Skillsoft Expands Skills Management Platform with AI Coach, Accelerating Connection Between Employee Learning and Performance

Skillsoft, a leading AI-native skills management platform, introduced Skillsoft AI Coach, a new coaching experience available through the Skillsoft Percipio^® platform. AI Coach gives employees private, personalized coaching tied to their role, goals, and the skills their work requires. This helps organizations connect learning investments more closely to employee development and skill-building.

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As AI changes how work gets done, organizations are investing in learning, leadership development, and skills-based workforce planning to prepare their people for new demands. But the value of those investments depends on whether employees can apply new skills in their day-to-day work to accelerate business impact. Coaching creates the structure for that application through goal setting, reflection, practice, and accountability, but it has traditionally been reserved for senior leaders and select high-potential employees.

“Most coaching investments to date have expensive, exec-only programs disconnected from the rest of an organization’s skills and learning strategy. That model doesn’t scale, and it doesn’t connect to the skills data organizations actually need to act on,” said Gina Smith, Research Director, IDC. “By building AI Coach into a platform that already tracks skills, learning, and practice, Skillsoft aims to address a structural gap in how coaching has been delivered, not just adding a feature. That’s the kind of integration enterprises should be evaluating for going forward.”

AI Coach brings personalized, AI-generated coaching into Skillsoft’s skills management platform rather than leaving it as a standalone tool or executive-only resource. It helps employees focus on the skills most relevant to their role, connects coaching to learning and practice, and continues the conversation over time by returning to goals, reflecting on progress, and identifying what to do next.

“Every organization needs people who can build the skills that move the business forward,” said Bernie Barbour, Chief Technology and Product Officer, Skillsoft. “Coaching is one of the most effective ways to help employees develop those skills, but it has traditionally reached only a small part of the workforce. By bringing AI Coach into the Skillsoft platform, we can extend coaching to more employees and leaders, and connect that experience to the skills, learning, and practice that they need to grow and drive better business outcomes.”

AI Coach is built on coaching principles established by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), including active listening, reflective questioning, goal setting, and accountability. The experience is designed to continue across sessions, so employees can use coaching as part of a continuous loop of learning, practice, reflection, and guidance to their next development step. Because AI Coach is part of the Skillsoft platform, coaching can directly align to the skills employees need to build, the learning available to them, and CAISY^® practice where appropriate.

AI Coach enables organizations to:

• Extend coaching to more employees and leaders beyond the senior executives and high-potential talent who have traditionally had access.
• Make skills and learning more actionable by helping employees focus on the skills most relevant to their role, goals, and development needs.
• Connect learning to practice by pairing coaching with Skillsoft learning resources and CAISY practice where appropriate.
• Support ongoing development by enabling employees to return to goals, reflect on progress, and identify what to do next.

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