On the evening of Mar. 27 at LUME Studios in Soho, the company Computer Generated Solutions (CGS) debuted one of its newest products with help from an AI avatar projected onto the wall.
The avatar was there to talk up Cicero, a role-play tool designed to help companies upskill their workforces, with a particular focus on developing “soft skills”. In a slightly stilted tone, a grey-bearded AI-generated man said the avatars were intended to help employees work on everything from conflict resolution to leadership to interviewing.
“You can deploy them globally, in any language, and give your teams a chance to practice vital human skills,” the avatar said.
While Cicero’s most immediate use case seems best suited for sales workers, the employees who built it believe there’s potential for the AI tool to train HR workers as well.
How Cicero works. At demo stations set up throughout the event space, CGS representatives showed potential customers how employers can design custom workplace training with Cicero.
Doug Stephen, president of CGS’s enterprise learning division, posed as a Wegovy salesperson pitching the weight-loss drug to a doctor while onstage. The AI avatar quizzed Stephen on clinical trial results, as well as side effects of Wegovy. After the conversation, Cicero scored his performance using a 10-point scale, with points knocked off for “accuracy” due to some issues with the data he shared.
Downstairs, Paul Hanson, CGS’s VP of enterprise learning, showed a Revlon employee how she could use the role-playing feature to practice selling fragrances to a skeptical customer.
Sales seems to be an obvious use case for Cicero, which helps explain why Colleen Tully, a senior program manager from Medtronic, was in attendance to discuss how the company has been using the tool to train employees on how to talk to surgeons interested in buying its medical devices.
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CGS sees promise for HR pros, as well, though. When one attendee, who identified himself as a member of the HR industry, asked how Cicero could be relevant to his job, Hanson suggested it could be used to train HR on “difficult discussions” with employees, referencing job cuts as an example. “How do you practice, laying off thousands…and have some empathy about it?” Cicero gives HR “a place to practice,” he added.
In an interview with HR Brew, Stephen conceded that AI avatars can’t fully replicate the experience of having these conversations with real human beings. But he said that he believes the technology offers a fast and cost-effective option for employers who don’t want to take their colleagues away from other work to lead role-play training. Stephen also mentioned that Cicero has experimented with a “coach” feature to help one client build a go-to resource for employees to consult with common HR questions, such as the number of vacation days left in their bank.
Practice, practice, practice. One thing companies like CGS seem to have tapped into are difficult conversations that take practice, which some employees would rather have in front of an AI avatar than a real-life colleague.
“Does anybody like real role-play?” Hanson quipped at the CGS event.
It seems that other firms have caught on to a similar phenomenon, with startups like Attensi, Second Nature, and Inworld offering AI role-play training products as well.
One leadership development company, Tenor, debuted a product last year that uses AI to train managers to have conversations with their direct reports about topics such as performance issues, compensation decisions, and layoffs. “We know practice works for any kind of learning, and people haven't been practicing these conversations,” cofounder Charlie Stigler told HR Brew at the time.