Yoodli: Using AI to Solve the Human Problem of Communication, at Scale

GUEST AUTHOR: Varun Puri, Founder & CEO of Yoodli

When it comes to high-stakes communication like public speaking or persuading a sales prospect, most of us are wrought with insecurities. We don’t want to look foolish, we have imposter syndrome, we are uncomfortable with our vocabulary or syntax, we mumble, stutter, slouch, speak with an accent, or make poor eye contact. And so we often shuttle through these interactions poorly, or else avoid them altogether.

This is a universal problem that holds back organizations of all shapes and sizes. Although individuals can rehearse their communication skills in front of a mirror or with a trainer, that approach isn’t very scalable. People are embarrassed to practice in front of others. And even if that were not true, organizations could never deploy enough human trainers to get large teams up to speed all at once. Collectively, this problem results in lost deals, delayed product deployments, and organizational misalignment.

The solution? “AI role-play.”

Yoodli has invented a new category of enterprise technology, utilizing hyper-realistic and customizable AI personas that can be configured for a multiplicity of personal or work-related use cases. Users rehearse with Yoodli avatars and get instant feedback on their talking points, objection handling, sales skills, body language, and more. Yoodli personas behave like humans but aren’t, which makes trainees feel much more comfortable and safe practicing and improving. And because the technology can be deployed for an unlimited number of trainees across an organization, it is highly scalable.

Google Cloud, for example, used Yoodli to simultaneously train 15,000+ sellers to pitch its new AI offerings. In the past, this would have taken months and relied on passive videos or text based learning with poor retention rates.

Other enterprise use cases for AI role play include: sales teams practicing discovery calls; support agents learning how to handle angry customers; HR professionals preparing for sensitive employee conversations; middle management rehearsing feedback and performance reviews; public relations executives stress-testing crisis communications; and partners or resellers undergoing training to ensure consistent messaging. It isn’t just business organizations that benefit from the technology— Yoodli personas can help doctors to communicate more compassionately with patients, school counselors to give effective guidance to at-risk youth, mediators to help resolve conflicts, and beyond.

Personally, I began neither as a technologist nor an entrepreneur. I co-founded Yoodli to help people like me—an immigrant with an accent and anxiety about a childhood lisp—overcome my fear of communication. I discovered that all humans contend with this problem, often more acutely if in under-represented groups like women and minorities.

Amid the chorus of concerns about AI disrupting life on Earth, we mustn't overlook the opportunities for AI to make humans—and human interactions—better than they have ever been. AI can help to solve ubiquitous human-level problems at scale and speed. When that happens, adoption happens naturally. In fact, we see many key executives discover Yoodli on their own, recognize the value that AI role play could offer to their organizations, and then reach out to use it for their teams.