AI-Powered, Employee-Centered Retail Training Platform
Cognition is an interactive Learning Management System (LMS) designed to improve retail onboarding by focusing on real-world skill transfer, employee confidence, and situational readiness. Built as a Senior Design I project at The City College of New York, Cognition rethinks traditional compliance-driven training by centering the employee experience, especially for young, first-time, and neurodivergent workers.
Retail organizations invest heavily in training, yet many onboarding systems fail to prepare employees for real customer interactions, emergency situations, and store-specific workflows. Cognition addresses this gap by combining AI-powered simulations, map-based training, and behavior-based analytics to create a more effective onboarding experience for both employees and employers.
- Improve training transfer from onboarding to real retail environments
- Increase employee confidence and preparedness
- Reduce disengagement and early turnover
- Provide employers with actionable, behavior-based training insights
- Young and first-time retail workers
- Neurodivergent employees (e.g., ADHD-friendly design)
- Employees learning customer service and store navigation
- Retail managers and supervisors
- Training and onboarding teams
- Organizations seeking measurable training effectiveness
- Create store-specific workspaces
- Upload store layouts, protocols, and training materials
- POS integration (Lightspeed, Zoho)
- Real-time inventory updates via Webhooks
- Employee performance dashboards using xAPI
- AI-generated qualitative feedback and insights
- Join workspaces via QR code or invite link
- AI-summarized corporate training videos
- Interactive scenario-based simulations
- Voice-based responses (speech-to-text)
- Map-based store navigation quizzes
- Personalized feedback and progress tracking
- Accessibility options (readability sliders, UI customization)
- React
- TypeScript
- FastAPI (Python)
- AWS RDS (PostgreSQL)
- Gemini 2.5 Pro (scenario generation, document understanding)
- Amazon Polly (text-to-speech)
- Amazon Transcribe (speech-to-text)
- xAPI (Experience API)
- REST APIs
- Webhooks for real-time updates
- Employer creates a workspace and uploads store data
- Cognition AI learns products, layouts, and protocols
- Employees complete simulations and map-based training
- Training activity is tracked via xAPI
- AI generates feedback and analytics for employers and employees
- Pricing: ~$7.50 per employee/month
- Employees: Free access
- Costs: AI usage, speech services, cloud storage, database hosting
- Scalable: Designed for cost-efficient growth
Cognition is built with accessibility in mind:
- Short, modular training to reduce cognitive load
- Adjustable readability and appearance settings
- Structured workflows to minimize overstimulation
- Safe practice environments with no real-world consequences
| Phase | Timeline | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Planning & Research | Aug – Sep | Interviews, wireframes |
| Technical Finalization | Oct – Nov | Architecture, budget |
| Backend & AI | Dec – Jan | APIs, AI integration |
| Frontend & UX | Feb – Mar | UI, accessibility |
| Evaluation & Demo | Apr – May | Testing, documentation |
- Srewashi Mondal
- Addina Rahaman
Department of Computer Science
The City College of New York
- Professor Zhigang Zhu (CCNY)
- Ray Perez (CUNY Central Office of Student Affairs)
- Carrie L. Shockley, EdD (CUNY Central Office of Student Affairs)