Kian Katanforoosh benefits from the exceptional mentorship of Andrew Ng, a distinguished AI researcher and his former advisor at Stanford. Together, they pioneered the deep learning program at Stanford, and Ng currently serves as chairman of Katanforoosh’s startup, Workera. While Ng has significantly influenced Katanforoosh's career, the Workera CEO is now exploring how to define effective mentorship and automate it through an innovative AI agent named Sage.
“I trust Andrew because of his impressive background and deep expertise, but there aren't many mentors like him available,” Katanforoosh stated in an interview. “Automating certain aspects of mentorship has become essential.”
On November 2024, Workera unveiled Sage, an AI agent designed to engage in conversations with employees to evaluate their skills, goals, and needs. After completing a series of brief tests, Sage can accurately assess an employee’s proficiency in various skills. It then recommends tailored online courses through platforms like Coursera and Workday. By interacting with Sage, employees can enhance their abilities in fields such as writing, machine learning, and mathematics, receiving guidance suited to their current skill levels.
It's important to note that Workera’s interpretation of “mentor” is quite specific; Katanforoosh acknowledges that Sage won’t replicate everything Ng provided him, as aspects like encouragement, career advice, and networking cannot be easily automated. Nonetheless, Sage offers objective assessments and course recommendations tailored to employee goals – a powerful tool for those who lack access to traditional mentorship.
As the son of Iranian immigrants who fled their homeland during the turbulent 1970s, Katanforoosh understands the importance of accessible education. His father, who left behind a scientific career, resorted to selling clothes in France. With Workera primarily serving Fortune 500 companies today, Katanforoosh envisions a future where enhanced skill assessment could empower individuals in similar situations as his parents.
In today's remote work environment, the demand for mentorship is at an all-time high. Young professionals have fewer opportunities to engage with experienced peers, limiting their access to valuable insights. Katanforoosh believes Workera's AI agent could fill this gap.
Sage will be available to early access clients starting November 2024, including Booz Allen, a defense technology provider. Other clients, such as the U.S. Air Force and Accenture, will gain general access in March 2025.
With over $44 million raised, Workera focuses on AI-generated assessments for enterprise employees, providing a means for employers to evaluate their workforce's skill levels. While employees may be hesitant about being compared with colleagues, Workera aims to create a value-driven approach for employers to invest in their teams.
Sage enhances this experience by offering a conversational interface that integrates seamlessly with the Workera platform. Utilizing OpenAI’s advanced multimodal models, Sage is capable of handling a variety of tasks and formats. According to Katanforoosh, approximately 95% of Sage’s interactions utilize GPT-4, while the remaining 5% leverage OpenAI’s new o1 model for more complex assessments requiring reasoning.
Can an AI agent truly replace a human mentor? With Sage, Workera seeks to transition from merely providing skill assessments to also acting as a mentor. While human mentors offer emotional support, motivation, and valuable connections, Katanforoosh believes Sage has the potential to excel in certain mentorship facets.
“A great mentor must accurately assess skills; without that, they can’t provide meaningful help,” Katanforoosh emphasized. “In fact, I trust our measurement systems to be more reliable than individual assessments of machine learning skills.”
Additionally, human biases often affect talent evaluation, potentially skewing assessments. AI systems, while not free from bias, can offer a solution. Katanforoosh teaches a course at Stanford on bias mitigation in AI and believes algorithms can be adjusted to ensure more equitable outcomes.
“I’m confident that AI models are currently less biased and will continue to improve in this regard,” stated Katanforoosh.
By automating assessments, managers can focus on nurturing the interpersonal aspects of mentorship that AI cannot replicate. Despite its capabilities, Sage does not yet provide long-form content instruction, relying instead on partnerships within the online education sector. However, Sage can identify quickly learnable skills and create short scenarios to test understanding.
While some may argue that Workera is redefining the term "mentor," Sage nevertheless serves as a valuable resource for managers seeking to assess and invest in their workforce effectively.
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