EP 18: Proving Competency: How iCAN Is Changing Workforce Development

In this episode of Producing Confidence, host Samantha Magee sits down with David Decuir, CEO and founder of iCAN Technologies, board member Beau McBeth, and Danos Competency Development and Assurance Manager Mark Theriot to explore how AI is transforming workforce development.

Key takeaway:

• Measurable competency is driving real workforce outcomes—not just training completion

What we’re seeing in practice:

• Employees advancing from entry-level roles into promotions and raises
• Team members earning full-time opportunities with customers after program completion
• Clear career pathways through programs like Develop U
• Improved retention by investing in employee development
• Increased customer confidence through verified, hands-on competency—not just resumes

The episode also highlights how AI-powered tools are making it easier to build customized training, accelerate time to competency, and give companies real workforce data to benchmark performance, identify gaps, and improve safety.

Click here to learn more about Danos.

Click here to learn more about iCAN.

Transcript

Welcome And What iCAN Does

Sam 0:00

Hello and welcome to Producing Confidence. I'm your host, Samantha Magee, and today we are talking about iCAN Technologies, an AI-powered platform changing how companies build and measure workforce competency. Joining me are David Decuir, CEO and founder of iCAN, Beau McBeth, an iCAN board member, and Mark Theriot, Danos Competency Development and Assurance Manager. We'll explore how iCAN is impacting workforce readiness at Danos and what it means for the future of safety and performance. Let's get started. Thank you all for joining me today. I appreciate you taking the time.

David 0:33

Thanks for having us.

Mark 0:34

Yeah, glad to be here.

Sam 0:36

So we'll just get right into it. Can you maybe, David, share the story of how iCAN got started? You know, what problem did you set out to solve? And how has the company you know evolved uh into what it is today?

David 0:48

Yeah, it's pretty cool. So I was always in operations coming up, the working for oil companies. Then worked for Dan os for a few years. And at one point they gave me their training department. I've never been in training in my life, but uh they just said, we feel like if you're there, you'll figure something out. And in about 10 months,

How iCAN Started

David 1:07

I was able to create the the company's largest savings in their 70-something year history at the time. And a lot of it was just changing, instead of people needing to go to like instructor-led training and stuff like that, they could do it through computer-based and just changing some of the workflows. But the big thing I always said was, you know, training is just the check in the box. It's not really, you know, taking it to the next level. It's, you know, competency is really what drives the value of the company. And so I kept seeing how that was handled throughout the industry and kept seeing, you know, not only companies like Danos, but also the companies that they were working for, how they were handling competency. So I wrote a business plan and said like that I was gonna go out and start creating this kind of company and the software, turned it into the owners of Dan os, and they read it, reviewed it, and said, Hey, we we actually want to be your first investor. So they actually were setting up what's Danos Ventures now. They became our first investors. And then since then, we've taken on additional VCs and been growing the company ever since. So it's been a really cool journey.

Sam 2:11

Awesome. And what time frame was that?

David 2:12

So we're about three years old now, a little over. I've been growing ever since. So it's fun. And we work mainly in the US markets, but we have customers now, Mexico, Canada, Vietnam, some in Europe, stuff like that. So.

Sam 2:25

Awesome. And about how many customers do you think you have?

David 2:28

Uh I'd say now around 30. And then we also have our our our AI tools that probably have 20 or 30 customers of their own.

Sam 2:36

So that's pretty good growth in three years.

David 2:39

Yeah. Yep, it's been fun. So and starting off 20, what is it, 2026 now? So starting off with a bang. So we've already signed a few new ones.

Sam 2:46

Fantastic. And Beau, how did you become involved with iCAN and why did you feel that it was a good fit?

Beau 2:52

I was originally introduced to iCAN through um Mark Danos. Uh he and I had a chance to meet at a conference through some mutual colleagues, uh, where we were talking about wholeness, uh organizational wholeness, uh, people wholeness, and just the ongoing development of purpose-driven enterprises.

Purpose Driven Leadership And Values

Beau 3:16

And so as I learned more about Danos, uh, the Danos purpose, mission, vision, values, uh, and got connected to David as part of the venture uh group through Eric, uh, it was obvious to me that the solution David was solving and the value being created was something that connected to a passion area for me, uh, as well as the portfolio of operating companies that uh the privilege of of serving and leading. So we made fast friends and realized there was some capabilities and experiences that I might be able to uh to share uh in relationship with David and the rest of the board, and uh became a matchmade. And we've been going ever since.

