AI roleplay and simulation platforms promise more than faster feedback; they promise better conversations in the moments that matter most: high-stakes sales calls, escalated service situations, performance reviews, and hiring decisions. You can't just ask, "Does the demo look good?" You need to know how the platform supports multi-use-case roleplay, interview assessment, coaching workflows, bias controls, data protection, and audit-ready evidence when the stakes are real, and whether your own admins, not the vendor, can configure, create, and govern those experiences at a moment's notice as needs change.
This checklist gives Sales, CX, Talent/HR, L&D, Compliance, and IT a shared framework for evaluating simulation and AI roleplay platforms across four critical use cases: roleplay, interview, coaching, and assessment.
Why this AI roleplay RFI/RFP checklist?
Use this checklist to:
Cover all four use cases with one engine
Ensure your RFP evaluates vendors on their ability to support roleplay, interview simulations, coaching workflows, and formal assessments, without stitching together point solutions.Reflect how people really practice at work
Specify scenarios that mirror real sales conversations, service escalations, leadership and performance discussions, and structured interviews, not just one-off prompts.Keep control with your admins, not your vendor
Require self-service tools so your own teams can build, adjust, and govern scenarios, rubrics, and personas quickly in response to new products, policies, and regulations.Protect against bias and opaque decisions
Bake in requirements for transparent, rubric-based scoring, bias monitoring, and defensible interview and assessment decisions that can stand up to internal or external scrutiny.Make coaching simpler, not heavier
Define what managers and coaches actually need: highlight moments, progress trends, "who needs help now" dashboards, and workflows that fit into existing tools and cadences.Align innovation with IT, Security, and Compliance
Address security, privacy, data residency, and responsible AI controls up front so stakeholders can sign off with confidence, not as a last-minute hurdle.A weighted scoring model is included so cross-functional stakeholders can:
Score vendors independently on each section.
Apply higher weights to critical areas like Security/IT, Responsible AI, Bias & Defensibility, and Admin Self-service Authoring.
Set hard thresholds that vendors must meet in order to proceed, regardless of overall score.
Who should use it?
Sales & CX leaders improving readiness and customer conversations
Talent & HR leaders modernizing hiring, promotion, and readiness assessment
L&D & Enablement teams embedding practice and coaching into programs and academies
Compliance, Legal & Risk reviewing AI use in people and customer interactions
IT & Security teams evaluating platform fit, data protection, and responsible AI
