LAS VEGAS, May 19, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference – UneeQ, the leader in digital human technology, today announced the unveiling of AI Buddy from the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference 2026. A new capability within UneeQ’s Immersive Training Platform, AI Buddy is the first solution in the market to deliver face-to-face, spoken coaching from a digital human. The moment a practice session ends, AI Buddy picks up the conversation, sitting down with the learner for a real, two-way discussion about what they did, what they said, and how they came across – providing specific coaching to help them improve.
Sales coaching has struggled to operate at the pace and scale of modern sales organizations. The most valuable moment in any practice session is the few minutes immediately after it ends, when reflection is sharpest and learning lands hardest. That moment, however, is rarely available to learners in any meaningful way. Research from Jobera highlights that 96% of employees want timely feedback, yet 32% are still waiting three months or more to receive it, and academic studies have consistently linked immediate post-practice feedback to stronger knowledge retention. Most training tools today deliver a scorecard once a session ends and leave the learning there, missing the coaching opportunity.
AI Buddy carries the coaching conversation forward instead. Within seconds of finishing a roleplay, the learner is face-to-face with a digital human who already knows the full context of the session: the transcript, the organization’s coaching framework, the learner’s scores, and, through UneeQ’s 3D Analysis, how the team member physically came across in eye contact, body language, tone of voice, and emotional intelligence. The experience is not a one-way performance review. The learner can challenge interpretations, ask why certain moments mattered, replay difficult interactions, test alternative responses, or dig deeper into how they were perceived. AI Buddy responds conversationally and in context, adapting the coaching discussion in real time rather than forcing the learner through a static feedback flow. The result is a more natural debrief experience that mirrors the nuance of a strong human coaching conversation — reflective, specific, emotionally aware, and available immediately after every practice session.
“For decades, sales organizations have treated coaching as a logistical problem, something that scales only as far as the available manager’s time,” said Danny Tomsett, CEO and Founder of UneeQ. “We’ve seen that constraint disappearing for our clients who’ve already been given access to AI Buddy. The companies that win the next decade will be those that turn every practice moment into a learning moment for their people. AI Buddy is our first step toward a coaching intelligence layer that will become as foundational to enterprise learning as the LMS was twenty years ago.”
UneeQ’s AI Buddy comes with a personality. By default, learners meet and engage with Eno: a real-time rendered digital human with emotional presence, custom animation, and a voice built specifically for him. Eno is a curious, playful, and empathetic robot character, with just enough irreverence to take the edge off difficult feedback while staying constructive on substance. Behavioral research has shown that people are often more receptive to critical feedback from a non-human source, because the social stakes drop away.
The approach is also particularly relevant for the rising Gen Z workforce, a generation already comfortable engaging with interactive digital characters, with 87% gaming regularly, making interactive character-based engagement a familiar and intuitive experience rather than a novelty. Early deployments of AI Buddy have already shown stronger learner engagement and improved coaching retention outcomes, reinforcing how conversational, character-driven experiences can accelerate learning.
Enterprise-configurable from day one — organizations can tailor the personality of their Buddy, align it with their own coaching methodology, and reflect the internal messaging that matters most to their team members. Any digital human in UneeQ’s Immersive Training Platform can be set as the AI Buddy, including a custom one created through UneeQ Studio.
What sets AI Buddy apart
- A digital human you can talk to. Face-to-face, spoken, and emotionally responsive, with the same immersive presence as the training session itself.
- Insight beyond the transcript. Through 3D Analysis, AI Buddy draws on body language, eye contact, and tone of voice. Tools that work from text alone cannot offer this layer.
- Full scenario context. AI Buddy understands what was being practiced, the organization’s assessment framework, and how the learner scored, so the coaching is grounded in what actually happened.
- A genuine character. Eno has a personality, a backstory, and a voice created for him. The R&D drew on film and TV storytelling principles, which is what makes him memorable.
- Enterprise-configurable. Organizations can customize personality, coaching methodology, and choice of digital human, so AI Buddy adapts to the brand and the business.
Although AI Buddy is being announced at Gartner CSO, the capability extends well beyond sales. UneeQ’s Immersive Training Platform is already deployed across leadership development, customer service, financial services, and healthcare, supporting any role where the quality of a high-stakes conversation shapes the outcome.
Meet UneeQ at the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference
Danny Tomsett will speak on Wednesday, May 20 at 2:45 PM in a session titled “The Art of Connection: Scaling Face-to-Face Sales Mastery with Behavioral Data.” Conference attendees can also experience AI Buddy live, meet Eno, and book demos at UneeQ Booth 208 in the Exhibit Showcase across both days of the conference.
For more information, visit www.digitalhumans.com
About the Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference
The Gartner CSO & Sales Leader Conference is taking place May 19-20, 2026 in Las Vegas, providing sales leaders with the latest research on AI-driven strategies, seller productivity, and transformative sales leadership. Follow news and updates coming out of the conference on the Gartner Newsroom and on X and LinkedIn using #GartnerSales.
About UneeQ:
UneeQ is a global leader in digital human technology, providing lifelike and emotionally intelligent AI-powered virtual beings for businesses seeking to elevate customer experiences. UneeQ’s platform enables organizations to create highly personalized interactions that drive engagement, foster trust, and deliver exceptional value.
MEDIA CONTACT
Peter Ramsay
Global Results Communications
949.307.5908
uneeq@globalresultspr.com
