Recognized among NVIDIA, Snowflake, Intuit, and Okta, Yoodli’s AI-powered experiential learning platform is redefining how enterprise teams build readiness for high-stakes conversations.
Yoodli has been named the Cognitive Communications Solution of the Year by the 2026 AI Breakthrough Awards, one of the most established and competitive AI recognition programs running today.
About the AI Breakthrough Awards
Now in its eighth year, the AI Breakthrough Awards program received more than 5,000 nominations from organizations across 20+ countries in 2026, with winners spanning every major category of AI innovation, from machine learning and generative AI to enterprise automation and data intelligence. This year’s honorees include NVIDIA, Snowflake, Intuit, Okta, and Superhuman, among others, which makes the recognition meaningful in a way that goes beyond the trophy itself.
Why cognitive communications is its own category
Communication is one of the most human skills there is, and it’s also one of the hardest to develop consistently across an enterprise. Most organizational learning programs are built around the wrong question; they measure whether someone completed a course, attended a workshop, or watched a video, but they can’t tell you whether that person can handle the conversation when something real is on the line.
That’s exactly what this recognition reflects, and why Yoodli was built to do something different.
Our AI-powered experiential learning platform gives teams a private, judgment-free space to work through the Learn → Practice → Do loop, rehearsing real conversations, receiving immediate and consistent feedback, and building the kind of readiness that shows up in performance. Whether the moment is a high-stakes sales call, an executive presentation, a difficult customer conversation, or a leadership interaction that sets the tone for a team, Yoodli makes realistic, personalized practice available to every person in an organization, at a scale no human coaching program can match.
Being recognized specifically for cognitive communications reflects something we’ve believed since the beginning: there’s a meaningful difference between AI that processes language and AI that genuinely helps people communicate better, and that difference shows up in outcomes.
Those aren’t completion metrics, they’re performance outcomes, and that distinction is exactly what this award is about.
The platform behind the award
Learners don’t consume content and hope it translates. They apply it immediately in realistic AI roleplays, receive actionable coaching on delivery, clarity, and effectiveness, and keep practicing until the skill is genuinely there. Administrators maintain full control over personas, rubrics, scenarios, and coaching standards so that practice reflects how their organization actually works, not a generic template. Leaders get dashboards that show who is ready, where gaps exist, and where coaching time will have the most impact. And because the platform is built to scale horizontally across sales, enablement, L&D, leadership development, and partner training, organizations don’t need to add new tools as they grow, they expand the loop.
That’s what enterprise-grade cognitive communications looks like in practice, and it’s what earned this recognition.
What’s next
Our team continues to push the boundaries of what AI-powered experiential learning can do for enterprise organizations, and this award reinforces that the category we’re building is real, the outcomes are measurable, and the demand from teams who want to close the gap between training and performance is only growing.
To our customers, our partners, and everyone on the Yoodli team who makes this possible: thank you. This one is for you.
Yoodli is a secure, AI-powered experiential learning platform that helps enterprise teams learn, practice, and perform in high-stakes conversations. Learn more atyoodli.ai.
TL;DR: Ochsner Health partnered with Yoodli to give entry- and mid-level leaders a private, repeatable way to practice the conversations that are hardest to get right: addressing performance, developing careers, and restoring trust. Through a structured leadership development experience, leaders completed AI roleplay scenarios and demonstrated improvement across custom goals. The result: leaders who feel more prepared, a development team with objective data to act on, and a scalable model for strengthening leadership capability across a complex, distributed health system.
Background
Ochsner Health is a leading healthcare system across the Gulf South, focused on delivering high-quality, reliable care to the patients and communities they serve. Their leadership development team partners with stakeholders across the system to strengthen leader effectiveness, particularly in areas that directly impact patient access, quality and safety, and employee and patient experience.
The Challenge Before Yoodli
Leaders at Ochsner regularly faced high-stakes conversations that shaped team performance, employee engagement, and ultimately patient care. Three conversation types stood out as both common and consistently challenging: addressing declining performance, conducting career development discussions, and restoring trust after it has been strained or broken.
While leaders were introduced to frameworks and best practices, opportunities for meaningful, repeatable skill practice were limited. In a healthcare system as large and complex as Ochsner, it was difficult to implement conversation practice that is both consistent across the organization and scalable for large numbers of leaders.
There were also significant gaps in feedback. Leaders were frequently focused on providing feedback to their teams, but fewer mechanisms existed to give leaders targeted, objective feedback on their own communication skills.
The team at Ochsner knew that when leaders are underprepared or avoid these conversations, the cost is felt by their teams and ultimately by patients. Underdeveloped conversation skills can negatively impact the employee experience, individual performance, and a person’s decision to stay with a team or the organization.
The Solution
Ochsner’s leadership development team partnered with Yoodli to design a structured, practice-based AI roleplay experience for entry- to mid-level leaders. The program was built around three core conversation types: performance, career development, and trust restoration, with Yoodli’s platform fully customized to reflect Ochsner’s organizational context, language, and leadership standards.
Why Yoodli
Ochsner selected Yoodli for its combination of realistic, customizable roleplay, robust analytics, and ability to scale across a large, geographically distributed system. The platform allows Ochsner to reach leaders across different regions and audiences that the central team cannot visit regularly, while still delivering consistent, high-quality practice.
Implementation and how Yoodli was used:
Program Design
The leadership development team, in partnership with senior leadership, identified a need for entry to mid-level leaders to have a structured way of practicing and improving how they approached critical conversations. Participating leaders represented a range of roles and experience levels, most managing teams and responsible for navigating complex interpersonal situations.
Each leader worked through roleplay scenarios spanning the three conversation types. The Ochsner team and their subject matter experts built out a set of custom goals, each with its own scoring criteria and coaching language, in order to make feedback feel specific and relevant rather than generic. To keep practice realistic, Yoodli featured three distinct AI personas (enthusiastic, blunt, and skeptical), giving leaders a chance to navigate the kinds of personalities they would actually encounter.
