Synthesia Launches AI Roleplay Sessions: Employees Practice Negotiations With AI Avatars

British startup Synthesia on July 22, 2026 launched AI Roleplay Sessions, an interactive corporate training platform where employees rehearse workplace conversations with AI avatars. The system gives feedback, assigns scores and collects analytics on training effectiveness.

What is AI Roleplay Sessions

AI Roleplay Sessions is a trainer for workplace conversations: the employee talks with an AI avatar that plays the counterpart in real time, such as an unhappy customer or a colleague in a difficult situation. After each session, the platform reviews the conversation, gives the participant feedback and assigns a score. The employer receives analytics showing how well the training actually works.

• Launch: July 22, 2026, as reported by TechCrunch
• Format: interactive role-play sessions with AI avatars instead of passive viewing of video courses
• For the employee: feedback and scoring after each practice session
• For the company: analytics that measure training effectiveness
• Segment: enterprise; the product is built into Synthesia's training platform

"Employees practice workplace conversations with AI avatars that give feedback, assign scores and provide analytics that help companies measure training effectiveness," is how

TechCrunch describes the platform.

Why Synthesia is moving from video to live coaching

Synthesia is betting that corporate training is shifting from passively watching clips to interactive practice. TechCrunch frames the launch as the platform moving "beyond video into live coaching." Role-play sessions close the main gap in video courses: they test not whether an employee watched a lesson to the end, but how they apply the skill in a live conversation.

Synthesia was founded in London in 2017 and is best known as a generator of corporate training videos with AI avatars. In January 2025, the company raised $180 million in a Series D round led by NEA at a $2.1 billion valuation; its customers include Fortune 100 companies. The new product moves the same avatars from the role of narrator to the role of conversation partner and coach, turning one-off video generation into an ongoing training process.

For training departments, the key argument is measurability. Scoring for each session and aggregated analytics let teams assess training effectiveness in numbers rather than through post-course surveys, which is exactly what HR teams usually lack when defending training budgets. Other HR-tech players also launch similar AI trainers for practicing sales calls and job interviews, but Synthesia has a distribution advantage: its avatars are already built into the training programs of large corporations.

What this means

AI avatars in corporate training are no longer just talking heads in videos: the next step is interactive practice with scored results. If skill training through dialogue with AI becomes a standard feature of enterprise platforms, companies will have to compare not course libraries but the quality of simulations and analytics, and Synthesia, with its customer base, gets a head start here.

Frequently asked questions

What is AI Roleplay Sessions from Synthesia?

It is an interactive corporate training platform launched on July 22, 2026: employees practice workplace conversations with AI avatars and receive feedback and scores, while companies get analytics on training effectiveness.

How does AI

Roleplay Sessions differ from Synthesia's video courses?

Synthesia's classic product is generated training videos with avatars that the employee simply watches. In AI Roleplay Sessions, the avatar becomes a conversation partner: the dialogue happens in real time, the system evaluates the employee's responses, and the results feed into analytics for the employer.