A common way educators are integrating AI is by using it to create safe, repeatable practice environments for developing complex skills. This approach is particularly evident in disciplines where learning involves interpersonal interaction, professional judgement, and confidence – skills that are difficult to practise at scale and often carry high stakes.
One example comes from Rachel Clark, a Social Care and Health educator from RMIT University’s College of Vocational Education, who works with students preparing for industry-based placements and work roles involving online service support, such as Lifeline and Beyond Blue Webchat. These roles require students to navigate complex, emotionally charged conversations while applying trauma-informed practice principles. Yet practising such scenarios live in class can present challenges. For some students, roleplaying sensitive situations with peers can trigger feelings of vulnerability or draw on past personal experiences, making traditional practice environments difficult to manage.
To address this, Rachel introduced AI-supported roleplay as a practice environment designed around trauma-informed principles of safety, choice, and empowerment. By carefully prompting the AI, she created scenarios that reflected realistic client interactions at varying levels of complexity, allowing learning to be intentionally scaffolded. The AI could also be prompted to represent diversity across a range of client experiences, helping students develop professional awareness without placing emotional labour on classmates.
Crucially, the design gave students control over their learning. Students could practise independently, pause or stop an interaction at any time, and consult the educator when needed. This shifted practice from a performative classroom activity to a self-paced learning experience, where students determined their level of engagement and readiness. Rather than replacing in-class teaching, the AI-supported roleplay complemented observation, discussion, and educator-led guidance – creating a safer, more inclusive practice environment that supported both skill development and student wellbeing.
This pattern aligns with emerging research highlighting the value of AI-enabled roleplay as a tool for developing communication and counselling skills (Maurya, 2024). Studies have shown that AI-based roleplay environments can increase learner engagement, confidence, and reflective capacity when designed as formative, practice-oriented experiences rather than performance assessments (Freeman, 2025). By enabling repetition, variation, and immediate feedback, these environments support learning processes that are otherwise difficult to sustain within traditional teaching constraints.
Across contexts, the key insight remains consistent: AI works best as a practice partner when it is embedded within a broader pedagogical design. Educators shape the scenario, define what “good” looks like, and guide reflection. AI simply provides the space in which learning can be rehearsed, refined, and deepened.
