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Yoodli named to TIME's list of the Best Inventions of 2026. PR Newswire Today at 6:15am PDT Recognition highlights Yoodli's AI Platform for Human Skills, which helps people get measurably better in their careers SEATTLE, Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Yoodli, the AI Platform for Human Skills, today announced it has been named to TIME's list of the Best Inventions of 2026, which features 300 extraordinary innovations changing its lives. Yoodli was recognized for its approach to building human skills at work: realistic AI practice, real-time feedback, and measurement that shows whether learning is actually applied on the job. To compile this year's list, TIME solicited nominations from its editors and correspondents worldwide and through an online application process, paying special attention to growing fields such as health care and AI. TIME then evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact. The full list is available at ti.me/best-inventions. "Communication and the speed at which you upskill are the most important determinants of success, especially in an AI-first world," said Varun Puri, CEO and co-founder of Yoodli. "We believe in humans in that world, and we built Yoodli to help people get measurably better in their careers. This recognition belongs to every customer who trusts us with how their people learn, practice, and grow." "This recognition reflects a shift in how organizations think about learning itself," said Esha Joshi, President, Chief Customer Officer, and co-founder of Yoodli. "People don't get better by watching slides or reading docs. They get better by practicing real scenarios, getting feedback, and repeating until it becomes a habit. Yoodli makes that possible for every learner, in the flow of their work, and gives leaders proof that it's working." Yoodli started with AI roleplays for high-stakes conversations. As customers extended the platform to onboarding, certifications, AI tool enablement, and embedded coaching, Yoodli evolved into the AI Platform for Human Skills, powered by five capabilities: * Yoodli Roleplays: Hyper-realistic roleplays and tutors grounded in each organization's real context and graded against its own rubrics * Yoodli Personas: Enterprise-ready AI experts available inside roleplays and off platform, with human escalation paths built in * Yoodli Create: Measurable, personalized learning journeys built from a single prompt, in minutes rather than weeks * Yoodli Coach: Personalized, real-time coaching in the flow of work, from prep over the phone to conversation tips on Zoom * Yoodli Measure: Progress against skill attainment, explained and visualized for both learners and leaders Together, these capabilities meet learners where they work and shift the measure of learning from completion to proof of application. The recognition caps a year of momentum for the company. Yoodli's customers now range from Google, Snowflake, and Databricks to governments, pharmaceutical companies, and banks. The University of Washington uses Yoodli to prepare students for job interviews, and the government of El Salvador uses it to train doctors on talking with patients. Programs powered by Yoodli also earned customers Google, Intuit, and VML a combined 15 Brandon Hall Group awards in 2026. Yoodli has grown to about 100 employees, up from 25 in May 2025, and recently moved into a new headquarters at Pier 70 on the Seattle waterfront. The company was also named to LinkedIn's 2026 Top Startups list for Seattle. Organizations ready to move from training completion to proof of application can see the AI Platform for Human Skills in action. To learn how Yoodli can help your teams practice, get feedback, and measurably improve, talk to the Yoodli team. About Yoodli Yoodli is the AI Platform for Human Skills. Through AI coaching, learning journey creation, roleplays, personas, and measurement, Yoodli helps people get measurably better in their careers and helps organizations upskill their workforce for an AI-first world. Proven in high-stakes revenue teams and built for company-wide scale, Yoodli is used by organizations including Google, Snowflake, Databricks, and Intuit. Learn more at yoodli.ai. Media Contact: Sage Quiamno [email protected] +1 (808) 232-1321 SOURCE Yoodli This is a paid placement. For further inquiries, please contact PR Newswire directly.

Yoodli has expanded beyond AI roleplays to launch what it calls the AI Platform for Human Skills, designed to help organisations upskill employees rather than replace them. More than 1 million learners and companies including Google, Databricks, and Snowflake use the platform. The expanded platform includes five capabilities: Yoodli Roleplays for practicing concepts with tutoring and grading; Yoodli Personas, which are AI experts grounded in company knowledge; Yoodli Create for generating learning journeys from prompts; Yoodli Coach, a personalised coach integrated into tools like Zoom and Teams; and Yoodli Measure for tracking skill outcomes. "Most AI being sold to companies today is about doing more with fewer people. We're betting on people," said Varun Puri, co-founder and CEO. The platform integrates with learning management systems and workplace tools.

