Submitted
Reimagining Pathways to Employment in the US Challenge

Sana Labs

Team Leader
Anna Nordell Westling
Solution Overview
Solution Name:
Sana Labs
One-line solution summary:
Democratising efficient upskilling and reskilling with AI-powered adaptive learning.
Pitch your solution.

US-wide worker and income instability predicated on race and gender inequality drive the marginalisation of vulnerable communities. At the root of the problem is a vast nationwide skills mismatch, with over 7 million jobs left unfilled in 2019. The solution is dynamic, continuous - lifelong - learning. Yet, learning is inefficient, meaning learners lack engagement, and mastery, if reached, is rarely maintained. Ranked best-in-world for identifying knowledge gaps, Sana’s AI-powered learning platform provides optimal content at the optimal time to maintain engagement and boost knowledge retention. Sana ensures each learner: reaches proficiency at their own pace, masters the same content in half the time and remembers it three times longer. At scale, Sana democratises access to the skills workers need to keep up, transition, or go further. From boosting compliance for global pharma to reskilling nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sana optimises the world’s most valuable resource - human capital.

Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?

Over 7 million workers across the US are poorly equipped to keep up with the changing job market, with many continuing to learn skills misaligned with the economy’s fastest growing sectors. By 2022, 27% of roles are forecast to be in jobs which don’t yet exist, and skills are becoming obsolete at an increasing rate, in many cases in less than five years. 

At the root of the problem are three core drivers: opaque skill demand; poor learning standards; and inequalities in access. Too often, industry needs are poorly defined, and even when they are clearly communicated, time and resource constraints mean professional learning is neglected and inefficient. Traditionally low engagement results in slow mastery and prolonged courses result in poor knowledge retention. Compounding these effects, access to upskilling and reskilling is reserved for the privileged few, meaning that entrenched race and gender biases broaden the gap between those empowered to keep up and those condemned to obsolescence. 

We believe our human-centric approach to workforce learning which: increases transparency between employers and employees in the market for skills; provides exceptional personalized and engaging learning; and is readily accessible to all, on demand, is the key to combating this skills mismatch. 

What is your solution?

We are solving for universal access to world-class, personalized reskilling and upskilling. 

Sana Labs’ world-class adaptive learning platform provides a user-centric experience for learners and powerful authoring and analytics capabilities for employers. Not only does Sana empower workers to engage in lifelong learning, ensuring long-term skills liquidity, but it provides detailed analytics linking learning and business outcomes, promoting effective employer-employee coordination of skill requirements.

Learners undergo a three-stage journey to mastery: adaptive assessments which pinpoint current knowledge in up to 75% fewer questions than benchmarks; personalized learning paths which continuously assess proficiency, resulting in 15-45% greater learning outcomes; and targeted retention exercises, improving long-term retention by 3-4x. 

Administrators are empowered in real-time with: actionable insights and rich learning analytics, allowing them to engage personally with learners; grouping of users into roles and courses into paths, automating course assignment and improving follow-up; and a powerful authoring tool for data-driven content improvement. 

Sana is powered by state-of-the-art AI models which combine learning (including knowledge, remediation, repetition and progression) and content analytics (including content dependencies, difficulty, assessment and instructional value) with learning objective-aligned ‘nudges’ and data-driven content improvement recommendations. In doing so, Sana creates powerful, engaging, and fully personalized learning experiences at scale. 

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Sana serves workers in sectors ranging from healthcare and pharma to financial, industrial and professional services. Represented by the diversity of our clients and partners, we have developed a deep understanding of the needs of the US workforce. We engage continuously with employers and employees alike, both deploying our end-to-end learning solution, and helping them author courses directly. Nurturing long term relationships, we refine our solutions to meet learners’ needs, whether integrating course ‘nudges’ to promote self-led learning, aligning dashboard metrics with client KPIs or integrating automated course pathways for minimal supervision. 

It has long been recognised that there is a need to shift from “mass standardization” to “mass uniqueness” to address the needs of today’s workforce. We envision a world of truly lifelong learners capable of mastering new disciplines, transitioning careers and augmenting their daily lives through intuitive and stimulating learning. Whether mastering new skills for a promotion or leveraging existing skills to break into new sectors, cutting-edge personalization algorithms ensure our learners stay engaged, reach mastery sooner, and retain it for longer. Fundamentally, our affordable, accessible and scalable solution empowers the “workers” of today to become the “shapers” of tomorrow, regardless of income, culture or background.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
  • Implement competency-based models for life-long learning and credentialing
Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Reimagining Pathways to Employment in the US Challenge and your selected dimension.

The problem, a US-wide skills mismatch worst affecting underrepresented citizens and driven by: opaque skill demand; poor learning standards; and inequalities in learning access, is closely aligned with the challenge at hand. 

By offering a scalable, low-cost, and universal platform designed to empower anyone to become a lifelong learner, Sana directly addresses these drivers to ensure that the American workforce keeps pace with its rapidly evolving economy. Sana not only serves as a facilitator for lifelong learning, but increases access to quality, affordable upskilling and reskilling opportunities and, through in-built course impact analytics, improves alignment between education and industry needs. 

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Stockholm, Sweden
If your solution is already being implemented in the US, in which US state(s) do you currently operate?
  • California
  • Illinois
  • New York
  • Utah
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • Colorado
  • Deleware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Kentucky
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Jersey
  • North Carolina
  • Ohio
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin
In which US state(s) will you be operating within the next year?
  • California
  • New York
  • Utah
  • Arizona
  • Arkansas
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Deleware
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • Hawaii
  • Idaho
  • Kentucky
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • Mississippi
  • Montana
  • Nebraska
  • Nevada
  • New Jersey
  • North Carolina
  • Ohio
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • South Carolina
  • South Dakota
  • Tennessee
  • Texas
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • Wisconsin
What is your solution’s stage of development?
  • Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth
Who is the team lead for your solution?
Anna Nordell-Westling, Co-Founder and CMO
How many people work on your solution team?

Our team consists of: 22 Full-time employees.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: What is your approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organization?

At Sana Labs, inclusion and diversity are central to who we are and what we build. As a culture of brilliant innovators, creatives and dissenters, every step of our hiring is defined by an individuals’ potential to flourish with us, and each promotion is wholly meritocratic. We know diverse teams are stronger, more innovative, and more resilient. We actively hire people with diverse backgrounds, education profiles, nationalities and ethnicities, and judge their potential as an individual and as a prospective member of our team.

Yet, we recognise that even the most diverse companies can manifest unconscious biases. To us, a truly inclusive organisation is defined not only by the diversity of its workforce, but by the universal value-creating role of each service it offers, regardless of the end-user. As such, we carefully consider in-built biases and constantly revise our approach to ensure that the value we create is truly universal.

More About Your Solution
About Your Team
Your Business Model & Funding
Partnership Opportunities
Solution Team:
Anna Nordell Westling
Anna Nordell Westling
CMO & Co-Founder