Sam 4:01

Fantastic. And real quick, Beau, would you mind sharing with us just a brief you know, background for you? You know, what your you said you know the values were aligned with what he was bringing to customers. You know, what what is it that you do outside of being a board member for iCAN that kind of uh was a good connection?

Beau 4:16

W ell, my background has been in the technology sector, particularly large-scale technology infrastructure systems, and have been working in global industries where safety uh is a high priority, particularly energy and manufacturing. I think there's been always this view in working in publicly traded companies that return on shareholder value is one of the highest ideals, and safety and competency have been proclaimed as a top priority, but the investments and the values that were proclaimed tended to be more of plaques on a wall rather than ideals that were lived out, you know, in day-to-day life. And so over the years, it's been more evident that a unified view of purpose, profits in the communities and people that we serve together is um needs to be in harmony, and there's a symbiotic relationship that requires a level of integrity when things are tough. And as you all know, we go through ups and downs in the energy markets, and so I had some painful experiences that led me to realize that those should not be compromised. And um, so as I met Paul and Eric and Mark and David, it became obvious to me that uh we were in the same journey, same path, had the same commitments, and I was pleased to uh be invited to serve uh with the board.

Sam 5:56

Great, thank you for sharing. And I love that you know, things always work out and the the pathways that God opens for us and creates that alignment. It really it's always a good feel-good story when things work out and people can come together in that way. So let's shift to success stories. Mark, can you tell us how Danos uses iCAN and maybe share a success story from there?

Mark 6:17

Dan os uses iCAN uh for a couple of different purposes. One is to help us create uh CBTs and some other things using his AI tools that he had mentioned uh earlier. We also use it to prove competency with our employees, which has been really successful with our customers. And then move from there that we have development, which

Danos Success With Competency Proof

Mark 6:38

we talked about in a in a podcast a few months ago, our develop you program. Uh we've been using it to to develop employees from the ground up. You know, I I think back to that podcast episode where we talked with Billy Bedsole. You know, he was our first graduate of our develop program that was launched in iCAN. And a guy really he's a great salesman for us because he graduated first, right? And he came on here and he talked with us and really helped us to understand what we were doing or what could be done through our program. And it it really sold to other employees. So he was one of uh 24 so far. Through that program, we we've actually had employees be hired by our customer once they graduated the program. They've gotten raises, they've gotten promotions. So it's been it's been really good. It's been really good for us.

Sam 7:31

That's fantastic. So the Develop U program is uh based on some of the technologies that iCAN offers. So fantastic. Good. And then David, do you have any um customer success stories that you might be able to add?

David 7:43

What Mark's talking about is is some of the best ones to hear is that when you think about the mission and the purpose of the company, it's it's to develop people for a more prosperous future. And you know, when you think about kids and and people going to college and stuff, you know, the end of it, they they get a college degree, right? Well, that's when you talk about the trades, that's not only the always the case. So having them be able to prove out the level that they're at, it's extremely important, not only for the company for you know safety reasons, but more importantly for the employee. And so hearing the stories like Mark shares with Danos and then our other customers that you know people are going through programs, they're they're learning these things, they're getting promotions, they're you know, moving up throughout their careers. That's what the entire program is designed for. The software is just, you know, a vehicle that we use for that. But the the purpose of the company is exactly that, to develop people for a better future. So those stories like that are incredible to hear.

Sam 8:41

Great. Thank you. The Dano's purpose is to develop great people to solve big challenges for our customers in our communities. But how is let's talk about how Danos is solving challenges for our customers. You know, in highly technical and regulated industries, what are the biggest challenges that you see and how can I address those for customers?