Leaders had a defined practice period with flexibility in how they engaged, as this was designed to fit into a busy day while still driving progress. There were no grades on a first try, no manager watching over their shoulder, just a low-stakes space to try, stumble, and get better.
Leaders completed roleplay scenarios across three conversation types
Twelve custom goals were designed in partnership with subject matter experts, customized with user-facing descriptions, scoring criteria, and analytical explanations
Three distinct AI personas, enthusiastic, blunt, and skeptical, gave leaders experience navigating a range of personality types
Practice was self-paced, judgment-free, and repeatable, allowing leaders to build confidence over time
THE RESULTS
The data told a clear story: practice worked. Rather than improving in just one area, leaders strengthened goals across core dimensions of effective leadership communication:
Driving Ownership and Accountability
Goals such as empowering ownership, clarifying expectations, clarity on growth goals, and practicing accountability saw some of the largest gains overall. These behaviors are critical for setting direction, reinforcing standards, and ensuring team members take responsibility for outcomes.
Building Trust and Psychological Safety
Leaders also improved in confronting reality, talking truthfully, extending trust, creating transparency, fostering psychological safety, and keeping commitments. These are essential for fostering open dialogue and strong team relationships, particularly in high-stakes environments.
Shared Understanding and Alignment
Goals such as perspective-taking and working toward shared solutions showed improvement, reflecting stronger confidence in addressing challenges directly while maintaining alignment and respect.
Several key patterns stood out in the data:
The three goals with the largest improvement—empowering ownership, extending trust, and clarifying expectations—were also among the lowest starting scores, suggesting that targeted practice helped address the areas of greatest initial need.
Leaders demonstrated progress across both relational and execution-focused skills, reinforcing that effective leadership communication requires both.
WHAT LEADERS SAID
The numbers provided by Yoodli analytics reflect improvement on paper, however what leaders described as the biggest shift was in how they were showing up for their teams after their training. They talked about getting better at stepping back instead of jumping in with answers, creating space for team members to take ownership, recognizing patterns in how they asked questions and listening more carefully to the responses, and setting clearer expectations from the start of a conversation rather than trying to course-correct later. Senior leadership has also seen the impact of this work:
“Yoodli provided our leaders with a valuable opportunity to practice engaging in courageous conversations in a private, low-risk setting. The platform delivered immediate, actionable feedback—particularly around tone and word choice—while incorporating a variety of scenarios and personality types. As a result, we have seen a meaningful improvement in both the quality of these discussions and in leaders’ confidence to thoughtfully engage and remain present in challenging conversations.”
— Stephanie Wells, System Vice President-Revenue Cycle, Ochsner Health
THE IMPACT ON OCHSNER’S BUSINESS NEEDS
These leadership conversations directly impact patient access, quality and safety, and employee and patient experience. Patient access depends on leaders who can set clear expectations, address performance gaps early, and empower team members to take ownership of throughput, scheduling, and handoffs. Practicing these conversations helps leaders surface barriers faster and reduce avoidable friction in patient care. Quality and safety are strengthened when leaders consistently create psychological safety and talk truthfully. Leaders who are practiced in confronting reality without blame are more likely to hear about risks and concerns before they escalate. Skills such as clarifying expectations, extending trust, and holding people accountable are the same skills required in highly complex care environments. Employee and patient experience hinge on daily leadership interactions. When leaders listen more carefully, resist jumping straight to solutions, and involve team members in problem-solving, employees experience greater respect, clarity, and ownership. That experience is inseparable from the experience patients ultimately receive.
This kind of practice is especially powerful because it happens before the real consequences are at stake. By rehearsing critical conversations, leaders build muscle memory they can draw on when the pressure is real. Instead of learning through mistakes that affect people and patients, leaders arrive more prepared, intentional, and consistent. AI-enabled practice helps reduce risk and strengthen performance readiness. It strengthens the human interactions for Ochsner team members to deliver safe, timely, high-quality care at scale.
WHAT’S NOW POSSIBLE
For Ochsner’s leadership development team, the most valuable output wasn’t just better-prepared leaders, but also visibility. They had objective, scenario-based data on how their leaders communicate, not filtered through a manager’s perception or a self-assessment, but captured through structured practice in controlled conditions.
That kind of data changed what’s possible for learning and development. The team can now see which skills need more investment, which leaders are ready and which need more support, and where to focus development resources across a large, distributed system. It’s the difference between designing programs based on intuition and designing them based on evidence.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR OCHSNER
The results from this initial experience gave Ochsner’s leadership development team enough confidence to expand. What began as a focused pilot cohort has grown into a broader rollout in Yoodli across the organization, reaching more leaders, more functions, and more conversation types.
The team is now focused on connecting practice to performance, examining whether the gains leaders showed in Yoodli translate to observable changes in how they lead their teams day to day. That includes direct-report feedback, on-the-job behavior, and longer-term retention and engagement outcomes.
The ambition is bigger than a single program. Ochsner sees AI-enabled practice as a core part of how they develop leaders at scale, and this work has served as an important foundation.
ADVICE FOR OTHER HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
The Ochsner team offered three pieces of advice they’d tell any organization considering this kind of program:
Bring your subject matter experts in early. The scenarios and goals only feel real if they reflect the actual language, context, and challenges of your organization. Don’t leave that customization to chance.
Build your governance structure before you launch. Think through who owns the admin, how programs are organized, and how you’ll use the data coming out of the tool. It’s much easier to set up the right structure at the start than to untangle it later.
Stay curious about what else is possible. Ochsner started with a focused exploration of the tool. The use cases have already expanded, and they’re just getting started.
Want to learn how Yoodli can support training and leadership development at your organization? Contact our team.
