explore · Personal Development, Communication · 30–50 min · 2-30 people, in pairs or trios · medium energy

AI Role-Play Simulator

Participants practise a hard conversation, such as delivering bad news or handling a conflicting stakeholder, with an AI that plays the other side. The prompt tells the AI to build a scenario, play only the other roles, set up a consequential choice after a few exchanges, and finish with feedback. Pairs run the scenario, compare notes and try again.

When to use AI Role-Play Simulator

Use after people have learned a skill or concept and need to practise applying it in a realistic situation without an audience.

What it solves

Role-play in front of colleagues feels exposing, so people avoid it and the skill stays theoretical.

How to run AI Role-Play Simulator, step by step

  1. Recap the skill or concept being practised (5 min).
  2. Give pairs the simulator prompt: the concept, the AI's role, the participant's role, "after four interactions, set up a consequential choice, then tell me how I did. Do not play my role."
  3. One person runs the scenario while the other observes and notes moments that worked or did not (10 min).
  4. Swap roles, with a fresh scenario (10 min).
  5. Pairs compare the AI's feedback with the observer's notes (5 min).
  6. Plenary: what did the AI get wrong, and what will you try in a real conversation? (10 min)

Materials needed

  • AI chat tool per pair
  • Prepared simulator prompt
  • Observer note sheet

Facilitator tips

  • Have a human observer in every run. The AI's feedback is a starting point, not a verdict.
  • Test the prompt yourself first; the AI can loop or lose track of the goal.
  • Make clear that participants can stop and restart a scenario at any time.

Common pitfalls

  • People get absorbed in the story and forget the skill they are meant to practise.
  • The scenario uses unfamiliar settings that add confusion instead of practice.

Variations

  • Use a real upcoming conversation (anonymised) as the scenario.

Running it online or hybrid

Each pair or trio needs one device with an AI chat. Works in breakout rooms; the debrief is in plenary.

What it produces

A transcript per pair, the AI's feedback, and each person's note on what they would do differently.

Origin

Based on the AI-as-simulator approach in Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick's Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students with Prompts (Wharton, 2023). — source

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METODIC places AI Role-Play Simulator inside a complete, timed session plan — agenda, worksheets, facilitator guide and slides — matched to your group and goal.

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