The Avatar Advantage: AI-powered Faculty Development to Enhance Feedback Delivery Skills

Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions (06/29/26) Michalsen, Kara; Lockspeiser, Tai; Czaja, Angela S.; et al.

Researchers investigated whether feedback delivery ratings provided by artificial intelligence (AI)-powered avatars can provide acceptable and reliable evaluations of feedback delivery in health professions education. After receiving instruction on effective feedback practices, participants practiced delivering feedback in structured scenarios with AI avatars and received ratings from themselves, peer observers, and the avatars using a standardized assessment scale. Participants rated the training highly, with most describing it as very or extremely effective, expressing strong interest in future avatar-based training, and valuing the avatars' detailed feedback rationales. While peer observers gave significantly higher ratings than both participants and avatars, there was no significant difference between self-ratings and avatar ratings, suggesting that avatar assessments were comparable to participants' own evaluations. Overall, the findings indicate that AI-powered avatars are well received, provide reliable feedback delivery ratings, and offer a practical, scalable tool for professional development and feedback training.

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