Case Study | Education & Language Learning | AI Tutor
TL;DR
Accepted Egypt, an intensive English language training program based in Cairo, partnered with Yoodli after evaluating multiple AI tools over more than a year. Yoodli was the only platform that delivered genuine two-way conversational AI, custom rubric-based scoring, and behavior-controlled AI personas, without requiring extensive prompting or technical expertise.
In 6 months: 75+ learners enrolled, 613+ hours of AI practice completed, 9.3k roleplay practices across ~260 lessons, 76% of learners improved by 20+ points on English speaking skills, and 47% graduates secured employment in Egypt’s Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, with salary increases from 10,000 EGP to 22,000 EGP per month (2.2x).
Background
Accepted Egypt is an intensive English language training program that helps Arabic-speaking adults in Cairo enhance their English communication skills to qualify for higher-paying employment, particularly in Egypt’s rapidly growing BPO sector and call center industry.
The program takes learners from beginner (A1) to job-ready (B1+) proficiency within 60 to 90 days through a combination of daily instructor-led sessions and high-volume guided AI practice tasks.
Founded by Mohamed Farahat, a former Teleperformance Egypt quality analyst and recruiter, Accepted Egypt was built on a single insight: Egypt’s skilled labor market faces a structural gap. Global companies are relocating operations to Egypt driven by cost advantages (1 USD = 50 EGP), but consistently struggle to find workers with the English proficiency required for client-facing roles. Accepted Egypt bridges that gap, combining structured language instruction with AI-powered practice at scale.
Challenge
Before Yoodli, Accepted Egypt spent more than a year evaluating and using alternative AI practice platforms. Other tools missed the mark in these critical areas:
No Custom Content Upload
Most platforms come with pre-built content libraries that cannot be modified. This forced a painful choice: either adapt the institution’s curriculum to match the vendor’s content, or accept that students would practice tasks completely unrelated to what they learned in class. A student trained on describing personal memories in an Egyptian context would go home to practice tasks about topics like ‘Day of the Dead’, a culturally disconnected experience that undermined learning transfer and student motivation.
No Genuine Two-Way Conversation
The majority of tools operate on a ‘press a button, say a sentence’ model. Students repeat phrases or respond to static prompts. There is no back-and-forth, no follow-up question, no conversational pressure, no simulation of a real interaction. This is fundamentally different from what a BPO job requires, where an agent must listen, process, and respond dynamically in real time.
No AI Behavior Control
Some tools offer a form of conversational AI, but with no backend control over how the AI behaves. Building a realistic scenario required 30 to 45 minutes of detailed prompting, and even then the results were inconsistent and unpredictable.
Credit Exhaustion Kills Practice
Platforms simply stopped responding when credits ran out, mid-session, without warning. For a program that requires students to complete four practice tasks per day, five days per week, this kind of interruption is operationally unacceptable.
The Solution
After more than a year of evaluation, Yoodli was selected as the only platform that met all of Accepted Egypt’s core requirements simultaneously:
Genuine Two-Way Conversational AI English Training
Yoodli enables real-time, spoken back-and-forth dialogue. The AI does not just wait for a student to finish speaking, it engages, challenges, asks follow-up questions, and responds to what the student actually says. This mirrors the conversational demands of a real BPO role in a way no other evaluated tool could replicate.
Custom Content: Built Around Our Curriculum
Yoodli allows institutions to build practice scenarios from scratch using their own content. At Accepted Egypt, every AI practice task is built directly from the lesson taught that day: same vocabulary, same functional language, same context. Students practice exactly what they learned. This closes the gap between instruction and practice that undermined every other tool we tried.
AI Behavior That Works Without Extensive Prompting
Yoodli’s backend AI behavior system is the most significant differentiator. A prompt that would take 30 to 45 minutes to build on another platform takes 5 to 10 minutes on Yoodli, and produces better results. The AI understands context. If the scenario requires a frustrated customer who gradually calms down when handled professionally, Yoodli delivers that naturally. It does not need to be told every single thing, as long as the situation is set up correctly, the AI does the job.
Yoodli also provides a measure of prompt quality, indicating whether a prompt is likely to produce a strong, medium, or weak AI interaction. This feedback loop helped our instructors improve their content creation skills over time, without requiring any technical background in AI or prompt engineering.
Multiple Personas: Variety at Scale
Yoodli supports multiple AI personas within a single program. Students at Accepted Egypt are exposed to different conversational styles, accents, interaction patterns, and character types. From patient tutors to assertive interviewers to demanding customers. This variety prevents adaptation to a single AI voice and builds genuine conversational flexibility.
Custom Rubric-Based Scoring Across Five Dimensions
Every practice session at Accepted Egypt is scored across 5 speaking dimensions:
Fluency: smoothness and natural flow of speech
Grammar: accuracy of sentence structure
Pronunciation: clarity and intelligibility
Natural English: use of idiomatic, contextually appropriate language
Tonality: appropriate register, warmth, and professionalism
These rubrics are custom-built for each proficiency level (A1 through B1+), and become progressively more demanding as students advance. A score of 4/5 at A2 requires a higher standard of performance at B1, ensuring students are continuously challenged, not just repeating the same level of effort.
Results of AI English Training
Across 6 months of deployment, the Yoodli-powered program at Accepted Egypt delivered measurable outcomes across four dimensions:
Beyond the quantitative results, Accepted Egypt’s experience highlights several qualitative outcomes that speak to the AI Tutor‘s differentiated value:
Competitive tool replacement: After more than a year with previous solutions and evaluations of multiple alternatives, Yoodli was the only tool that met Accepted Egypt’s requirements for two-way conversational AI, custom rubric scoring, and scalable guided practice
Behavioral AI quality: Yoodli that the system “is smart enough so I don’t have to tell it every single thing, as long as I set up the situation, the AI does the job.” Compared to other services where prompting an angry customer persona required extensive effort and produced unrealistic extremes, Yoodli’s AI produced natural, context-appropriate responses with minimal prompting.
