CGS Immersive Expands Cicero into a Unified AI Platform for Hiring, Learning, and Frontline Readiness
New York — CGS Immersive has expanded its AI-powered roleplay solution, Cicero, into a unified platform that spans the full employee lifecycle: interviewing, hiring, coaching, assessment, and frontline enablement. The end-to-end system aims to help enterprises find the right candidates faster and continuously develop employees with realistic practice, analytics, and enterprise-grade governance.
Originally launched less than a year ago as an AI roleplay tool for lifelike, unscripted practice, Cicero now delivers a single, secure environment for workforce performance. The platform builds on its realistic conversation engine and adds scalable deployment, explainable assessment, and integrations designed for large organizations.
Why it matters
Organizations are racing to address widening skills gaps that, by some estimates, could cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars by 2030. As AI and automation absorb routine tasks, competitive advantage increasingly hinges on distinctly human capabilities—judgment, empathy, and real-time problem-solving. CGS Immersive’s expanded Cicero platform is pitched as a way to cultivate those skills at scale, with measurable impact on performance, readiness, and retention.
What’s new in the unified platform
- Cicero Interview: Structured, AI-powered interviewing that places candidates in realistic, role-specific scenarios to reveal how they think, communicate, and solve problems. Built-in identity verification and liveness checks help deter deepfakes and proxy interviewing, while ATS integrations streamline workflows and cut time-to-first-interview from weeks to hours.
- Cicero Coach: An always-on, AI mentor embedded in everyday tools, offering confidential, in-the-flow guidance grounded in company policies, SOPs, and institutional knowledge. Interactions are conversational, reflecting the questions and pressures employees face on the job.
- Cicero Assessment: AI-driven, proctored assessments with explainable scoring to provide defensible proof of competence for regulators, customers, and leadership. Instead of stand-alone tests, assessments are scenario-based and integrated into operational decisions where performance consistency matters.
- Cicero XR: Mixed-reality simulations that extend lifelike practice into physical environments, so frontline teams can rehearse procedures, handle equipment, and respond to incidents safely—mirroring the feel of the floor, field, or facility without real-world risk.
- Cicero Kiosk: Agentic AI ambassadors for retail and hospitality that guide orders, answer questions, and recommend next-best actions at customer touchpoints—creating continuity between how employees train and how customers experience the brand.
How it works under the hood
Cicero consolidates interviewing, learning, coaching, assessment, and frontline support in a governed, secure AI environment. The platform features a microservices architecture with curated prompts, reusable AI building blocks, and deep analytics to ensure control, consistency, and trust at scale. It’s designed for global teams—any role, anytime, anywhere, and in any language—so organizations can build, measure, and continuously improve real-world performance.
What leaders are saying
CGS Immersive founder and executive chairman Phil Friedman framed the expansion as a logical step in the company’s long-standing effort to use technology to drive business outcomes, not just process improvements. He positioned Cicero as a single platform that helps companies hire smarter, coach continuously, and build more resilient workforces.
President Doug Stephen emphasized that human judgment and empathy are becoming the core differentiators in an AI-enabled world. Cicero, he said, gives teams a way to practice complex conversations and decisions with realism and consistency—before they happen on the job.
Amy Loomis, PhD, research vice president for Future of Work at IDC, noted that the industry is at an inflection point where so-called “soft” skills are now central to performance. She highlighted Cicero’s end-to-end approach—linking hiring, assessment, continuous coaching, and immersive practice—as a closed loop that helps enterprises scale human capabilities and tie them directly to retention, performance, and readiness for new roles.
The big picture
By unifying hiring and development, CGS Immersive is making the case that organizations don’t just need better training—they need a governed, measurable continuum from candidate screening to on-the-job readiness. For regulated industries and fast-moving operations, the promise is defensible competency, faster proficiency, and improved customer outcomes. For talent leaders, it’s a single source of truth that connects capability building to business metrics.
Learn more about the expanded Cicero platform at www.cgsimmersive.com.
