bought a Claude Code membership last week.

If you're an instructional designer wondering where you still fit, an educator thinking about transitioning into ID, or anyone trying to figure out what the human in the loop actually does, this episode is for you.

🎙️ What We Cover:
✅ Why a music educator's brain is built for instructional design
✅ The "agency" lesson Jonathan's first CEO taught him
✅ How to build trust in AI inside a workplace that doesn't trust it yet
✅ The "but vs. and" language hack that changes team collaboration
✅ Why "feedback" is a neutral word and "criticism" isn't
✅ The custom AI feedback agent that cut his iterations in half
✅ His real working tech stack as an instructional designer in 2026
✅ The human capacities to invest in if you want to stay irreplaceable
✅ Why your training won't land if nobody in the room likes you

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Instructional Design and AI
12:29 The Journey from Music to Instructional Design
21:13 Navigating Confusion in Instructional Design
22:54 The Importance of Collaboration in Instructional Design
27:33 The Human Element in Instructional Design
30:16 Integrating AI into Instructional Design Workflows
39:14 The Importance of Communication Skills
45:46 Final Thoughts and Advice for Future Designers

🔗 Connect With Jonathan De La Cruz:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-de-la-cruz-0b9831346/

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