David 9:00

So I think what what it does is it gives the customers security now. So, or in insurance is what you would say. And so traditionally in oil and gas, you show up with a really nice resume. Based off of that resume, you know, that's how how people were traditionally hired. And then, you know, they could get a little experience and then go somewhere else, you

Why Customers Need Verified Skills

David 9:20

know, and and make a dollar more an hour because they they got six months of experience and some training certificates. Well, what changes when it comes to looking at them from competency is verification that they actually can do the the work. And so what the customer is able to do is not only look at a resume to see all of the experience, but quantify that through actual hands-on verification. So for them, that's extremely valuable to be able to verify that the employees that Danos is providing is qualified to be able to do the role that they're they're being hired for. So that's that's uh extremely important for the customer and it solves a problem. And as iCAN transitions into the workforce readiness platform, the data that that we are consistently aggregating, that data just gets better and better to be able to provide to the customers to show not only where Danos is, but where they are in their development and their employees.

Mark 10:17

Thank you. Yeah, and look, I'll add, I'll add to that. So for our customers, confidence in the things that we do or the ultimate priority, right? And so whenever we have a competent employee, we have a safer employee. And when we're safer, that's that's when we get work. That's when our customers come back to us, they hear about what we're doing, and they want to learn more about it. And and I think some of that has led to, you know, some some other successes that you've had with with some other of your customers, right?

David 10:46

Yeah, definitely. So the uh again, the the you know, the better that Danos looks using our program, the better it is for us. So they, you know, customers that are that we've you know met nowadays are come directly from the success that Danos employees working at their facility and then finding out they're going through like Danos University and these different programs, and then they reach out to us to see if how we can help them solve their problem. So, yep.

Sam 11:12

You mentioned data and you know, having this aggregate data. What does that look like, you know, for Danos or just a bigger picture as a whole? How are you using that?

David 11:21

When you think about employees and and companies, it's it's very siloed data, or it always traditionally has been. So you go out and and you develop competency programs or training programs and you assess it. And then when you compare it, you're really only comparing to yourself. So you have no idea if what you're doing's actually working or not, because it's only your data. And so

Benchmarking With A Competency Data Lake

David 11:41

what we do is we actually connect to these different systems and then using our data lake, basically that data is continuously being aggregated. And then a customer, as people are being assessed or trained, they can compare how do they look compared not only to themselves, but how do they look to tens of thousands of these other assessments that have been going on? And now, you know, our data set, we have the largest competency data set in the Gulf of America. Probably in the next year or so, we'll have the largest one in North America. So uh it allows the customer those industry insights that they've never been able to see to be able to improve their workforce readiness.

Mark 12:20

Yeah, and that that's another confidence factor that our customers have in us when we can show them from all of this data, hey, this is where Danos stands compared to the rest of the industry or some of our competitors. It's been great.

Sam 12:32

Great, thank you. And we know that workforce development often intersects with organizational culture. Beau, how do you think iCAN can help companies foster a continuous learning and adaptability in today's world?

Beau 12:45

Living organizations must continuously learn. And those of us in them require a level of innovation and passion to continue to grow and learn. So when I think about competency as iCAN is providing capabilities

Culture Of Continuous Learning

Beau 13:02

for us to operate in ways that leverage expertise and grow it, innovate in areas where processes could be improved, or at least identify where they can be and present them in a way that they could be adopted because people are at the at the face of where the action is happening and probably have the best view. And then to do it with a level of discipline that's measurable, that's presentable, uh, that's repeatable, those are critical aspects of being competent and being able to have confidence in applying this with situational leadership in a volatile or a space that can have a variety of elements that come upon you pretty quickly. So it's been proven through the iCAN solution, both where it is now and the roadmap that David and the team have laid out, that it's going to provide that level of ongoing capability and confidence with added intelligence and innovative opportunity for organizations to continue to adopt it in their context and their industry in ways that help them present better value for their customers and also their employees as they deliver solutions. It's going to be an exciting place over the next few years. And you know, it's I think it's um it's wise to invest with people who are developing people in the iCAN solutions doing just that.

Sam 14:27

Fantastic. Thank you. And so let's talk about, I guess, a little bit more of the technology behind iCAN. I know it uses AI to transform the internal knowledge into that training. So, how does this process work and kind of walk us through what makes that different from traditional trainings?

