Synthesia, a British AI startup, has launched Roleplay Sessions, an interactive training product that allows employees to practice high-stakes conversations like sales pitches, performance reviews, and customer complaints with AI avatars that provide real-time feedback and scoring.

This marks a shift from Synthesia's original focus on generating corporate training videos to offering a performance-management platform with a video front end.

The new product, part of a broader 'Sessions' platform, includes rubrics, performance data, and analytics to demonstrate measurable business outcomes.

Synthesia CEO Victor Riparbelli argues that traditional corporate training often fails to change behavior, emphasizing the importance of practice and feedback.

Early adopters include major corporations and recruitment firms, with plans to expand to small businesses and educational institutions as inference costs decrease.The move reflects a growing trend in enterprise AI adoption, where companies prioritize practical outcomes over flashy demos.