User-friendly design: Teachers with no AI or prompting background can create and manage practice scenarios, lowering the barrier to scaling the program beyond Mohamed’s direct involvement.
WHAT’S NEXT
Q2 2026: Scaling to 400+ Learners
Accepted Egypt is launching a major Q2 initiative targeting 400+ learners, partnering with educational influencers across Egypt to reach new audiences. Yoodli’s AI Tutor will serve as the core practice engine for this expanded cohort. The first institutional-scale AI English training deployment of its kind in Egypt.
AI Tutor-Led Instruction
Accepted Egypt is actively testing Yoodli’s screen sharing and PowerPoint integration to explore delivering full structured lessons, not just practice tasks, through the AI Tutor. If successful, this shifts the business model from instructor-dependent delivery to AI-led tutoring at scale. This allows the program to serve significantly more learners without proportional instructor overhead.
Beyond English: Finance, Management, and Professional Skills
The architecture Accepted Egypt has built on Yoodli, custom rubrics, progressive difficulty, persona-based practice, is not limited to language learning. Future programs will use the same framework to tutor learners on finance for non-financial professionals, people management, and business communication skills. Yoodli’s AI is smart enough to operate across domains as long as the situation is set up correctly, and Accepted Egypt intends to prove that at scale.
University Partnerships
Accepted Egypt is in early discussions with Egyptian universities to integrate Yoodli into their learning cycles, bringing AI-powered speaking practice to thousands of students who currently have no access to structured conversational English training.
The Middle East Opportunity
Egypt is not an isolated case. Across the Middle East and North Africa, the same structural gap exists: a growing demand for English-proficient workers in BPO, technology, and professional services, and a workforce that lacks the conversational practice infrastructure to meet that demand. The economic incentive is significant: in Egypt alone, the difference between a non-English-proficient worker and a B1-level English speaker is a salary increase of more than 100%.
Accepted Egypt represents proof that Yoodli can operate at institutional scale in this market, with measurable outcomes, high engagement, and real employment results. The opportunity to expand this model across the region is significant, and Accepted Egypt is positioned to be Yoodli’s regional implementation partner as that expansion unfolds.
ABOUT ACCEPTED EGYPT
Accepted Egypt is an intensive English language training program based in Cairo that helps Arabic-speaking adults enhance their English proficiency within 60 to 90 days to qualify for higher-paying employment in Egypt’s growing BPO and technology sectors. The program combines daily instructor-led sessions with AI-powered guided practice to deliver rapid fluency gains at scale.
ABOUT YOODLI
Yoodli is a secure, experiential learning platform that uses AI roleplays to help individuals and teams practice real-world conversations, presentations, and professional interactions. With AI Tutor, AI Roleplays, and continuous coaching, Yoodli closes the loop between learning, practice, and real-world performance. The Seattle-based company is trusted by Fortune 100 companies, leading training providers, and educational institutions to deliver scalable, judgment-free coaching across sales, leadership, customer success, and language learning. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
Perth, July 2025 — SpeakerLab, founded by renowned public speaking specialist Shil Shanghavi, and Yoodli, the AI-powered communication coaching platform, are excited to announce a partnership that will transform how individuals and organizations build communication, public speaking and storytelling confidence. This collaboration brings Yoodli’s cutting-edge AI roleplay technology to SpeakerLab’s clients, enabling them to practice high-stakes communication in a private, judgment-free, and data-driven environment.
“Every time we speak, we have the opportunity to tell a story – and with it, the chance to earn trust.”
– Shil Shanghavi
Empowering Confident Communication Through AI Coaching
SpeakerLab, led by former TEDx Head Speaker Coach, and public speaking specialist Shil Shanghavi, is known worldwide for supporting his clients craft impactful narratives and deliver them with authenticity. Now, with SpeakerLab, clients can continue their development between live sessions—practicing in real time with immediate, personalized feedback and guidance.
Through the integration with Yoodli, SpeakerLab clients will gain access to:
Realistic Roleplays: Simulate presentations, interviews, elevator pitches, networking moments, and more.
Private, Real-Time Feedback: Improve delivery across filler words, pacing, body language, clarity, eye contact, and vocal variety—anytime, anywhere.
Daily AI-Powered Practice: Reinforce speaking skills through structured, gamified learning and measurable routines.
Progress Tracking: Visualize growth over time and identify key improvement areas through personalized analytics.
Exclusive Video Content from Shil: Clients receive access to a curated library of videos where Shil shares strategies on presentation skills, gaining confidence, managing different audiences, and storytelling—with personalized feedback built into the platform.
A New Chapter in Scalable Communication Coaching
This partnership empowers SpeakerLab to scale its high-touch, strategic coaching approach—giving clients 24/7 access to impactful learning tools that prepare them for public speaking, meetings, interviews, and media appearances. Whether you’re an executive preparing for a keynote or a student tackling class presentations, SpeakerLab and Yoodli are supporting users to transform nerves into authentic presence and the readiness to perform.
About SpeakerLab
SpeakerLab’s mission is to empower individuals from all industries, roles, and demographics to become confident, compelling communicators. From educators and professionals to executives and students, SpeakerLab offers expert coaching and an AI-powered platform to enhance every aspect of speaking. Through immersive roleplays, exclusive video insights, and detailed analytics on fluency, conciseness, and filler words, SpeakerLab transforms anxiety into performance-ready communication. Learn more at shilshanghavi.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is an AI-powered roleplay simulator that enables professionals and go-to-market teams to develop communication skills through private, real-time, and judgment-free coaching. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies, Yoodli supports training in sales, leadership, presentations, customer engagement, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
Ovation Communication, a women-owned firm specializing in public speaking and communication skills coaching, and Yoodli, an AI roleplay platform, are excited to announce the launch of Bravo 2.0, an innovative AI-driven engine designed to revolutionize how Ovation Communication delivers and gauges communication skills development.
