ROLEPL-AI

<< Background >>Building on their complementary expertise in training, immersive technologies, and AI, the ROLEPL-AI partners designed an innovative platform to develop soft skills in the tourism sector. FHD (University of Applied Sciences), a higher education institution offering programs in the tourism field, and VUC, an adult education center, expressed the need for more engaging tools tailored to diverse audiences, including those distant from employment. Manzalab, drawing on its previous projects in digital education, saw the opportunity to create an immersive environment integrating AI, while Inceptive aimed to apply its expertise in AI to the educational domain. Together, they envisioned a distance-accessible, interactive, and learner-centered system, addressing the rapid evolution of the labor market and the growing expectations for pedagogical innovation.<< Objectives >>The main objective was to develop a tool enabling distance training in soft skills within an immersive environment, while raising awareness among teachers and learners about the use of AI. FHD and VUC defined the use case adapted to the tourism and event sector, the conflict typologies, and created pedagogical content tailored to their respective audiences. Manzalab ensured coordination, technical and AI integration, as well as the creation of the immersive visual universe and the platform. Inceptive aimed to adapt a generative AI for educational role play, within an augmented realistic use scenario. All partners contributed to dissemination, with VUC in charge of the online video campaign.<< Implementation >>The project began with an in-depth analysis of AI in education. Co-design workshops brought together the partners to define the use case and the application’s features. FHD and VUC created pedagogical scenarios incorporating conflict typologies for soft skills training, each drawing on their respective contexts. FHD also provided the categories designed to generate feedback after role-playing sessions. Manzalab designed the immersive visual universe, developed the platform within Teemew, and integrated the AI, in collaboration with Inceptive for the development and training of the LLM. Two pilot sessions were organised in parallel by the two schools: one with students from both a company class and ordinary high school levels (VUC), the other in a higher education setting (FHD). The feedback collected helped refine the tool and adapt the AI avatar’s interactions to different learning levels.<< Results >>ROLEPL-AI delivered an immersive platform integrating AI and interactive avatars, tested in two different contexts and featuring a coherent visual universe. The project’s deliverables included a quality plan, analyses of the state of the art of AI use in education and role play, pedagogical recommendations, content for LLM training, an LLM released under a permissive licence and trained for educational role play, a communication plan, and dissemination materials. The pilots helped identify use cases, validate conflict typologies, and demonstrate the tool’s adaptability to diverse audiences. All partners contributed to dissemination, notably through local events and an online video campaign led by VUC. The project also produced a transfer concept, a good practice framework for integrating AI in vocational training and adult education, and opened opportunities for transfer to other sectors, including education, healthcare, and industry.