Participants swap positions during a staged roleplay.

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Choosing an immersive or AI roleplay training provider

Four kinds of provider sell practice for hard conversations. What each one is, who offers it, and what to ask.

The search

Three demos, three different things

A headset library, an AI character in a browser and a classroom course can all be sold as roleplay training. They solve different problems and often overlap, so name yours before the demos start.

A customer stands across a plain service counter. A first person VR training scenario for immersive training and roleplay, seen through the headset. — A customer across a service counter.

A colleague seated across a meeting table, for practising feedback. A first person AI roleplay scenario for applied AI in sensitive conversations, seen through the headset. — A colleague across a meeting table.

A teacher faces two seated participants. A VR training scenario for justice and community services. — A trainer faces a small seated class.

Type one

Ready-made immersive libraries

A catalogue of scenarios you license and run on headsets, often on a laptop too. Some also let you shape scenarios of your own, so ask how far each one goes.

A woman stands in a bright atrium with a conversation panel in front of her, seen through the headset. — A woman faces a conversation panel.

Workplace conversations

Bodyswaps offers AI roleplays on VR headsets, PC and mobile, with a no-code template for your own. Cornerstone offers immersive role-play modules on VR and desktop. Strivr trains frontline workers in VR, and in real time through smart glasses.

A simulated aged-care hallway. A man in his mid-eighties stands holding the rail as a carer wearing the headset approaches. — A carer walks beside an unsettled resident.

Aged care and disability

Embodied Labs makes first-person VR for aging care training. Dementia Australia runs EDIE, a simulation of living with dementia, and D-Esc, VR de-escalation training for aged care staff, as facilitated workshops.

Type two

AI roleplay platforms in the browser

Staff talk with an AI character on a laptop or phone and get feedback straight away. No headset needed; ask how much of the scenario you can shape.

Two people review feedback shapes beside the desk. An AI roleplay scenario for AI roleplay and practice. — An educator points something out to a trainee.

Workplace and sales conversations

Mursion pairs AI-powered simulations with expert coaching. Virti lets teams build scenarios for AI Virtual Humans without code. Second Nature focuses on sales roleplays, and Yoodli on communication practice.

A headset-wearing practitioner raises a hand to begin. An AI roleplay scenario for AI roleplay and practice. — A staff member starts another attempt.

Presentations and health education

VirtualSpeech runs in a browser or on a Meta Quest, with ready-made and custom scenarios. SimConverse, with an office in Sydney, builds avatar conversations for nursing, pharmacy and other health courses.

Type three

Studios that build it with you

A studio designs the scenario around your people and your situations. More work up front; the result reflects your workplace and can be run again.

Four people lean over a table in a dark studio, lit from below by a glowing shape resting on it. — Four people lean over a lit table.

Immersive studios

Start Beyond, with its head office in Sydney, builds VR and AR training and sells ready-made titles such as Minaca VR for aggressive customers. SimX offers multiplayer VR medical simulation from a marketplace or built to order. SweetRush designs custom eLearning and immersive training.

A facilitator briefs participants in a workshop room. — A group gathers for a briefing.

Defence and government

Moth+Flame builds headset VR training, including custom scenarios, for defence and government agencies.

People Tech Revolution

PTR builds custom VR and AI roleplay scenarios from an organisation’s own situations, and licenses ready-made titles through the PTR VR Library.

Type four

Classroom de-escalation programs

Certified instructors teach verbal and physical skills in a room, often with online modules alongside. Check whether your rules call for physical intervention training, and how it must be assessed.

A plumbing instructor briefs two trainees outside. A VR training scenario for education. — An instructor briefs two trainees on site.

Instructor-led programs

Crisis Prevention Institute, Maybo and The Mandt System run instructor-led de-escalation training with online or blended options, and MOAB runs de-escalation training programs. CPI training alternatives compares them in more detail.

Before you choose

Questions to ask any provider

The answers separate the four types faster than a demo does.

A participant discusses an XR rehearsal with a facilitator. — Talking it through after the scene.

About the scenario

Whose situations are in it, the provider’s or yours? Can you change what a character says? Does it run without a headset?

About the result

What does the debrief look like, and who runs it? What record comes out, and where is the data kept?

A wheelchair user and colleague rehearse a conversation. A VR training scenario for virtual reality training and simulation. — A wheelchair user rehearses with a colleague.

About cost and ownership

Is the price published? Virti, VirtualSpeech, Yoodli and The Mandt System publish some prices on their own sites, and Dementia Australia’s D-Esc is free to eligible users while funded. For others, check the site or ask. Who owns a scenario built for you?

Fit

Match the type to the job

The types overlap, and one organisation can use more than one.

A simulated bright paediatric treatment room, coloured shapes on the wall. An allied-health clinician in the headset crouches to a seven year old girl's height, her mother beside her. — A clinician crouches to a child’s height.

Pick by the job

Need hands-on physical skills assessed? Look at classroom programs. Many staff practising calls on laptops? Look at browser AI platforms. A common topic, ready to license? Look at libraries. Your own wards, counters or clients in the scene? Look at studios.

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