Tamara Askew
Deloitte Principal, AI in Higher Education,
Deloitte
From Classroom to Day One: How AI + VR Simulations Prepare Students for Workplace Reality
Wednesday, September 30, 2026 | 9:30AM–10:30AM MT
Session Type:
Poster Session
Delivery Format:
Poster Session
Students (and employers) are asking: How do we bridge foundational concepts to day-one professional judgment? This session showcases a tested, classroom-embedded AI-powered virtual reality (VR) simulation that places students inside realistic accounting workplace scenarios: deadline pressure, ambiguous documentation, client demands, and supervisor influence, all while surfacing the ethical friction points that often define real careers. Built by Deloitte in partnership with USC, the experience runs like a choose-your-own-adventure. Students speak and act in branches. They receive AI-driven prompts and feedback and watch a range of consequences unfold: from strengthened trust and promotion-ready behaviors to reprimands, escalation, or job loss when choices cross ethical lines. The pilot engaged 60+ students and faculty, captured detailed user preferences, and earned unanimously positive feedback on educational value. Post-simulation survey results showed 98% student interest in more VR-based learning, 94% recommending it for other activities, and 85% affirming the simulation’s clear value in higher education. Participants will see a live demo and learn a practical implementation playbook that includes syllabus pain-point mapping and scenario design, AI voice-response evaluation, rubrics, and feedback loops with adaptable templates to run a pilot and scale with human-AI collaboration and ethical guardrails.