Bridging Human Expertise with AI-Powered Reinforcement
Bravo 2.0, powered by Yoodli, will serve as a scalable, on-demand coaching companion to Ovation’s signature workshops and cohort programs. Now, with Bravo, professionals can prepare for critical events such as executive briefings, conference keynotes, and major summits, as well as stay accountable in progressive coaching programs, and continue developing their skills after live training, all through private, AI-assisted practice and feedback. By offering immersive, on-demand roleplays and data-driven insights, Bravo ensures skills aren’t just taught, they’re tracked, practiced, and honed with objective feedback every step of the way.
With Bravo, Ovation is reimagining what happens outside of the classroom. From group coaching programs to everyday leadership moments, Ovation leverages Yoodli to scale expert guidance while retaining its hallmark personalized touch.
A Smarter Way to Prepare and Perform
By integrating Yoodli into its programming, Ovation empowers professionals to:
Prepare for High-Stakes Moments: Rehearse for summits, board meetings, and external presentations with AI + human support to increase confidence and readiness.
Practice Critical Conversations:Practice introductions, pitches, and leadership updates, in a private environment that mimics real-world dynamics.
Craft and Deliver Clear, Compelling Messages: Use AI to refine storytelling and ensure messages land with clarity and impact.
Gain Objective Feedback Between Sessions: Track progress with data-backed insights into filler words, pacing, and word choice.
Scale Human Expertise: Extend Ovation’s personalized coaching with measurable, repeatable skill-building.
Executive Perspectives
“At Ovation, we help people show up as their best selves—whether on stage, in the boardroom, or leading a team,” said Kerri Garbis, CEO of Ovation Communication. “Bravo lets us scale that mission, giving learners tools for personal, practical, and ongoing improvement.”
“From speaker prep to leadership communication, Ovation’s work is vital and transformative,” said Varun Puri, CEO of Yoodli. “We’re honored to partner with a mission-aligned organization that is using Yoodli to bring continuous coaching to life for its clients.”
About Ovation Communication
Ovation Communication helps professionals build presence, deliver with confidence, and connect with audiences both in person and virtually. As a women-owned company, Ovation has trained leaders and teams across industries to master authentic communication and high-stakes moments. Learn more at getovation.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is an AI-powered roleplay simulator that enables professionals and go-to-market teams to develop communication skills through private, real-time, and judgment-free coaching. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies, Yoodli supports training in sales, leadership, presentations, customer engagement, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
Advantexe, a global leader in business simulation-based learning and Yoodli, an AI-powered roleplay platform, are excited to announce the launch of Praction(R) AI powered by Yoodli, designed to enhance Advantexe’s experiential learning journeys. This collaboration combines Advantexe’s award-winning business simulations with Yoodli’s cutting-edge generative AI technology, transforming how leaders and professionals develop, practice, and master critical business acumen, business leadership, and strategic business selling skills.
A New Standard for Assessment and Experiential Learning
For more than two decades, Advantexe has helped organizations build the business acumen, leadership, and strategic selling capabilities needed for success through engaging, simulation-based learning programs. With Praction AI powered by Yoodli, Advantexe is expanding its impact by embedding AI-powered immersive exercises into its experiential learning solutions suite. Learners now have a scalable, on-demand way to practice high-stakes conversations and reinforce new behaviors beyond the classroom.
With Praction AI, leaders and professionals will be able to:
Simulate Critical Business Conversations: Practice sales calls, customer negotiations, and leadership communications in a private, AI-driven environment
Receive Real-Time, Personalized Feedback: Gain immediate, judgment-free insights on clarity, tone, confidence, and communication effectiveness
Reinforce Learning On Demand: Access continuous practice opportunities that complement Advantexe’s simulations, ensuring that key concepts and skills translate into long-term behavior change
Scale Development Across Teams and Functions: Provide talent and learning leaders with tools to monitor trends, surface coaching opportunities, and extend the impact of experiential learning across the enterprise
The Enterprise View
At Advantexe, we believe experiential learning drives meaningful business results. With Praction AI powered by Yoodli, we are adding a powerful new dimension to our simulation learning journeys, giving learners the ability to assess, practice, and refine the skills that bring business strategies to life.
— Robert Brodo, CEO at Advantex
We are thrilled to partner with Advantexe to launch Praction AI. Together, we are equipping professionals with targeted, AI-powered solutions that helps them confidently apply what they have learned and lead with greater impact in the real world.
— Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli
About Advantexe
Advantexe is a global leader in business simulation-based learning, helping organizations build business acumen, strategic leadership, and selling excellence through experiential training solutions. With a proven track record across industries, Advantexe empowers learners to translate concepts into action and drive measurable business outcomes. Learn more at advantexe.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is a generative AI roleplay and communication coaching platform that offers private, real-time, judgment-free practice opportunities for sales, leadership, and go-to-market teams. Trusted by Fortune 100 companies like Google, Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant platform is used to master sales certifications, product messaging, objection handling, leadership conversations, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
Advantexe and Yoodli share a vision for empowering professionals to turn learning into consistent, high-impact execution through continuous, AI-powered practice and reinforcement.
NxtGEN Executive Presence, a global leader in executive presence coaching with over 20 years of experience, has partnered with Yoodli AI since 2022, using its AI-powered communication platform to enhance leadership development. This partnership has transformed NxtGEN’s leadership development programs, benefiting elite clients such as Vodafone, Microsoft and Virgin Media by offering personalized communication coaching to sharpen leadership and presentation skills.
