How Colleva Reimagines Learning with Anam’s Photorealistic AI Personas

We interviewed Michael Patchen, co-founder and CEO of Colleva, who shared how his team is using Anam’s AI Personas to make professional coaching scalable, personal, and emotionally authentic. By embedding Anam into Colleva’s AI talent copilot, the company has transformed how organizations handle interview screening, onboarding, learning, and performance management, assisting in reducing training time and giving every employee access to real-time, photorealistic, one-on-one development experiences.

Industry Context

Hybrid workplaces and organizations are under pressure to train, coach, and upskill employees faster than ever, and are expected to ensure learning sticks. Traditional e-learning, L&D, and video coaching can’t keep up. They’re static, slow to update, and often fail to capture the nuance of real conversation.

Colleva responds to these challenges directly. An AI talent copilot built to support employees across their entire journey, Colleva supports multiple use cases from interviews to performance reviews. To make those interactions feel real, Colleva turned to Anam.ai.

The Challenge

As Colleva’s co-founder and CEO, Michael Patchen, explains, “When I worked in industry, I had access to an executive coach — but my team didn’t. That experience sparked the idea: what if we could democratize coaching for everyone?”

From onboarding to performance management, Colleva’s clientele needed to scale high-quality coaching and behavioral training. Realism was lacking — early attempts using 2D avatars and voice-only bots fell short. The emotional disconnect was palpable, resulting in awkward smiles, flat voices, and low engagement during high-stakes conversations.

On coaching, interviews, and feedback sessions, Patchen says: “They’re moments of consequence. If the interaction doesn’t feel natural or the face doesn’t look real, people disengage.”

70%+ [of candidates] preferred having the face-to-face interactions because it felt more real, more empowering, and heard. About 90% of people felt comfortable using the process. Part of that fact is that we’ve moved to those more photorealistic faces.

The Solution

Colleva integrated Anam’s real-time photorealistic personas directly through the Anam SDK — a lightweight API that enabled full, face-to-face conversational AI inside Colleva’s coaching platform.

“With Anam, the integration was incredibly smooth,” Mike recalls. “We were up and running quickly, and the level of realism was a game-changer. It finally felt human — expressive, cohesive, and emotionally consistent.”

Now, Colleva’s users can interact with AI personas that simulate a coach, interviewer, or role-play partner — each powered by Anam’s real-time rendering, emotional voice synthesis, and expressive micro-animation system. These interactions give organizations flexibility to train thousands of employees with lifelike precision — without needing multiple tools or vendors.

The Results

The results were immediate. Engagement rates surged across Colleva’s enterprise clients, especially in complex coaching scenarios.

• 70% of users said they preferred face-to-face interactions with AI personas over text or audio.
• 90% reported feeling more comfortable and engaged during simulations, citing natural expressions and voice tone as key factors.

One investment management firm saw adoption skyrocket when photorealistic personas replaced voice-only sessions. Another client cut a year-long competency mapping project down to weeks using interactive AI interviews and automated learning path generation.

Colleva has also expanded into high-empathy use cases — such as healthcare training, where Anam’s expressive realism helps simulate sensitive conversations like delivering difficult diagnoses.

“Most platforms stop at text or voice,” Mike says. “With Anam, we’re able to go face-to-face at scale. That’s a huge differentiator.”

Looking Ahead

For Colleva, realism isn’t a luxury. It’s the foundation of trust, engagement, and measurable growth. As Mike puts it:

“For Colleva to stay premium and impactful, we need that natural, human connection Anam provides. It’s foundational to our roadmap.”

With Anam’s photorealistic personas, Colleva is redefining how organizations coach, train, and connect – making outcome-oriented spaces feel more dynamic, responsive, and, above all, authentic.