SosheIQ

SosheIQ is your AI social coach, helping rebuild real-world conversation skills lost to screen time - improving empathy, confidence, and connection in a world growing more disconnected.

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SosheIQ

Inspiration

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, I noticed something unsettling: people had forgotten how to talk to each other. The isolation, combined with our already screen-saturated lives, had created a perfect storm. Eye contact became rare, group interactions turned tense, and many individuals — especially young adults — felt disconnected, not just from others, but from themselves.

This wasn’t just anecdotal. Social anxiety rates spiked. Relationship formation slowed. Even birthrates fell in parallel with a global decline in interpersonal connection. I created SosheIQ to address that — to reawaken the lost art of conversation and human connection in a post-pandemic world.

What it does

SosheIQ is an AI-powered social skills trainer designed to help users improve real-world interpersonal communication. It simulates lifelike conversations — complete with social cues, nonverbal hints, and subtle emotional signals — and evaluates how users respond.

Key features:

  • Simulated AI conversations with context-based feedback
  • Nonverbal cue recognition (e.g., facial expressions, posture hints)
  • Visual prompts and avatars generated using Imagen
  • Social cue analysis for empathy, timing, and appropriateness
  • Progress tracking over time

Think of it as a personal trainer for your social intelligence.

How we built it

We built SosheIQ using:

  • Next.js for a fast, interactive front-end
  • Gemini API to generate dynamic, scenario-based dialogues and evaluate responses
  • Imagen API to create expressive avatars and nonverbal visual cues
  • Node.js backend for session tracking and scoring logic
  • Google Cloud Run to host and scale our app effortlessly
  • Tailwind CSS for a clean and accessible UI

The architecture is modular to support future expansion into voice/video simulation.

Challenges we ran into

  • Nuancing human behavior: Teaching AI to recognize or simulate tone, intent, and nonverbal cues required thoughtful prompting and iterative fine-tuning.
  • Realistic visuals: Integrating Imagen in a way that enhanced the experience without uncanny valley effects took UI/UX iteration.
  • Feedback tone: Designing feedback that was honest but encouraging — like a real social coach — was harder than expected.
  • Post-pandemic realism: Balancing realistic social scenarios with optimism (without making them too clinical or awkward) was a creative challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • Created a working AI model that gives real-time conversational feedback
  • Integrated dynamic visuals that reflect tone and social context using Imagen
  • Developed a design system that feels approachable and non-judgmental
  • Built a scalable backend for tracking emotional/social growth
  • Got validation from early testers who said it “felt like therapy but more fun”

What we learned

  • Social intelligence is just as trainable as technical skill
  • Visuals can amplify empathy when used with intention
  • People are eager for judgment-free spaces to practice being human again
  • Crafting emotional intelligence into an AI product is not only possible — it’s essential
  • Conversation is a two-way rhythm, not just scripted input/output

What's next for SosheIQ

  • Integrate voice analysis and facial emotion detection for richer simulations
  • Introduce customizable personas (e.g., date night, job interview, family dinner)
  • Partner with therapists and educators to fine-tune simulation content
  • Expand into HR and soft-skills training environments
  • Build out a mobile version for on-the-go practice

Our ultimate goal is to make SosheIQ a core part of how people build confidence in the one skill we all need — human connection.

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