Workera Unveils “Talk for Sage,” an AI-Powered Voice Mentor for Real-Time Skills Verification
SAN FRANCISCO – Workera, an AI-powered skills verification platform, today announced the launch of Talk for Sage, an AI mentor agent that brings real-time, voice-driven skills verification to the workplace. The new tool transforms natural conversation into a comprehensive skill assessment, allowing employees to verbally demonstrate their knowledge and receive immediate, adaptive feedback.
According to Workera CEO Kian Katanforoosh, the new offering represents a shift toward “multi-modal and conversational” skills verification. “With Talk, Sage listens like a great mentor—probing, adapting, and recognizing partial mastery in real time,” he said. This approach moves beyond traditional pass/fail metrics, focusing instead on the reasoning and application of skills.
Industry analyst Josh Bersin echoed this sentiment, noting that the technology delivers “skill verification that reflects how work actually gets done.” This aligns with the growing demand from organizations for more actionable and authentic talent insights.
How Talk for Sage Works
Engineered to feel like a trusted mentor, Sage’s voice mode features natural turn-taking and a low cognitive load. The system, which boasts a sub-1.2-second latency and supports multiple languages, is driven by the same deep skill-mapping and psychometric rigor as Workera’s text-based assessments.
Unlike generic voice assistants, Sage dynamically adjusts the difficulty of questions, awards partial credit for nuanced answers, and chunks conversations into skill-based challenges. This results in more predictive and granular talent data for leaders.
The platform allows employees to apply their skills in real-world scenarios, from technical code reviews to strategic stakeholder conversations. Sage listens, interprets the response, and then probes deeper, providing richer insights into an organization’s workforce capabilities.
The Urgency of Skills Verification
The launch of Talk for Sage comes amid a growing skills crisis. Workera’s own 2025 State of Skills Intelligence report found that only 32% of learning and development leaders believe their training effectively closes skill gaps, and just 22% of employees feel their organization is ready for AI in the next two years.
This aligns with research from IDC, which predicts that by 2026, more than 90% of organizations will face AI-related skill shortages, potentially costing up to $5.5 trillion in lost productivity. Real-time, contextual skills data is emerging as a critical tool for companies to address this challenge.
Additional Platform Enhancements
The August 2025 release also introduces several other key features designed to create a smarter, more personalized skills platform:
Supercharged Analytics: A real-time, interactive dashboard allows leaders to drill down into talent data by role, region, or business unit, and receive AI-powered recommendations for targeted investment.done,” said Josh Bersin, global industry analyst.
New Scoring Model: A new scoring system moves beyond pass/fail, measuring how well an individual can apply their skills in high-stakes situations, providing granular insights to both the employee and the business.
Personalized Skill Maps: The platform now offers data-driven learning roadmaps, guiding employees to the next best step in their professional development.
Enhanced AI Mentoring: Sage tailors and recommends resources from existing content libraries and partners like O’Reilly and Deeplearning.ai, mapping them directly to verified skill gaps.
Sage’s voice mode was engineered to feel like a trusted mentor — with natural turn-taking, adaptive follow-ups, and low cognitive load. Every voice exchange is powered by the same deep skill-mapping and psychometric rigor that drives Sage’s text-based assessments, tuned for verbal interaction so learners can think out loud and demonstrate reasoning in their own words.
Sage maintains fluid interaction with sub-1.2 second latency, and supports multiple languages. Unlike generic voice agents, Sage chunks conversations into skill-based challenges, dynamically adjusts difficulty based on performance, and awards partial credit to capture nuance — delivering sharper, more predictive talent data than binary pass/fail systems.
Sage now allows employees to apply their skills in real-world scenarios — from technical code reviews to strategic stakeholder conversations. Sage listens, interprets, and probes deeper, delivering richer, more authentic insights into workforce capabilities.
The launch follows new data from the 2025 State of Skills Intelligence report showing that only 32% of L&D leaders believe their training programs effectively close skill gaps and just 22% of employees feel their organization will be fully AI-ready in the next two years. Verified skills intelligence, particularly in real time, has emerged as a critical differentiator in workforce readiness.
IDC research underscores the urgency: by 2026, over 90% of organizations will face AI-related skills shortages, costing up to $5.5 trillion in lost productivity and revenue. Verified, contextual skills data, such as that provided by Workera, is key to closing that gap.
Beyond Talk: A Smarter, More Personal Skills Platform
The August 2025 release also introduces a series of platform enhancements:
- New scoring model: Moves beyond pass/fail to measure not just what someone knows, but how well they can apply it in high-stakes situations, delivering granular, actionable insights to both the learner and to the business.
- Personalized skill maps: Data-driven learning roadmaps cut through the noise, guiding employees to the next best step in their growth journey.
- Enhanced AI mentoring: Sage tailors resources from existing content libraries and leading partners like O’Reilly, Deeplearning.ai, Udacity, and LinkedIn Learning, mapped directly to verified skill gaps to reduce the learning time required to close verified gaps.
- Supercharged analytics: A real-time, interactive dashboard allows leaders to drill down by role, region, or business unit, benchmark against industry standards, and receive AI-powered recommendations for targeted investment.
