Client Communication Training for Engineering Students

We try to keep it faff and fuss free: Log-in. Brief your AI agent and upload relevant training material. Share a link with your students/trainees. Review the recordings.

Engineers Need to Talk, Not Just Calculate

The best technical solution means nothing if you can't understand what the client actually needs, or explain your proposal in terms they understand. Yet engineering curricula focus almost entirely on technical skills, leaving graduates unprepared for the reality of client-facing work.

Employers consistently report that communication skills are the biggest gap in new engineering graduates. The ability to gather requirements, manage expectations, and explain complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders is what separates competent engineers from effective ones.

Requirements Gathering

  • Initial client meetings to understand project scope
  • Clarifying vague or contradictory requirements
  • Identifying constraints the client hasn't mentioned
  • Discovering the real problem behind the stated problem

Explaining Technical Concepts

  • Presenting design options to non-technical stakeholders
  • Justifying decisions and trade-offs
  • Handling "why does this cost so much?" conversations
  • Translating engineering terminology into plain English

Project Management Conversations

  • Delivering bad news about timelines or budgets
  • Negotiating scope changes
  • Managing client expectations throughout a project
  • Handling complaints and difficult feedback

Assessment That Accrediting Bodies Want to See

IET, ICE, and other professional bodies increasingly emphasise communication competencies. The platform provides documented evidence of student practice and assessment in realistic professional scenarios, which is exactly what accreditation reviews look for.

The Evidence So Far

Figures from live use, and from an anonymous survey of the students who were assessed on it.

Now used by universities across the UK and Ireland, and by schools, not-for-profit organisations and emergency-service training teams.

140
final-year students assessed
A summative assessed conversation that counted toward their degree
Ulster University, December 2025
78%
preferred it to a recorded presentation
77% preferred it to a formal exam and 68% to a written assignment
Student survey, January 2026
1st
for building practice skills
43% ranked it first of four methods, ahead of multiple-choice tests (39%) and written assignments (4%)
Student survey, January 2026
1,500+
voice conversations on the platform
99% call success rate
Platform call records, August 2026

Survey: anonymous, 69 responses (49% of the cohort), collected before students received their results.

“My social work students loved the realistic feel of it. We had students discussing fictional cases with a virtual practice teacher. Students found the agent intuitive, informative and engaging. It provides a safe, supportive environment where they can practice, make mistakes and build confidence before going out on placement. I can see considerable potential for other applications. We are developing a student support agent to guide students through their assignments.”
Dr Adi Chereni (Ph.D.), Senior Lecturer in Social Work, London Metropolitan UniversityUsed it with his Law for Social Work Practice class
“We've been using this as an official summative assessment on one of our final year modules. It's been absolutely brilliant. Students who are going to be great social workers are not always great at writing essays, and this was a great way to let them shine: talking through what they know, instead of writing about it. We set up AI agents that grilled them on their knowledge. Sounds severe, but they were allowed 3 attempts, then they nominated the conversation they wanted us to mark. I enjoyed marking the conversations and I can't say I have enjoyed marking more than a couple of essays in recent years due to students' use of AI.”
Patricia Burns, Lecturer in Social Work, Ulster UniversityMarked the assessed conversations
Winner

Best Custom AI Educational Software

AI in Education Awards 2026, presented at the 6th National Conference on Generative AI in Education, Belfast

The survey and the research behind these figures →

Ready to try it?

Drop us a line. We get back within 24 hours. We set you up with a trial workspace. If you like it we help you get set up.

Get In Touch

Responding to New Education and Training Realities

🎓

Assessment Integrity

Plagiarism detection tools are now in an arms race with AI. We can help you sidestep that whole debacle!

💼

Practical Skills Alignment

Professionals don't write essays in practice. They have difficult conversations. Natural voice interactions mirror real professional demands.

📈

24/7 Practice Availability

Students can practice anytime, with no scheduling and no waiting. Human role-players are expensive. AI allows unlimited practice.

🛡️

Psychological Safety

Make mistakes without real-world consequences. Repeat scenarios until confident, then review transcripts and recordings.

AI Conversation Partners That Feel Real

Create custom AI conversation agents that simulate realistic professional scenarios. Students practice challenging conversations as many times as they need.

  • ✓Create custom scenarios matching your curriculum
  • ✓Natural voice conversations, not text-based chat
  • ✓Full transcripts for review and feedback
  • ✓Audio recordings for self-reflection
Training Scenario
Active Session
"I'm not sure I understand what you're proposing. Can you explain it differently?"
"Of course. Let me break it down step by step..."

Simple Setup, Powerful Results

Get your first AI agent running in minutes

1

Create a Class

Set up a class for your course. Give it a name and description.

2

Brief Your Agent

Define the scenario: who they are, what the context is, how they should respond.

3

Share the Link

Send your students a simple enrollment link. They log in and start practicing.

4

Review & Assess

Access transcripts and recordings. Provide feedback on specific moments.

Scenario Examples for Engineering & ICT

Create scenarios tailored to your curriculum

Client Requirements Meeting

Gather project requirements from non-technical stakeholders.

Requirements

Design Presentation

Present technical solutions in terms clients can understand.

Communication

Scope Negotiation

Handle changes, constraints, and expectation management.

Project Mgmt

Site Meeting Simulation

Planning consultations and on-site coordination discussions.

Civil

Sprint Review

Software sprint reviews and stakeholder demos.

Software

Safety Briefing

Communicate safety requirements and installation guidance.

Electrical
S

For Students

  • Practice anytime, anywhere, with no scheduling required
  • Make mistakes safely before real encounters
  • Build confidence through repetition
  • Review recordings for self-assessment
  • Prepare for specific challenging scenarios
L

For Lecturers

  • Create custom scenarios for any context
  • Access objective data on student practice
  • Review transcripts for targeted feedback
  • Supplement limited role-play time
  • Standardise training across cohorts

Get Started

Drop us a line. We get back within 24 hours. We set you up with a trial workspace. If you like it we help you get set up.

✓ Quick response within 24 hours
✓ Free trial workspace to explore
✓ Hands-on help getting set up

Or email us directly:

info@hied.ai

Frequently Asked Questions

How realistic are the AI conversations?

Our AI agents use advanced voice synthesis and natural language processing to create remarkably realistic conversations. They respond contextually and adapt to student responses in real-time.

Can I customize the scenarios for my curriculum?

Absolutely. You define the scenario context, personality traits, and conversation goals. You can also upload relevant training materials to inform the AI's responses.

How do students access the practice sessions?

Students receive a simple enrollment link. They log in with their email, see the scenario briefing, and start the conversation with one click. No complex setup required.

Can I review what my students said?

Yes. Every conversation is automatically transcribed and recorded. You can read the full transcript and listen to the audio recording for each practice session.

What does it cost?

Pricing starts at £100 for smaller numbers of students using the platform for a semester. Institution-wide access packages begin at around £10,000 per annum.

How secure is my data?

All data is stored on EU-based servers, encrypted in transit and at rest, and our infrastructure providers (Google Cloud, Vercel) are SOC 2 Type 2 certified and ISO 27001 compliant. We're GDPR compliant and your data is never used to train AI models. View our security documentation.