Enhancing Conversational Skills in Employees Using VR

One of the leading causes for organizational failure is the lack of effective communication and the lack of basic conversational skills in employees. As a matter of fact, statistics indicate that 86% of employees and executives do not possess the required standard of conversational and communicational expertise to handle difficult situations that may arise in the workplace. This discrepancy is primarily due to the lack of awareness and importance about conversational training as managers mostly assume that the lack of productivity and tense working environment arise from a lack of technical skills or other soft skills like decision-making or time-management, whereas in reality, it could simply be due to the absence of adequate conversational skills. However, this absence can easily be mitigated by the use of VR and AI in the organizations’ training program. VR can enhance conversational skills in a multitude of ways:

Simulated Conversations

One of the most impressive facts about VR is that it can simulate scenarios that an employee can expect to face in their workplace experience. It can utilize the data fed into the program to include many different factors into the scenario, such as the emotional state of the other party or the subject or context of the conversation. Furthermore, it allows learners to practice in a safe, protected environment free from subjective judgement or biases that may arise in a real-world scenario.

Natural language processing

AI is capable of analyzing and understanding subtle differences in spoken language. As a result, it can accurately pick up where an employee may need improvement and provide feedback or give pointers on how to improve that particular aspect of speech, such as tone or choice of words.

Personalization

AI can create a personalized training program based on an employees’ individual strengths and weaknesses. It can be tailored to their job role, skills, and learning style.

Time

Perhaps one of the most important advantages of VR over traditional methods of training to enhance conversational skills is the fact that it saves time, and ultimately resources. It does so in two ways:

According to a study by the PwC, employees trained using VR learn 4 times faster than their classroom learning based peers. As a result, more employees can be trained in a shorter timeframe which ultimately increases ROI. Since AI can process large amounts of information at mind-bending speeds, it can provide real time feedback to the employee so that they don’t have to wait for hours or days for results. All in all, if provided with accurate and unbiased data, AI and VR are a powerful set of tools that can not only enhance learning, but also save an organization time and money. As already mentioned, VR training can allow employees to learn 4 times faster but can also be more cost-effective at scale, while also providing superior results. At 3000 learners, VR training becomes 52% more cost effective, thereby ensuring positive ROI.

In what way does Orbit-Ed contribute to this situation?

Orbit-Ed is an AI-driven immersive VR training solution that employs research-supported behavioral scoring and personalized training pathways. By analyzing over 500 data points from trainees, including speech, visual cues, hand gestures, and language, Orbit-Ed delivers evidence-based assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of trainees, along with actionable recommendations for improvement. Consistent practice over time leads to the development of successful behaviors.