David 14:43

Yeah, so you heard Mark mention earlier CBTs, which are computer-based training or e-learning and different, you know, whatever people call it now. And traditionally, you would be buying libraries, right? So you buy a library of content

AI That Builds Training Fast

David 14:57

from a different provider, and you know, they they have all these different topics. And it wasn't really centric to your your facilities, your processes, but it it checked the box. And you had a lot of incidents because people, yes, they checked the box, but what they learned wasn't actually how they were applying it in the field. And the the other way that this traditionally was done was you would hire people that knew how to build out these e-learnings. You would pay for software, and the person that you were hiring, they still didn't know the process. So you still had to provide all of these subject matter experts. And then the third version, most expensive, was where you just paid a company to go out and build content for you. And so companies were literally spending millions of dollars on this. And so what we created was the ability for anybody, a subject matter expert with little to no knowledge of operating a computer or AI, can sit down, type in their topics, anything in the world, any common language in the world, and then create all of their own e-learning, their own competencies. So creating the e-learning from the scripts, the voices, the images, and then packaging that into a file that can be played on any learning management system in the world. So by doing that, and then at the price point we do it at, where it literally starts at a hundred bucks a month, people are able to develop their own content libraries centric to their policies, their procedures at literally a a quarter of the time that it used to take, and they own that content forever. So it's completely changed the e-learning game and the you know competency game where you used to pay all of these consultants and pay all for all of this different, you know, libraries and stuff. People are now building this during their lunch break. And so that's where we always saw it. We knew like HR, HSC, cybersecurity, general safety. We always knew that that was going to be part of you know part of what people were building. What we really were surprised were was how our customers are using it now for like management to change or uh safety alerts, where traditionally you would have a management of change, so your process changed, you would send that out to the field, and then they they talk about it in a safety meeting and try to document it. And then six months later, you'd have an incident and you'd realize that the person in the meeting didn't understand it, or maybe they weren't didn't even attend that meeting or whatever. So nowadays, what our customers are doing, when they have these changes, they literally are copying and pasting that into our software, creating that training instantly, assigning it in their management systems, and then verifying. So now when you think about that customer having to go in front of you know commercial insurance and stuff like that, traditionally they didn't really have a good way to prove that they were making a change and then properly notifying. Now they have 100% evidence to show that it's it's doing it. So that's that's how the AI tools came. What I think is cool about it is seeing, you know, employees asking their employer, hey, I want to learn more about glycol dehydration or or you know, some topic that they're not skilled at. And somebody like Mark Theriot can literally sit down and in 10 minutes be rolling out a very comprehensive hour-long e-learning specific to the topic that they want to learn on in their language if they need it in. So it that's been really incredible how far that technology has has come along.

Sam 18:30

So the subject matter expert, you know, at a particular company writes the the content for the trainings. Right?

David 18:37

They don't even write it, they copy and paste it into our software and our software writes it all for them.

Sam 18:42

So but they provide that expertise to for the software to then produce the training. So, what about are there instances where a company says, we don't have a subject matter expert? We want to purchase something that you have. Is that something that's an option?

David 18:53

Yeah, so one, we we do development for them. So traditionally, when you're building out this content, you're paying people like thousands and thousands of dollars. So we have partner networks that we work with now where they're building the e-learning for customers for you know as little as three to five hundred dollars a course. So it's it's very, very cheap if you want other companies to build it. But you don't necessarily need to be the expert in it because the way that we've tuned our algorithms is to look at original equipment manufacturers. So you might type in how to replace the packing on a certain valve. You are not the expert in it, but it is looking at the OEM's manuals to design and using our AI model to design the training based off the OEM. So an expert doesn't have to be sitting in front of the computer. It could be you just the general topic of what of what you need training on.

Sam 19:45

That seems makes it seem super easy, right? Yeah.

David 19:47

I mean, you could literally sit down and admin, I mean, a uh an intern during the summer and just say, hey, by the end of the summer, I want these 30 things built. And they could probably build those 30 things in the first week that they were there and then just spend the rest of the time experiencing, you know, Dan os for the summer.

Mark 20:04

So and once the training is actually built, the reference of where the information came from is at the bottom, so it can always be double-checked.

David 20:12

Yeah, so the way we built it is when you talk about LLMs and stuff, you always hear about hallucinations where it's just making things up. So part of the way that we've built this is one, how we tune the algorithm, but also in everything it returns, it's always returning rationale and references. So you can at any time if you are unsure, you can copy and paste that into Google and go verify that all this information is correct.

