The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), which supports previously incarcerated people with ongoing career and financial stability coaching in 12 US states and has made more than 53,000 placements into full-time employment, called its early internal discussions and experimentation with AI “Project Centaur.” It combined a book club—Ethan Mollick’s 
 Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI—with enterprise ChatGPT experimentation. The centaur description reflected CEO’s commitment to agency—human judgment and decision-making—but with enhanced capabilities.

Initially, CEO did not factor in AI’s programmatic potential into its strategy. Dane Worthington, CEO’s senior director of AI strategy and a self-described introvert, tinkered with voice coaching tools to help him improve his presentation skills. 

Worthington was so impressed that CEO developed a custom AI voice coach to reinforce learning for its staff employment coaches and trained it using the motivational interviewing approach that CEO has long used. The “aha” moment for Worthington was when he saw the nuanced specificity of the chatbot’s responses. The AI did not just say “be more empathetic.” Instead, it said things like “When you said this, it made me feel this way. Here's another way you could think about reframing that.” 

“That kind of feedback is very difficult to provide at scale through human coaching,” says Worthington. “And it’s expensive.” CEO had found a compelling internal use—it gave staff more opportunities to practice and receive quality feedback on one of their highest-value skills.

From here, it became easy to see how a similar coaching tool could be used to help CEO’s formerly incarcerated participants practice their job interviewing skills. Participants meet with their coaches once a week. “That's where a lot of trust-building happens and where the highest-quality coaching takes place,” says Worthington. “For many participants, more practice time would be beneficial, especially when they’re trying to navigate the world of work.”

Results of an early pilot with 500-plus participants show that the AI voice coaching tool improved job interview skills, reduced anxiety, and improved workplace communication and problem-solving. This technology does not replace human coaches; it helps them be more effective. At a recent presentation, Worthington mentioned that CEO’s AI voice coaching tool could be deployed in a correctional facility. Afterward, a funder approached him and asked what CEO would need to make that happen. “I guess I’m going to have to figure that out now,” he replied. CEO has since partnered with correctional facilities to make it available to incarcerated people looking toward eventual employment.

CEO’s AI engagement follows a common pathway for many nonprofits: start with internal learning and small experiments Dimension 1 (Augment), build confidence and safeguards, then adapt that solution to deepen the organization’s impact Dimension 2 (Advance).