Major AI Assistant Workflow Friction in Rise 360: Impact on Recent Updates

Hi E-Learning Heroes Community & Articulate Team,

I am sharing feedback regarding the recent updates to the AI Assistant features in Rise 360. Even as a certified user, these recent changes to the interface and functionality have introduced major friction into my authoring workflow and are severely slowing down production:

• Top AI Menu Toolbar Restrictions: The main AI toolbar button at the top is now only Update text across your course or for specific lessons or blocks. Previously, this button opened a comprehensive drop-down list featuring all available AI actions in one central location. Now, that list is gone, and those options have been scattered throughout different areas of Rise. Instead of having a single, efficient menu, I now have to hunt through the entire interface just to find tools that used to be readily accessible in one place.
• Block Background Image Swapping Glitches: Swapping out the default mountain background visual on blocks has become frustratingly unreliable. It often takes multiple attempts, rather than a single attempt like prior, to replace the generic mountain photo with a custom image when setting up background visuals for block components. 
• Reduction in Generated Image Variations: The AI image generation tool now yields only a single image option per attempt, down from the four distinct variations we used to receive. Storyline still provides four generated image options to choose from, but Rise 360 now yields only a single image option per attempt. This reduction requires repeatedly generating images from scratch, making the search for appropriate visuals far more time-consuming. Getting four options previously allowed us to quickly compare compositions and select the best fit.
• Loss of Image Prompt History: The system no longer saves, displays, or retains the AI prompt used to generate an image. Previously, we could easily open an existing generated image, view the exact prompt, and copy/paste it to adapt for subsequent images. Articulate needs to add prompt history retention to Rise and Storyline for images so we can iterate on past prompts and keep generated images aligned with the same brand/theme family across a course.

These changes are directly impacting authoring speed, visual brand consistency, and daily productivity.

Has anyone else encountered these friction points or found effective workarounds?

I strongly urge the product team to consider restoring prompt history retention, four-option image generation, and the centralized drop-down menu for AI toolbar controls.