Category: Channels

Innovative AI-driven platform delivers continuous, objective, and realistic deposition practice, designed in collaboration with six top-tier Am Law law firms

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, February 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — AltaClaro, the global leader in data-driven simulation-based training for legal professionals, today announced the launch of DepoSim, an AI-powered deposition simulator developed in partnership with Verbit, a global leader in verbal intelligence. DepoSim provides attorneys with live, hands-on practice conducting oral depositions in realistic, simulated litigation scenarios. The simulator offers unlimited opportunities to practice deposing witnesses with detailed, actionable feedback, a capability that does not currently exist in the legal training market.

DepoSim leverages advanced AI agents that use text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and large language model capabilities to act as witness, opposing counsel, and court reporter. The result is a highly realistic, on-demand experience that culminates in detailed, objective feedback based on a standardized training rubric. The simulation can be repeated for continuous practice, allowing attorneys to target weaknesses, adjust difficulty levels, and select different case types and scenarios.

“DepoSim is the high-fidelity, high-stakes flight simulator that turns a knowledgeable attorney into a truly competent and practiced advocate,” said Abdi Shayesteh, Founder & CEO of AltaClaro. “We are thrilled to be partnering with Verbit, the best verbal intelligence company, and to have enlisted some of the world’s most innovative law firms in designing the product. DepoSim is the next step in leveraging AI to enhance essential human-to-human communication skills that are indispensable and cannot be automated. It fills a crucial gap that traditional, costly, and infrequent deposition training models simply cannot address.”

Currently, firms incur substantial expense hiring actors for one-time deposition role-playing or sending associates to costly off-site training programs. No existing solution provides continuous, repeatable practice with objective, data-driven feedback. Associates and partners alike report that opportunities for practice are too infrequent, while clients remain hesitant to allow junior associates to handle high-stakes depositions. DepoSim addresses this persistent challenge by enabling firms to develop deposition-ready associates at scale, providing a compelling differentiator to clients.

AltaClaro and Verbit began collaborating at Legalweek 2025 and formally launched a beta version in fall 2025. The partnership combines AltaClaro’s recognized expertise in simulation-based legal training — honed through years of collaboration with Am Law 200 and other top-tier global firms — with Verbit’s advanced AI and transcription technology. AltaClaro designed the pedagogy, learner experience, and realistic deposition scenarios, while Verbit developed the core technology, including high-speed, secure transcription and sophisticated AI agent capabilities.

“The next generation of legal technology is enabling not just greater efficiency – it’s also leading to improved performance and ultimately better outcomes,” said Yair Amsterdam, CEO, Verbit. “With DepoSim, we’re bringing the same level of technological rigor and realism that law firms expect in the courtroom into litigation training itself. By combining Verbit’s secure, court-proven transcription and innovative legal AI technology with AltaClaro’s industry-leading pedagogy, we’re providing attorneys with an immersive training environment that mirrors real depositions with remarkable fidelity. With it, they can practice, improve, and build confidence before the stakes are real. This is a glimpse of how AI can meaningfully elevate legal performance.”

Six top-tier firms, with diverse size and focus — Orrick, Herrington Sutcliff; K&L Gates; McDermott Will & Schulte; Littler Mendelson; Taft Stettinius & Hollister; and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck — participated in the beta Early Adopter Program. During the five-week pilot, partners, associates, and innovation and professional development professionals at each participating firm completed over 160 hours of testing, submitted detailed user-experience surveys, and met with AltaClaro to provide direct feedback. 97 percent of participants strongly agreed DepoSim is valuable for litigation training, and 94 percent said they would use it again.

“AltaClaro’s simulation-based training has been part of our curriculum for six years and it keeps getting better,” said Kelly Cullen, Senior Manager of Talent Innovation who leads Orrick’s unique first year Residency Program. “DepoSim promises to supercharge simulated training through the integration of AI, and our litigators are excited to add it to our training toolkit across all levels.”

Participants’ feedback included:

• “Frighteningly realistic,” said a participating partner attorney. “The feedback was outstanding. Almost too good. This is better feedback than I’ve received from attorneys.”

• Another participating senior associate noted, “I really like the ability to practice going off-book with not a real human while not wasting your client’s money.”