6 AI roleplay and communication coaching platforms to know in 2026. If your sales reps freeze up on their first live pitch, or your new hires nod along in training but can't repeat a single technique under pressure, the problem usually isn't the content. It's the lack of practice reps before the real thing happens. That gap between "I watched the training" and "I can actually do this" is exactly where AI roleplay and communication coaching tools have started to matter for companies training people at scale. The category covers a wide range, from enterprise platforms built for certifying thousands of sales reps to simple apps that help someone rehearse a conference talk on their own time. Below are six worth knowing in 2026, starting with the enterprise end of the spectrum and moving toward individual coaching tools. Table of contents. Best for enterprise roleplay and skill certification at scale - Yoodli. Yoodli is an enterprise AI roleplay platform built for sales enablement, partner training and L&D teams that need to train, coach and certify large groups of people rather than hand them a video course. Reps and employees practice pitches, run through demos and rehearse crucial conversations against an AI counterpart, then get feedback scored against their own company's standards instead of a one-size-fits-all rubric. What sets Yoodli apart from a single-purpose training app is the loop it builds: roleplay practice, an AI Tutor that flags specific skill gaps and ongoing AI coaching that keeps reinforcing what was taught long after the initial session ends. Leaders get analytics showing who's actually ready to perform and where their coaching time is best spent, which matters a lot more once you're managing hundreds of reps instead of a dozen. The platform is used across four functions inside large organizations: ramping and certifying sales reps, building measurable skill practice into L&D programs, preparing executives for high-stakes moments like earnings calls and media interviews and certifying external partners with consistent practice instead of ad hoc training. Its customer base leans heavily toward Fortune 500 and enterprise organizations, including Google, Sandler and Korn Ferry and the documented results back that up: Google Cloud rolled out AI-powered pitch certification to 15,000+ employees, Snowflake saves more than 1,200 hours of manager coaching time per quarter and Harness cut sales training review time by 75% using Yoodli's AI roleplays. For enterprise buyers vetting vendors that will touch employee training data, Yoodli is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and GDPR compliant and it was named a finalist across 5 categories in the GeekWire Awards for Workplace of the Year. It's built to plug into existing workflows rather than sit as a standalone app employees have to remember to open separately. Best for certified human coaching at scale - CoachHub. CoachHub bills itself as the digital coaching platform and it leans on people rather than pure AI simulation. It connects organizations with a network of 3,500+ international, certified coaches, matched to employees using an AI-based matching system, then delivers the coaching remotely and online. That model suits companies that want human coaching relationships delivered digitally rather than practice reps against an AI persona. The trade-off is built into the model itself: a network of human coaches at that scale works on a different rhythm than an always-available AI roleplay session, so it fits companies prioritizing one-on-one coaching depth over instant, repeatable practice. Best for building a custom branded coaching app - Rocky.ai. Rocky.ai takes a different approach entirely. It's a no-code Coaching Operating System that lets a company build its own white-label AI coaching, mentoring and roleplay app on its own methodology and internal knowledge, with the ability to go live in hours rather than months. That makes it a fit for a business or coaching firm that wants a branded product they control end-to-end, not an off-the-shelf platform. Pricing starts from $29/month, which puts it in reach for smaller teams that want to prototype their own coaching tool. The flip side is that building on your own methodology takes setup work an out-of-the-box platform doesn't require. Best for solo real-time speaking feedback - Poised. Poised is an AI-powered communication coach built around real-time feedback while you speak, aimed at helping someone sound more confident and clear in the moment rather than after a scored review. It's a fit for an individual who wants lightweight coaching during calls or presentations rather than a company-wide certification program. Best for turning meetings into searchable records - Read AI. Read AI positions itself as the fastest growing AI meeting notetaker, generating meeting summaries, transcripts and enterprise search from conversations that already happened. It's built for capturing and organizing what was said, which makes it a companion to communication training rather than a substitute for it. Teams that also want to practice conversations before they happen, not just review them after, will need a roleplay tool alongside it. Best for individual public speaking practice - Speeko. Speeko is an AI speech coach built specifically for public speaking, aimed at individuals who want to build confidence and delivery skills as effective speakers. It's designed for one person working on their own speaking habits, which makes it a solid personal coaching app rather than a system for training or certifying a whole workforce. What to compare before you pick one. Not every tool in this space solves the same problem, so match the tool to the actual bottleneck. A few questions worth asking before you commit budget: Who needs to get better, one person or five hundred? An individual practicing a keynote has very different needs than a company certifying an entire partner network. Platforms built for enterprise scale include analytics that show managers who are ready and who still need reps, something a single-user app has no reason to offer. Does feedback need to match your own standards, or a generic rubric? Sales pitches, partner certifications and executive media prep all have their own definitions of "good." A platform that scores against your company's own criteria produces more useful feedback than one built around a universal speaking rubric. Do you need security and compliance sign-off? Any tool touching employee performance data should be able to answer questions about data handling before procurement gets involved, particularly for regulated industries or public companies preparing spokespeople for earnings calls. Is the goal practice, review, or both? Some tools help you rehearse before a conversation happens. Others document conversations after the fact. A few teams find value in pairing both. The rise of AI coaching tools mirrors a broader shift toward AI-powered training and enablement tools reshaping how people build and demonstrate skills at work and the same logic behind virtual reality training in sports applies here: repetition in a low-stakes simulation builds real confidence before the moment that counts. Which one is right for you. An individual polishing a single keynote or sales call has real options here. Poised gives real-time feedback while you speak and Speeko builds public speaking habits over time through solo practice. If your organization wants human coaching delivered digitally, CoachHub's network of 3,500+ certified coaches fits that model well. If you'd rather build your own branded coaching product on your own methodology, Rocky.ai's no-code setup is built for exactly that and Read AI is worth pairing alongside any of these if you also want a record of the conversations already happening across your team. But if the challenge is training, coaching and certifying a large group of people, not just one speaker and proving they're actually ready before they're in front of a customer, a partner, or the press, Yoodli is the one built for that scale. The combination of roleplay practice, ongoing AI coaching and manager-level visibility into readiness is hard to replicate with a single-purpose app and the results at companies like Google Cloud and Snowflake show what that looks like once it's running across a full team.