A Transformative Partnership
Through this collaboration, NxtGEN’s leadership programs now feature:
Human and AI Coaching seamlessly integrated with NxtGEN’s methodologies
Performance Analytics providing comprehensive insights into communication skills
Custom Roleplays with targeted practice questions for real-life leadership challenges
Simulated Audience Feedback with varied audience reactions
NxtGEN’s integration of Yoodli’s AI platform enables professionals to engage in personalized communication roleplays, including high-stakes presentations, leading meetings, and managing difficult interpersonal dynamics. Yoodli’s platform will offer real-time feedback on key aspects like tone, pacing, and delivery, helping leaders refine their skills and amplify their impact.
A Commitment to Leadership Excellence
Our clients have experienced transformative growth by incorporating Yoodli into their development,” said Paul A. Slattery, CEO of NxtGEN. This partnership has enabled leaders to enhance their communication, build confidence and lead with authenticity.
We’re excited to collaborate with NxtGEN, whose leadership programs have a profound impact on professionals across industries,” said Esha Joshi, Co-Founder of and Head of Customer Success at Yoodli. By combining our AI-driven coaching platform with NxtGEN’s proven leadership expertise, we’re empowering executives to elevate their communication and executive presence, driving meaningful success for themselves and their organizations.
Elevating Executive Presence and Leadership Development
Since adopting Yoodli AI, NxtGEN has continuously elevated executive presence and communication strategies for clients. This partnership reflects a mutual commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions for leaders in today’s fast-paced business world.
About NxtGEN
Based in Ireland, NxtGEN specializes in executive presence coaching and leadership development. With over 20 years of experience, they offer tailored programs that empower professionals to refine their leadership skills and build executive presence. NxtGEN’s approach focuses on developing authentic leadership qualities, helping individuals thrive in dynamic business environments. Visit www.NxtGEN.ie for more information.
About Yoodli
Based in Seattle, Yoodli uses AI to help individuals improve their communication skills. Whether preparing for meetings, presentations, or interviews, users receive real-time feedback on their content, clarity, executive presence, and pacing. Yoodli is trusted by learning and development professionals, coaches, and organizations aiming to enhance leadership communication. The platform empowers individuals to refine their speaking abilities, fostering confidence and impact. Visit www.yoodli.ai for more information.
MindGym, a global leader in behavior change solutions, and Yoodli, an AI-powered roleplay and communication coaching platform, are excited to announce the launch of Lio, an innovative AI-driven performance conversation coach. This collaboration combines Yoodli’s cutting-edge GenAI technology with MindGym’s proven expertise in behavior change to transform how leaders and managers develop and refine critical workplace communication skills.
A New Standard for Leadership and Communication Coaching
For over 20 years, MindGym has partnered with the world’s leading organizations to improve performance through behavior change. Now, with Lio, powered by Yoodli, leaders can bridge the gap between learning and action by honing the skills they’ve developed in MindGym programs and practicing essential workplace conversations in a private, intuitive environment.
Lio empowers talent teams to guarantee a better return on investment, ensuring the learning from leadership and manager development programs will stick. Users will be able to:
Master Performance Conversations: Lio’s real-time feedback helps managers improve their ability to navigate challenging conversations, deliver feedback effectively, and foster stronger team relationships.
Practice What They’ve Learned: Lio reinforces the critical skills leaders develop through MindGym programs, including managing difficult conversations, delivering constructive feedback, holding others accountable, and conducting effective performance coaching.
Build Communication Confidence: Leaders can practice conversations in a safe, judgment-free space, receiving actionable insights to improve clarity, tone, and presence.
Deliver Measurable Results: Lio provides detailed feedback on individual progress, enabling organizations to connect leadership development directly to performance outcomes.
Scale Development Efforts: Available on demand, Lio enables organizations to extend high-quality coaching across teams, supporting leadership development at scale.
At Yoodli, we’re committed to making expert communication coaching accessible and actionable for everyone,” said Varun Puri, CEO at Yoodli. “Lio, powered by Yoodli, combines our advanced AI technology with MindGym’s world-class behavior change expertise, giving leaders the tools they need to excel in today’s dynamic workplace.
We’re incredibly excited to introduce Lio and our partnership with Yoodli. The combination of MindGym’s science-based performance management solutions and Yoodli’s AI speech coaching technology has the potential to be transformative to performance and productivity across organizations,” said Christoffer Ellehuus,CEOat MindGym. “We know from our research that 40% of learning and development programs fail due to an inadequate focus on activating what you learn. With Lio we can now significantly reduce that risk by providing a safe space for leaders and managers to practice and refine their performance management and coaching skills.
About MindGym
MindGym is a global leader in behavior change, partnering with over 60% of the FTSE 100 and S&P 100 companies to transform business performance by changing the way people think, feel, and behave. MindGym’s science-based solutions empower organizations to tackle their most pressing challenges, from leadership development to cultural transformation. Learn more at themindgym.com.
About Yoodli
Yoodli is a generative AI roleplay and communication coaching platform that provides private, real-time, and judgment-free practice opportunities for professionals and GTM teams. Yoodli’s SOC2 Type 2 and GDPR-compliant technology is trusted by Fortune 100 companies like Google for enhancing sales certifications, objection handling, leadership development, and more. Learn more at yoodli.ai.
MindGym and Yoodli share a vision for enabling leaders to foster better workplaces through impactful conversations. With Lio, this partnership delivers an innovative solution to a critical business need, empowering leaders to drive meaningful change within their organizations.
SNP Communications, a trusted partner to industry-leading companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb, SAP, Salesforce, and Spotify, and Yoodli, an AI-powered communication coaching platform, are excited to announce a strategic partnership.
This collaboration brings together SNP’s decades of expertise in leadership communication coaching and Yoodli’s cutting-edge AI technology, offering leaders real-time, personalized feedback to elevate their storytelling, executive presence, and overall communication impact.
SNP Communications has a proven history of supporting leaders at some of the world’s most innovative organizations in achieving their goals. Their unique approach to communication training focuses on helping leaders connect authentically and inspire their teams to action.
