CGS Immersive Positions Cicero as AI Workforce Platform

CGS Immersive is broadening the scope of its Cicero AI roleplay technology, positioning it as a unified platform for hiring, training, and continuous workforce development as enterprises grapple with widening skills gaps and rising performance demands.

Announced Jan. 27, the expansion elevates Cicero from a role-play-based learning tool to an end-to-end, governed AI environment designed to help organizations interview candidates, improve hiring outcomes, and upskill employees for real-world business scenarios. 

From roleplay to workforce enablement: how Cicero delivers value to global teams

Cicero launched less than a year ago as an AI-driven roleplay solution that simulates unscripted, real-world conversations and delivers real-time feedback to learners and learning leaders. 

The platform combines interviewing, coaching, skills assessment, immersive training, and frontline support within a single architecture built for enterprise scale.

CGS Immersive says the technology has helped make roleplay more scalable and affordable across global teams, roles, and languages.

The expanded Cicero platform builds on that foundation with enterprise-grade security, analytics, and deployment capabilities, targeting outcomes such as faster hiring, accelerated skills proficiency, improved knowledge retention, and incremental revenue growth.

“Cicero is the next chapter in our decades-long obsession with using technology to transform business outcomes, not just processes,” said Phil Friedman, founder and executive chairman of CGS Immersive.

Addressing skills gaps and human performance in an AI-driven workforce

The announcement comes as organizations face mounting pressure to develop human-centric skills that automation cannot replace. 

PwC estimates that productivity losses tied to skills gaps could reach trillions of dollars in the U.S. alone by 2030.

CGS Immersive executives argue that judgment, empathy, and real-time problem-solving are now critical differentiators, yet employees are often expected to demonstrate those capabilities without realistic practice.

“Cicero changes the equation by giving organizations a way to prepare people for complex conversations and decisions before they happen,” said Doug Stephen, president of CGS Immersive.

Channel Insider spoke with CGS COO John Samuel in November 2025 about how enterprises are beginning to embrace AI throughout workflows.

“AI isn’t just an IT project; it should be approached more like the way people-driven policies are handled,” Samuel told us. “Continuous improvement, feedback, and performance maintenance are still important with AI, the way they have been in the past with other types of technology.”

Key capabilities across the employee lifecycle

The unified platform introduces several new components, including:

• Cicero Interview for scenario-based, AI-powered hiring; 
• Cicero Coach, an always-on AI mentor embedded in daily workflows; and 
• Cicero Assessment, which delivers explainable, scenario-based evaluations with integrated proctoring.

Additional modules include Cicero XR for mixed-reality simulations and Cicero Kiosk, which extends conversational AI to customer-facing environments in retail and hospitality.

“Organizations are at a critical inflection point in workforce transformation, where human skills are no longer so-called soft skills but the real differentiator in an AI‑enabled world,” said Amy Loomis, PhD, research vice president, future of work at IDC. 

“What’s compelling about Cicero is its end‑to‑end approach: by connecting hiring, assessment, continuous coaching, and immersive practice in one platform, it gives enterprises a closed loop for developing these capabilities at scale and linking them directly to retention, performance, and readiness for new roles,” Loomis continued.