When we launched Cicero a year ago, we had a simple aim: help enterprise teams master the unexpected by practicing the hard conversations that happen in real business situations before they actually happen on the job. It was just the beginning of a journey of co-creation with clients that is taking the possibilities of AI into uses cases across the entire employee journey.
Across industries and regions, first‑year adopters like BCA Financial, GitLab, Medtronic, Nigeria LNG, and Toshiba have turned Cicero into their practice ground for the moments that matter most. They have inspired us to invent new applications with Cicero that help them to be even more successful.
From launch to enterprise impact: Cicero’s first year in action
In twelve months, Cicero has grown from an AI roleplay application to a unified platform for hiring, learning, coaching, assessment, and frontline readiness. That evolution didn’t happen in a vacuum; it happened in partnership with early adopters who were willing to experiment, push us, and measure outcomes.
Here are a few of the ways first‑year customers are now putting Cicero to work:
Healthcare and life sciences: Organizations like Lantheus, Edwards Lifesciences, Takeda, and Medtronic are using immersive roleplay and XR to prepare people for complex clinical, sales, and patient‑facing conversations. Their work is often in highly regulated environments where every word matters. At Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, Cicero powers Teagan, a virtual assistant in Cicero Kiosk and web form that help donors get answers and support in the moments they need them most, turning routine questions into another chance to learn from real interactions.
Energy and heavy industry: Companies like SipChem and Nigeria LNG are rehearsing safety, operations, and stakeholder scenarios in psychologically safe environments before employees face them in the field.
Financial and technology services: BCA Financial and GitLab are using Cicero to coach people through sensitive customer, collections, and leadership interactions, with a focus on empathy, problem‑solving, and clear communication in high‑pressure situations.
Retail, travel, and member‑driven businesses: Scoot Airlines, retailer Calgary Co‑op, Gulf Coast Blood Center, and others are turning service and donor interactions into repeatable practice. Their teams are honing tone, de‑escalation skills, and confidence before they step onto the floor. At Calgary Co‑op, Cicero powers an AI‑driven Charcuterie Concierge kiosk that acts like an in‑store “cheese sommelier,” guiding members through natural‑language conversations, real‑time inventory, and tailored recommendations so they can build the perfect board with confidence while frontline teams focus on quality, hospitality and excellence.
These aren’t pilots sitting on a shelf; they are live enterprise programs where practice, feedback, performance and customer engagement are tightly linked and delivering desired outcomes.
How leading companies use AI roleplay to prepare for high‑stakes moments
Across these first‑year implementations, a few themes show up again and again.
1. How AI brings skill practice into the flow of work.
Traditional training often lives in long courses and annual refreshers that are hard to keep in sync with reality. With Cicero, teams use AI roleplay to spin up realistic practice in minutes, not months. They update scenarios as fast as the work changes.
Medtronic, for example, uses immersive simulations to help surgical and sales teams rehearse complex procedures and product conversations, driving a 94% confidence boost and faster time‑to‑market for new launches.
At Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, technicians use mobile‑enabled Cicero XR to diagnose and repair POS systems in real time, improving first‑time fix rates and reducing truck rolls while keeping stores online.
At Calgary Co‑op, the Cicero powered AI‑driven Charcuterie Concierge kiosk we mentioned guides members through natural‑language conversations, real‑time inventory, and tailored recommendations so they can build the perfect board with confidence while frontline teams focus on higher‑value hospitality. Kiosk-using customers drive deli basket values that jump from around $8 to over $40 per trip.
If you’re thinking about how to bring practice closer to the flow of work, our blog on why preparedness—not prediction—will define success goes deeper into that shift.
2. Turning human skills into measurable insights
Many of our customers arrived with the same challenge: they knew communication, empathy, and problem‑solving were critical but had no consistent, fair way to measure those skills.
With Cicero, organizations began to:
Turn conversations into observable behaviors with scoring, coaching insights, and replayable moments.
Use assessment and interview capabilities to hire for real capability, not just keywords, while maintaining transparency and explainability in AI‑assisted decisions.
Build a closed loop where hiring, learning, and ongoing coaching all draw on the same behavioral signals instead of disconnected checklists.
For L&D and HR leaders, that means the conversation shifted from “we think people are getting better” to “here is how their behavior, readiness, and impact changed over time.”
3. Redefining what ‘high‑stakes’ means in the modern workplace
Sales teams were some of Cicero’s earliest champions, and for good reason: being able to rehearse difficult objections or pitches to complex buying committees on demand is a clear advantage.
But as year one unfolded, customers broadened what “high‑stakes” meant:
Clinical conversations with patients and providers.
Safety and compliance scenarios where a misstep can have real‑world consequences.
Leadership and change‑management moments where trust, culture, and retention are on the line.
That expanded view of “high‑stakes” shows practice isn’t just about performance anymore. It’s about mission‑critical leadership, employee wellbeing, and safety moments that keep operations running.
Lessons learned: what first‑year customers taught us about AI + human development
If there’s a single through‑line, it’s this: prepared teams beat prediction‑driven, best‑guess plans every time. As IDC has noted, the real advantage now lies in how fast organizations can build and apply human skills in an AI‑enabled world. Cicero’s closed‑loop approach lets our customers do exactly that, from hiring and assessment through coaching and immersive practice.
A few of the lessons they’ve reinforced for us:
You don’t need a thousand scripted scenarios to get started; you need the right live problem sets that reflect real pressure and decisions.
The best outcomes come when practice is linked directly to business metrics, from time‑to‑ramp and readiness scores to retention, CSAT, and safety incidents.
People are far more open to AI in their development when it is clearly there to support and coach them, not to replace their judgment.
Those insights continue to shape Cicero’s roadmap and our point of view on the future of work, where preparedness—not prediction—defines success.
Looking ahead: the future of AI‑driven practice and performance
Year one with Cicero wasn’t just about features shipped; it was about seeing what happens when AI, immersive practice and real-time coaching come together in real organizations. Our first‑year customers helped prove that practice can be:
Continuous, not episodic.
Personalized and measurable, not generic.
Embedded in the work, not bolted on the side.
As we look to the next chapter, we’re doubling down on that mission: turning more of your critical moments—interviews, customer calls, field visits, safety briefings, leadership meetings—into opportunities to practice, perform, and grow.
If you’re exploring where AI fits in your hiring, learning, or frontline strategy, this is an invitation to see what your peers have already learned—and to imagine what year one could look like for your own teams.
