Executive Summary

The Problem: A Growing Skills Gap

The modern workplace faces a paradox. As artificial intelligence automates technical tasks at an accelerating pace, the uniquely human skills of communication, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal effectiveness have become more valuable than ever—yet organizations struggle to measure, develop, and retain these capabilities.

The numbers are stark. The World Economic Forum projects that by 2025, 50% of employees will require significant reskilling, with interpersonal competencies topping the list of critical needs. LinkedIn's Workplace Learning Report found that 89% of recruiting failures stem from soft skill deficiencies rather than technical gaps. Meanwhile, the cost of poor communication alone reaches $1.2 trillion annually across U.S. businesses.

Yet the tools organizations use to address this challenge remain fundamentally unchanged since the mid-twentieth century. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), developed in the 1940s, and DISC assessments, based on William Marston's 1928 behavioral theory, continue to dominate corporate training programs. These instruments share a critical limitation: they measure what people believe about themselves, not what they actually do.

The Solution: AI-Native Behavioral Assessment

The People Skills Index (PSI) represents a fundamental shift in how interpersonal skills are measured and developed. Built from the ground up for the AI era, PSI combines multimodal behavioral observation with validated psychological research to assess what people demonstrate, not merely what they declare.

In approximately 20 minutes, PSI captures authentic behavioral signals through five integrated modules:

• Rapid Judgments: Realistic video scenarios requiring immediate text responses, with one-time playback and time-pressured inputs
• Social Perception: Microexpression recognition tasks measuring accuracy in reading emotional cues
• Expressive Impact: Voice recording analysis capturing vocal warmth, steadiness, energy, and composure
• Written Communication: Email refinement tasks evaluating clarity, warmth, and strategic messaging
• Self-Assessment: Calibrated Likert scales enabling blind spot detection through self-perception versus performance comparison

The PSI-7 Framework

PSI measures seven trainable dimensions—capabilities that can be developed through deliberate practice, measured through reassessment, and connected to observable workplace outcomes:

1. 1
   Situational Radar: Perceiving emotional context and reading interpersonal dynamics
2. 2
   Emotional Regulation: Managing responses and maintaining composure under pressure
3. 3
   Outcome Ownership: Projecting competence, accountability, and agency
4. 4
   Adaptive Agility: Flexing communication style to different audiences and contexts
5. 5
   Strategic Clarity: Communicating clearly, concisely, and with appropriate impact
6. 6
   Relational Warmth: Creating connection, approachability, and psychological safety
7. 7
   Diplomatic Assertiveness: Advocating effectively while maintaining relationships

Key Differentiators

Feature	PSI	Traditional Tools
Data Collection	Multimodal (text, voice, video recognition, self-report)	Self-report only
What's Measured	Demonstrated behavioral capability	Declared preference or belief
Blind Spot Detection	Yes (self-perception vs. performance comparison)	No
Gaming Resistance	High (behavioral signals difficult to fake)	Low-moderate
Development Focus	Explicit (trainable skills, living profiles)	Limited (style awareness)
ROI Measurement	Built-in (pre-post comparison)	Challenging

For HR and L&D Leaders

PSI addresses the persistent challenges of soft skills development:

• Baseline Measurement: Know where each employee and team stands before investing in training
• Development Targeting: Identify specific dimensions requiring attention rather than generic "communication training"
• Blind Spot Illumination: Surface the gaps between self-perception and performance that prevent genuine development
• Progress Tracking: Measure improvement with the same rigor applied to technical skills
• ROI Demonstration: Connect training investment to measurable capability improvement

Implementation pathway: Pilot programs of 30-75 participants typically run 16 weeks, including assessment, individual debriefs, development activities, and reassessment. Organizations then expand based on demonstrated outcomes.

Data Practices

PSI is designed with privacy in mind:

• Voice recordings are not stored. Audio is processed using multimodal AI analysis, then deleted immediately after scoring completes.
• No video capture of participants. Modules show video to participants but do not record them.
• Scoring data, not raw media. What persists is the dimensional scores, not acoustic waveforms or transcripts.
• Encrypted in transit and at rest. All data uses industry-standard encryption.

The Research Foundation

PSI emerges from Science of People's 18 years of human behavior research, including original studies analyzing thousands of TED Talks, Shark Tank pitches, and interpersonal interactions. Founded by Vanessa Van Edwards—Harvard instructor, national bestselling author of Captivate and Cues, and behavioral scientist whose work has reached over 70 million video views—Science of People has developed frameworks adopted by Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and the United Nations.

Each PSI-7 dimension connects to established psychological research: emotional perception (Mayer & Salovey), facial expression coding (Ekman & Friesen), emotion regulation (Gross), psychological safety (Edmondson), warmth-competence dynamics (Fiske), and principled assertiveness (Fisher & Ury).