The Augmented Speaker

This book explores the evolving art of public speaking, a timeless skill rooted in persuasion, leadership, and teaching, as it undergoes a profound transformation in the age of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies. How often have we found ourselves preparing a presentationâ"whether for work, a start-up, or a companyâ"sitting at home or in the office, gripped by performance anxiety? We search for the right words, the perfect slides, the ideal scriptâ¦all driven by the desire to finally feel prepared.

For example, Bank of Americaâs VR training program,â"iCoachâ"an AI-powered conversation simulator for practicing difficult interactions, reports that 97% of employees feel more confident applying what they learnt after going through the simulations. Similarly, an Intel case study conducted with HTC Vive Enterprise found that immersive training reduced costs and delivered an estimated 300% ROI over five years, with 94% of trainees requesting additional VR courses. According to PwCâs 2022 Metaverse Survey, 51% of companies are now integrating VR into their strategy or have already built it into at least one business line, with organizations increasingly adopting immersive environments for public speaking rehearsals, interviews, and digital events. Yet traditional communication training remains largely unchanged, still rooted in classical rhetorical models and offering little guidance for hybrid, AI-enhanced, or fully virtual contexts.

This book fills that critical gap. It redefines public speaking by integrating emerging dimensions such as human-machine interaction, avatarmediated communication, AI-generated speech, and virtual presence. The book has been divided into three parts. Part I, âPrinciples,â includes three chapters. From the basics of icebreaking, the foundation of storytelling, to the augmented creativity that can be applied for the realization and improvement of a pitch or speech. It comprises four interviews with global experts: Damian Scavo, founder of Streetbeat; Alvin Wang Graylin, a technological leader, author, and entrepreneur; Davide Viglialoro, a lecturer in Strategy and Entrepreneurship; and Canto i Fatti, a case study of innovation in social
channels that uses AI-powered storytelling in novel ways.

Part II of the book is âAugmented Rhetorics: Rethinking Speech in the Age of Technology,â which includes two chapters: âTrain Your Thinkingâ and âThe Evolution of the Words.â This provides an analysis that starts with the types of thinking and moves to two relevant skills, part of our humanity: reading and writing. Then, linguistic intelligence and its role with the advent of prompt engineering is also discussed. Two interviews are also presented: one with Francesco Frasca, a two-time world champion in bench press powerlifting, and the second with Francesco Finazzi, founder and CEO of Myndoor, a start-up that addresses one of the most pressing challengesâ" mental well-being.

And the last, Part III, âAugmented Speaker,â with three chapters prepares the reader for the first simulation of public speaking in virtual reality, from technical headset settings to possible features. It discusses how to build a long-term strategy across the five levels, introduce AI agents, outline their applications, and create a continuous improvement loop. The last chapter, âFrom Zero to Pitch,â is only an exercise in improving prompting and pitching. Moreover, two interviews are also presented, one with Professor Jeremy Bailenson, a communication professor at Stanford University and the founding director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab; and the second with Alberto Tono, an expert in artificial intelligence and a PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Last but not least, an analysis and presentation of a new platform, VoxcoachAI, was launched as part of this bookâs case study: for receiving real-time AI feedback, practicing with interactive roleplay, tracking progress, and improving public speaking, presentations, and pitches.