The new platform pairs AI coaching at scale with human-led mentoring, starting with AI roleplay for high-stakes conversations
SEATTLE & ORLANDO – October 26, 2026 – Chronus, a leader in enterprise mentoring, today entered the AI coaching market with the launch of Rumi by Chronus, a platform that brings together AI-powered coaching and human-led mentoring to accelerate workforce readiness.
Rumi by Chronus includes two offerings: Rumi Coach, the company’s first AI coaching product, and Rumi Mentor, its proven mentoring solution with AI-powered matching and guided conversations that keep relationships on track. Rumi Coach launches with Roleplays, which lets employees practice important conversations with an AI partner.
What’s New
- Coaching and mentoring in one platform: Organizations can offer on-demand AI coaching and mentoring from experienced colleagues in one place, with Rumi recommending a mentor when an employee would benefit from one.
- AI practice for high-stakes conversations: Employees can practice by voice or text across 30 ready-to-use scenarios or with custom scenarios built by their organization, and receive a readiness level after each attempt.
- AI coaching grounded in organizational context: Unlike generic AI chatbots, Rumi Coach draws on the context each organization chooses to share, from roles and skills to goals and career paths.
- Readiness insights for talent teams: Admins can see readiness across teams, measured against the organization’s own criteria, to know where people are strong and where to invest.
Why it Matters
Organizations are under constant pressure to keep their people prepared for rapid change. A World Economic Forum survey found that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to transform or become outdated by 2030. Traditional year-long training programs can no longer keep pace. Coaching builds adaptability, but its cost has long limited it to senior leaders. Rumi by Chronus closes that gap by making AI coaching available to every employee, alongside mentoring from colleagues who know the business.
"At the pace work is changing, development can't happen on a schedule anymore. Employees need coaching in the flow of work, but they still need a human mentor for the judgment and lived experience that AI can't replace. With Rumi, we're bringing together the best of both," said Ankur Ahlowalia, CEO of Chronus.
What Sets Rumi Coach Apart
General-purpose AI tools can answer questions, but they don’t know the company an employee works for or what drives the person asking. Rumi Coach knows both. Each customer decides what organizational context the AI can use, from roles and skills to goals and career paths, and Chronus’s proprietary Purpose Assessment uncovers what motivates each employee: why they work, who they want to impact, and how they solve problems. Rumi Coach brings these together with what two decades of enterprise mentoring have taught Chronus about which skills matter most and how people build them. The result is coaching that fits both the person and the company, and employees can choose to share what they’ve worked on with their manager, mentor, or coach, so their next conversation picks up where the AI left off.
Rumi Coach: Roleplays Key Features
Every Roleplays scenario is based on a real workplace situation. Key features include:
- Realistic conversation partner: Employees rehearse high-stakes moments, from pushing back on an out-of-scope stakeholder request to giving difficult feedback to a direct report. Rumi Coach responds the way a manager, colleague, or customer would. Employees can practice by voice or text.
- Feedback that measures readiness: Employees receive a readiness level and feedback on whether they applied the right approach, based on frameworks the organization already trains on, such as Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) or Goal-Reality-Options-Will (GROW). They also get tips on delivery, such as pacing and filler words, and can track their progress over time.
- A scenario library built for the business: Admins can edit the ready-made scenarios, add their own, and decide which ones employees can access.
- Guardrails and privacy by design: Admins choose which profile information the AI can use. Results stay private to the employee unless they decide to share them; no audio is stored; and admins see only aggregate insights, never individual transcripts or readiness levels.
Availability
Rumi Coach is available now, as a standalone product or alongside Rumi Mentor. Attendees at Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo, Oct. 26–28 in Orlando, Fla., can try Roleplays live at booth #1023. To learn more about Rumi, visit https://chronus.com/platform. To request a demo, visit https://chronus.com/gartner-2026-book-a-demo.
About Chronus
Chronus brings AI coaching, mentoring, and communities together in one platform, Rumi by Chronus, to support workforce readiness. Backed by 20 years of talent development expertise and more than 14 million users to date, Chronus combines the best of AI and human connection to help every employee build the skills and connections they need to perform at work. Fortune 1000 enterprises and government agencies trust Chronus to develop their people, with measurable gains in engagement, internal mobility, and retention. Learn more at chronus.com.
FAQs
How does Rumi by Chronus support workforce readiness?
Rumi Coach gives every employee on-demand AI coaching, starting with Roleplays for high-stakes conversations, and Rumi Mentor uses AI-powered matching and guidance to help organizations scale mentoring from colleagues who know the business.
Do organizations need both Rumi Coach and Rumi Mentor?
No. Organizations can start with Rumi Coach or Rumi Mentor and add the other at any time. When used together, both work in the same platform.
How does a Roleplays session work?
An employee picks a scenario, such as a tough conversation with a manager or customer, and talks it through with Rumi Coach by voice or text. Rumi Coach then shows how ready they are and what to adjust, and they can retry and track their progress. Admins can tailor the scenario library to fit their organization’s needs.
How is Rumi Coach different from general-purpose AI tools and online learning?
General-purpose AI tools don’t know the company an employee works for or what drives the person asking, and online courses teach skills only in general terms. Rumi Coach prepares employees for the specific conversation they’re about to have. It draws on the organizational context each customer chooses to share, Chronus’s proprietary Purpose Assessment, which uncovers what motivates each employee, and two decades of talent development expertise.
How does Rumi Coach protect employee privacy?
Results are private by default, and employees preview anything before choosing to share it. Admins control which profile information the AI uses and see only aggregate reporting, never individual transcripts or readiness levels. No audio is stored, and customer data is never used for AI training or shared across customers.
Media Contacts:
Escalate PR for Chronus