Through this partnership, Yoodli’s AI platform will seamlessly integrate into SNP’s coaching programs. Leaders will now have access to a safe, judgment-free environment to practice their communication skills. Yoodli’s instant analysis and tailored recommendations will help SNP clients refine their public speaking, conversational clarity, and ability to command attention in high-stakes moments.
Partnering with world-class organizations requires world-class communication. With Yoodli’s AI, we’re enhancing our ability to help leaders amplify their voices and make meaningful connections. said Danny Schultz, VP of Training and Coaching at SNP Communications.
At Yoodli, we’re passionate about transforming how people communicate. Collaborating with SNP Communications, a company trusted by global leaders, aligns perfectly with our mission to help individuals unlock their full potential, said Varun Puri, Yoodli CEO and Founder.
This partnership blends SNP’s leadership coaching expertise with Yoodli’s AI-driven insights to address the communication challenges faced by leaders in today’s fast-paced, ever-evolving business landscape.
About SNP Communications SNP Communications has worked with some of the world’s most iconic companies. With a focus on authentic storytelling and leadership communication, SNP equips leaders and teams with the tools to connect, inspire, and lead with purpose. For more information on SNP Communications, visit their website here.
About Yoodli Yoodli, a Seattle-based company, helps individuals improve their communication skills using AI. Users can get in-the-moment coaching during online meetings, or they can practice for an upcoming speech, conversation, or interview with AI. Yoodli will then generate feedback on their content, conciseness, and speaking attributes such as executive presence, reliance on filler words, and pacing. Yoodli has been rolled out in over 150 countries by Toastmasters International, leading business schools, and hundreds of thousands of leaders globally. For more information, visit Yoodli’s website.
The Kirkpatrick model is one of the most popular, globally recognized evaluation models. It’s often used to quantify training outcomes and optimize learning.
We’ll give you a comprehensive overview of everything you should know about the Kirkpatrick model, including what it is, why it’s useful, and how to implement it for your needs.
What Is the Kirkpatrick Model?
The Kirkpatrick model is a decades’ old evaluation tool created by Donald Kirkpatrick in the late 1950s. It was designed to better understand how well an entity’s educational processes and training works, including how successful the organization’s workforce is.
Here’s how it works. The model evaluates a training or education process on four respective levels — reaction, learning, behavior, and results — to pinpoint the training’s impact and efficiency.
The data used within the Kirkpatrick model can help companies evaluate both long-term impacts and more immediate results. Experts consider it to be the most well-known model of its kind.
Kirkpatrick certifications
Organizations and other entities can explore Kirkpatrick certifications, awarded by Kirkpatrick Partners, which officially recognize training professionals. Getting certified includes developing an expertise in the Kirkpatrick model and its ability to assess the effectiveness of training and education processes.
Four Levels of Kirkpatrick Training Evaluation
As mentioned above, there are four levels to the Kirkpatrick model. We’ll break down each level — reaction, learning, behavior, and results — below. Starting with the first level, each following level comes with more complexity and nuance.
Level 1: Reaction
The first level of the Kirkpatrick model is reaction — AKA, did your participants enjoy the training? Specifically, did the participants find it to be “favorable, engaging, and relevant”?
Level 1 can be useful for many people, especially as it takes the least amount of time and money to achieve. The Kirkpatrick model’s initial level allows organizations to see not only how educational the program was, but also how efficient its delivery was.
Participants’ reactions to the training being evaluated are usually measured with short surveys following a session. These surveys could come in the form of one-on-one interviews by educators or trainers, via email invitations online, or through paper “smile sheets.” Some evaluators even use external assessment tools, like SurveyMonkey or Qualtrics.
Regardless of the organization, the surveys usually aim to measure the same information, such as:
How users felt about the training
Whether or not it was helpful
Participants’ overall feelings toward the program
Depending on the entity, the data collected from the survey can also be used in conjunction with other participant feedback collected in person or via external forms.
Compared to the other levels, Level 1 of the Kirkpatrick model doesn’t shed light on how the information was absorbed nor how to improve potentially problematic areas.
Level 2: Learning
The Kirkpatrick model’s second level is all about learning. In other words, what information or skills did participants pick up?
Here, training instructors can evaluate whether or not the participants absorbed the “intended knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and commitment” based on their efforts during the training program.
During Level 2 of the Kirkpatrick model, training professionals can identify patterns to piece together what trainees had a hard time learning. This information can then be used to improve that specific area within the training so trainees can better absorb the information.
Similarly to Level 1 assessments, training instructors can use either digital or paper learning assessments, along with one-on-one interviews, to gain a better understanding of how successful the training was. To take it another step further, instructors can prompt participants to complete various tasks to demonstrate the skills they should’ve learned through the training.
Depending on the organization using the model, the data from Level 2 can be evaluated to see whether or not trainees should get credit for the certification, training, or educational course.
Level 3: Behavior
The Kirkpatrick model’s Level 3 revolves around behavior. Can training participants successfully apply what they’ve learned?
Level 3 of this model is unique in that it goes beyond the short-term and seeks to explore the long-term. If the training program was successful, trainees’ behaviors shouldn’t be the same as when they started. They should experience a behavior change — a learned skill or applicable information — through the training program. After this level, a training instructor should know whether or not their training was useful and applicable to the job.
However, the third level also comes with a unique challenge: measuring the participants’ behavior in an accurate, meaningful way across the board. While some trainees might learn and be able to apply this new behavior, others might not.
To make the best of the Kirkpatrick model’s third level, instructors can marry routine performance reviews and metrics relevant to the job to get a more complete picture of the trainees and their respective capabilities.
Level 4: Results
The Kirkpatrick model’s Level 4 hones in on the results, at long last. Instructors can get a better idea of their training’s effect on the overall performance of trainees.