Sam 20:37

Very cool. So, as important as it is to you know integrate this technology to be able to provide faster and more efficient training, how do we balance that with the need for human expertise, especially with you know safety critical fields like energy and

David 20:51

If I think about what LLMs are after now and what jobs they're able to replicate, they're able to replicate very patternable jobs. And so admins, stuff like that, those were I you can see a lot of AI integrations.

Keeping Humans Central In Safety

David 21:06

But when it comes to the field and you think about people working out there, I mean, we and you know, take oil and gas, for example, you have facilities out there that were that were built in the 60s. And so you've got all of this different type of equipment. So to think that, you know, you could use AI and a robot to and tool this thing to be able to work on all this different type of equipment, that's just not something that's in the the very near future. And so you always are gonna need that human in the field to some point, or not always, but for the foreseeable future, you will.

Sam 21:38

And Mark, how does Danos balance that?

Mark 21:40

Just like what he's talking about. I mean, when we have conversations with people that think that maybe technology is going to take their jobs, well, no, you have to help them understand that technology is to help you with your job, not to take it away from you. I'll be bold enough to say you can never take away the subject matter expert, right? That there's nobody or no technology. Technology that's going to be out, be able to go out there and turn all of the wrenches or think through all of the critical skill steps that that are needed in certain different jobs on different pieces of equipment. So it's to help those people understand that. And you know, usually they get it.

David 22:16

Yeah, there's there's just too many permutations in the field for robotics to be able to do right now. What I think the technology is really good at that it's doing is when you think about time to competency. And so when you think about hiring somebody with no experience, and traditionally, for you know, in in uh the world of operations, for them to get the experiences and learn all this, you're looking at five years before you really have a very quality person that that understands it. And that's based on an average, right? But applying the technology to be able to drip those those competencies in when they need them, to be able to get them better understanding about the concepts of what they're working on, you're able to speed up time to competency exponentially. And when you think about that from a company's value, that that's that's tremendous to them. To be able to take a uh entry-level person to a senior level person, but instead of five years doing it in two years, you can imagine the the time to or the time to value for that customer now is one, it's exponentially improved, but for the customer or for the employer, that's that's a huge benefit for them, not only from safety, but from a revenue perspective as well.

David 23:30 Sam 23:31

Absolutely. So I guess going back to the way technology is improving things for us and you know, making jobs more efficient and safer, where do we see uh the trends going, I guess, that excite you most? And where do you see iCAN the next five to 10 years?

David 23:47

So, what I think is happening with AI and LLMs, I think that software as a service is taking huge hits right now, right? So software is becoming easy. It's becoming, it used to be that it was really hard to develop software to solve

The Shift Toward Workforce Intelligence

David 24:02

different workflows, and that's why these SaaS products had huge valuations. However, with vibe coding and agentic, it's just becoming easier and easier for people that are not software developers to be able to develop applications, low-code, no-code applications and development of the yeah.

Mark 24:18

You can actually use AI to develop software now.

David 24:21

So so you don't need so so that value is really tanking right now. And where our value is, is in the data lake, is in that that aggregation of the data. And so we want to become, we we are becoming that workforce intelligence, that workforce readiness application where we don't care if you're buying another SaaS product, we don't care if you've built your own. You are able to tie into us and be able to see not only how is that person, but how does your company doing compared to entire industries? And that's never been done before. But that is where we're we're going with iCAN. And over the next five to 10 years, not only will that saturate in oil and gas, but any other heavy industry that you can think of. Where I always go back to is training is just, you know, a checkbox to get you to to competency. Competency is the real value. And so being able to show a customer how ready your workforce is and then where those gaps are before they happen, that's that's an incredible value. So that's that's what's exciting for us, and that's what we're working on today.

Sam 25:28

Yeah. Beau, do you have anything to add to that? And maybe particularly the way that this product can be used in other industries.

Beau 25:34

Yeah, I would just say that the market and how the response to the market change is unfolding. Trust is an incredible characteristic to have as an organization, especially in the services markets. So as iCAN continues to deliver confidence through competencies and the data visualization, the analytics, all of the upcoming proactive distribution of information so people can learn, can grow, can apply, can have feedback loops in the processes that are most important for critical safety environments. Trust is critical. And so I anticipate those who are using it to gain greater trust, and those who are trying to deliver ongoing, interactive ways to learn as robotics and other intelligent solutions come out, iCAN is gonna be right in the heart of it. There's not many industries that have you know a people focused today that are not gonna be impacted by robotics and intelligence converging. It's gonna be pervasive if it's not already in their domain. So iCAN's positioned to help those who are trying to adapt and be agile and smart about introducing it safely in their environments over the continuum of change. And that's really across any industry. So it's a really great opportunity. I think Danos and iCAN and others who are currently in the client space are leading the way. And it's going to be an exciting future to see how they continue to grow through it.

