The Challenge
Entrepreneurial ventures fail at alarming rates, not necessarily because of a lack of business knowledge, but because of underdeveloped soft skills. Universities are effective at transferring technical expertise — business models, product development and market analysis — yet entrepreneurs often struggle with what matters most in interactions with stakeholders: communication, emotional capabilities and the ability to read between the lines in high-stakes situations.
Traditional classroom settings cannot fully replicate the pressure of facing a sceptical investor, handling challenging questions or managing the emotional turbulence of repeated rejection. This gap between knowing and doing can significantly affect the survival of entrepreneurial ventures.
The Innovation
Prof. Kariv, Prof. Elyoseph and Mr. Haber, founder of Cesura.ai, have developed an experiential learning system powered by two AI agents, transforming how students acquire and practise entrepreneurial competencies.
1. Investor-bot
The Investor-bot engages students in realistic and challenging sessions focused on their projects' product, team and market fit. It combines several robust components — personality modelling (Big Five), linguistic analysis of tone and style, investor background profiles, and behavioural research on investor–entrepreneur dynamics — to mirror authentic stakeholder behaviour: tough, probing and demanding.
After each session, students receive detailed feedback and a numerical score reflecting their overall investment readiness.
2. Resilience-Mentor
The Resilience-Mentor operates in parallel, intervening after every four exchanges to help students decode what the investor really means. It provides on-the-go reflection tools grounded in a five-dimension resilience model, helping students recognise patterns, manage emotions and strengthen their response strategies.
At the end of each session, it creates space for collaborative reflection on the interaction, fostering metacognitive awareness and deeper learning.
Students can engage in repeated practice cycles, allowing them to observe and progressively strengthen their competencies with each iteration.
Integrating Key Competences
The practice seamlessly integrates Digital Competence and Entrepreneurial Competence, while developing Personal, Social and Learning Competences, including:
- communication and storytelling
- conflict navigation
- resilience and emotional regulation
- self-efficacy and confidence
- stakeholder engagement
These are precisely the skills that traditional entrepreneurship programmes can struggle to develop effectively. The experience helps students build self-confidence and a stronger belief in their own abilities.
Learning Activities and Teacher Role
Students learn through experiential, transformative and just-in-time learning methods, combining simulation, immediate feedback, guided reflection and iterative practice. They encounter realistic scenarios that require them to think on their feet, adapt their messaging and develop emotional stamina — creating authentic learning experiences that are more likely to stick.
Teachers act as facilitators rather than lecturers. They introduce the system, monitor interactions and guide students through post-simulation analysis.
At the same time, teachers and researchers can analyse data on conversational topics, emotional patterns and sentiment shifts, using this evidence to lead discussions and identify class-wide competence profiles. This evidence-based approach creates additional opportunities for targeted reflection and learning.
Impact and Replication
Across 300 students in Israel, Canada and the UK, the practice has generated promising results. Students report developing practical entrepreneurial skills, receiving honest assessments of their capabilities and finding the tool accessible despite its challenging nature.
The practice has already been published in the Journal of Technology Transfer, with additional publications forthcoming, providing a strong academic foundation for the approach.
The potential for further development and replication is substantial. The team is working on additional AI stakeholder personas, including customers, partners, regulators and specialised mentors targeting specific soft skills.
Future adaptations will address the needs of neurodivergent entrepreneurs, who may face particular challenges in stakeholder interactions, as well as women entrepreneurs, who may experience reluctance or barriers in high-stakes conversations. These developments aim to create a more inclusive entrepreneurial learning tool capable of addressing wider societal gaps.
Finally, building a community of innovative educators will support the wider scaling and transfer of experiential entrepreneurship education, with the ambition of bringing this approach to learners and educators worldwide.
Innovator: Dafna Kariv - Reichman University