When evaluating the overall success of an entity, the Kirkpatrick model aims to measure the training program’s involvement in that success. For example, Level 4 allows training instructors to narrow in on specific areas — such as customer satisfaction, sales, and efficiency — to better understand the return on investment (ROI). In fact, some organizations consider ROI to be Level 5 of the Kirkpatrick model.
To best measure the effect of a training on performance and behavior changes, a control group is often recommended. That way, entities can more accurately understand the training program’s impact compared to a control group.
However, the drawback to Level 4 is that it often needs much more time and money to measure the results of the training in an accurate way, which isn’t realistic for every organization.
How to Use AI to Implement the Kirkpatrick Model
While learning about the Kirkpatrick model is helpful in theory, you need a way to practice it and, most importantly, a way to reinforce that learning. That’s where Yoodli comes in.
Yoodli is an AI-powered sales coach that provides feedback using the Kirkpatrick model and framework. Yoodli is the perfect way for you and your team to practice using the Kirkpatrick model and everything you’ve learned.
Plus, this tool has a history of helping go-to-market (GTM) teams and reps handle difficult conversations, customer feedback, customer objections, outbound customer discovery, and sales calls. Yoodli is used by leading Fortune 500 sales companies like Google and Korn Ferry, and it’s no wonder why.
Using the latest generative AI technology, Yoodli simulates roleplays and trains your GTM team to speak using your company voice. This makes it the perfect tool to use when implementing the Kirkpatrick model, especially with regard to Levels 1 and 2.
How to use Yoodli for the Kirkpatrick model
There are plenty of ways you can use Yoodli for implementing the Kirkpatrick model at your organization.
Depending on the goals of your organization’s training program, participants can use Yoodli for a post-training self-evaluation. Once the trainee has completed the program, they can record themselves via Yoodli to practice the skills they’ve learned, be it sales pitching, public speaking, customer communication, or something else entirely. As an AI sales coach, Yoodli will provide personalized metrics and feedback to pinpoint areas for improvement, specifically surrounding your strengths, weaknesses, use of open-ended questions, talk time, conciseness, and much more. This can help gauge customer satisfaction and whether or not they found the training useful.
Yoodli pairs perfectly with the Kirkpatrick model framework, and can help take your GTM team to the next level.
As an organization administrator, a sales enablement leader, or a trainer, you can set up Yoodli scenarios within seconds and then have your team practice using the Kirkpatrick model. It’s that easy. By integrating Yoodli into practice sessions at your organizations, participants can get real-time feedback and put their new skills to the test.
When around 75% of what’s taught in one-off trainings is forgotten in a week, Yoodli’s here to save the day. Take advantage of personalized training at scale and start by downloading Yoodli for free. The enterprise version only takes 2 minutes to set up and allows admins to customize employee learning goals and rubrics to their respective company.
Learn how you can use Yoodli to implement the Kirkpatrick model’s four levels.
Benefits of Using the Kirkpatrick Model
If you’re a training instructor looking to assess exactly how effective your training program is, you’re in luck. Here are some of the most noteworthy benefits of using the Kirkpatrick model.
Pinpointing areas for improvement
One of the best benefits to using the Kirkpatrick model is its ability to highlight specific areas for improvement within a training program. For example, Levels 2 and 3 in particular help instructors gauge whether or not trainees have grasped the intended information and skills. Not only that, but also whether or not they’re able to apply what they’ve learned in their day-to-day performance.
After a training evaluation, instructors and organizations as a whole can highlight any true gaps in skill sets, knowledge, education, and successful application.
Showcasing improved training ROI
Although training programs can be expensive, using the Kirkpatrick model can help justify any expenses an organization faces with regard to training and education. Level 4 of this method emphasizes the importance of measuring the effect of a training on a participant’s performance.
Companies, universities, and other organizations can present the benefits of education and training with the metrics and measurements obtained from using this model. For example, educators can point to various metrics to show the value of training, such as:
It’s much easier to demonstrate training ROI through a model like Kirkpatrick.
Showing stakeholders training efficiency
Similarly to improved training ROI, the Kirkpatrick model allows for better transparency for stakeholders who want to make sure there’s enough evidence to justify the cost of further training initiatives. The data organizations gather from the various levels of this model acts as evidence for a training program’s effectiveness.
Simple, systemic approach to training assessment
Perhaps the most overlooked benefit of the Kirkpatrick model is how simple it is to apply across organizations. No matter the industry, all four levels of this model are easily applicable (given the time and financial resources) to any training program.
Its four levels ensure the assessment process runs smoothly and remains an organized means of testing training efficiency.
Drawbacks and Other Kirkpatrick Model Considerations
Of course, no model is perfect, and the Kirkpatrick model is no exception. Here are some other things to keep in mind when considering using this evaluation method.
Self-reported data and its limitations
Perhaps the most obvious drawback to this method is that much of the data is self-reported. For example, in Levels 2 and 3 in particular, the data gathered is often collected via one-on-one interviews or surveys. Like any other data, it can be affected by bias.
Trainees might not be able to evaluate their own shortcomings, let alone report them. Depending on the organization’s overall culture, a participant might feel too uncomfortable speaking up if they were to have trouble applying their new skills.
Emphasis on trainee satisfaction
Some organizations and training instructors tend to disagree with the Kirkpatrick model’s emphasis on trainee satisfaction, particularly within Level 1.
Just because a participant comes out of a training session feeling satisfied doesn’t mean they’ll be able to apply what they’ve learned. It’s also possible for a trainee to feel completely satisfied with a training but not improve performance.
The Main Takeaway
The Kirkpatrick model is a tried-and-true method for training assessment and evaluation. It allows entities to not only see whether or not their training program is working like it should, but also how well their trainees take to the new information. If you’re interested in incorporating this model into your organization, Yoodli can help.