Sam 27:16

That's exciting indeed. I guess for companies who are considering a transition from a legacy learning management system to something AI driven like iCAN, what advice do you have for them?

David 27:26

Honestly, stay with what you're comfortable. So if you're if you have, you know, one of the biggest things is LMSs are really kind of becoming obsolete now because everybody's got one. There's a thousand of them out there. And so if you've got one, we're not telling you to switch. All we're doing is telling you you can tie into us to be able to get those industry insights. Now, if

Adoption Advice And Retention Reality

David 27:46

you're using us, there's obviously some things that advantages there. But for the most part, you can still use the the current layout you are. And really what I tell people is this is the greatest time in history to be developing people. Because if you look at you know, workers' index uh on Bureau of Labor and Statistics, that number historically is like three, right? So every every job opening, I got three people to pick from. Well, that number today is at 0.79 and falling. So if there was ever a good time to retain the workforce, develop from within, it's the greatest time in history to be doing it uh because you just don't have qualified people. And so that's where we really fit in is being able to develop those people internally at a cheaper price point that you ever had and and and faster than you ever have before. So I would tell people use whatever is working for you. You can tie into us to give you further industry insights, but be doing something because the the qualified person knocking at your door is not happening anymore. So you have to be developing from within.

Sam 28:47

Absolutely. Mark, anything you would add to that?

Mark 28:50

You know, there was a uh a couple of years back where we we noticed some challenges around retention, as he spoke about. And one of when we surveyed employees as to where are you going, why are you leaving, what's the deal, what are you looking for in your professional life. One of those elements was development. So that's where iCAN really came in clutch for us, where we were able to develop a program. We had all of the elements there, right? But iCAN really was able to put it all together and we were able to create this program where we took employees and started building them from the ground up. And, you know, now other employees are noticing, and and of course we we incentivize them, but the real incentive is them investing in themselves, right? So it's it's really a good thing that these employees can can start from the ground up, they have a learning roadmap that they can follow, they can, you know, clearly see what direction that they're going in, and you know, become a longtime employee for both us and our customer.

Sam 29:49

Really great stuff. Beau, anything? Any final thoughts you'd want to add?

Beau 29:53

I would just add that the world we're living in is accelerating. And you know, for those of us who want to keep up the pace, continuous learning, technology enabled, adaptable, usable, simple solutions, like iCAN that reinforce practices and processes, techniques, disciplines, these are gonna be, these are gonna be the ones that survive. Not all companies

Final Thoughts And Wrap Up

Beau 30:22

are gonna make it through this transition. Those who adapt and adopt these types of solutions uh have the greatest opportunity for not only longevity, but also exponential growth. So just encourage those who are out there that have not considered this path to uh to do so sooner rather than later. And uh just thank everybody who's been a part of developing the solution, testing it, proving it over the years because it's really exciting to see the results, both in the technology and the people and the outcomes that it's delivering.

Sam 30:56

Awesome, good stuff. David, Mark, any other final thoughts?

David 30:59

No, just thanks for having us. Uh I enjoyed doing this mainly to hear like Mark's perspective on how Danos is able to grow and and and live out their purpose through the technology that we're providing. So this has been really great. Thanks for having us.

Mark 31:12

Yeah, and I'll just say, you know, thank you for your support and all that you do for us, you know, when we're trying to um live out our purpose and develop great people. And also just be careful when you start building that robot. Well, we we've had warnings about that.

Sam 31:28

Awesome. Well, Beau, Mark, David, thank you all for joining us today. Appreciate your time and your insight. Very exciting things happening with iCAN, and I can't wait to see what happens in the next couple of years with the company. Thank you again.

David 31:40

Awesome. Thanks.

Mark 31:41

Thanks.

Beau 31:41

It's been a privilege. Thank you .