DepoSim represents the natural evolution of AltaClaro’s commitment to Deliberate Practice, the same training techniques used by professional athletes and performing artists to hone their skills. Following the success of AltaClaro’s Benchmark360, which uses AI to provide data-driven feedback on written work products, DepoSim leverages AI to enhance essential human-to-human communication skills that cannot be automated but can be powerfully improved through technology-enabled practice. Based on pilot feedback, AltaClaro and Verbit are expanding the platform to include additional simulations across commercial litigation, employment law, intellectual property, expert witness depositions, trial practice, oral arguments, client interviews, and negotiation scenarios.

DepoSim is now available to all AltaClaro clients and new law firm clients seeking to transform their litigation training programs. For more information, visit www.altaclaro.com/deposim.

2026 Legalweek
ALM/Law.com has recognized AltaClaro and Verbit as joint finalists for Best Tech Training Program in the 2026 Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law Awards. This is the second year in a row AltaClaro has been recognized by ALM.

Verbit and AltaClaro will be at LegalWeek 2026, March 9-12, 2026, at the North Javits Center in New York, NY. On Wednesday, March 11, AltaClaro’s Founder & CEO, Abdi Shayesteh, and Verbit’s Chief Legal Officer, JP Son, will speak in the session “Developing the Future Lawyer: Understanding How AI Is Reshaping Litigation Training, Preparation, and Evidentiary Insight” (11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.). AltaClaro and Verbit will also be exhibiting at booth 210.
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About AltaClaro: AltaClaro is the pioneer and global leader in data-driven experiential training for legal professionals, offering simulation-based courses legal professionals love and training insights legal organizations need. For more information visit www.altaclaro.com.

About Verbit: Verbit is a global leader in verbal intelligence, delivering AI-powered transcription, speech analytics, and language technologies designed for the most demanding professional environments. For more information, visit www.verbit.ai.

Jessi Adler
Plat4orm PR
jessi@plat4orm.com

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Surgo Health, Young Futures, and The Jed Foundation (JED) find uneven risks and opportunities across youth AI engagement

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, February 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes more prominent in young people’s lives, new nationally representative research finds that young people’s mental health–related experiences with AI vary widely depending on context. Among youth reporting mental health struggles, 12% indicate using GenAI for mental health support and their reactions are mixed, suggesting both potential benefits and risks. For years, “screen time” has been seen as one of the metrics for youth well-being; however, new findings suggest frequency of use of technology alone does not tell the full story.

Surgo Health conducted a two-part research series: the first report (Youth Mental Health in the AI Era: Why Context Matters More Than Technology) in partnership with Young Futures looked at youth AI engagement, and the second report (Youth Mental Health in the AI Era: How GenAI Enters Help-Seeking Pathways) in partnership with The Jed Foundation (JED) looked at how AI enters youth mental health help-seeking. Results show that young people report engaging with AI in fundamentally different ways depending on social support, stress, adversity, and access to care. For youth, AI can function as a tool, a bridge to support, or a substitute for care, with very different implications for well-being.

Six Distinct Segments of Youth AI Engagement:
Drawing on survey data from more than 1,300 youth ages 13–24, the first report, in partnership with Young Futures, identifies six patterns of AI engagement, ordered by increasing frequency of use. Across these segments, mental health outcomes vary widely even among youth with similar levels of AI use, reinforcing that frequency alone is a poor indicator of risk or benefit.

– Low-Use Anxious Skeptics (10%) — distressed, distrustful youth who keep distance from AI amid uncertainty and fear of rapid change
– Thriving Light-Touch Pragmatists (32%) — well-supported youth who maintain a healthy, arm’s-length relationship with AI
– Worried Strivers (7%) — highly pressured, future-anxious youth who see AI as destabilizing rather than supportive
– Emotionally Entangled Superusers (9%) — emotionally vulnerable youth who turn to AI for connection and coping when offline support falls short
– High-Hope, High-Use Skill-Builders (10%) — optimistic power-users who treat AI as a tool for learning, creativity, and future-building
– Curious Low-Concern Learners (10%) — confident, socially grounded youth who use AI to explore, learn, and solve problems

The rest of the youth are those who have never used AI (21%) and youth who don’t know what AI tools are (1%).

Different Groups, Different Needs:
Patterns of AI engagement also differ across demographic groups, underscoring the need for targeted, equity-informed approaches.

– Black youth AI users are more likely to be High-Hope, High-Use Skill-Builders, engaging AI for learning and opportunity.
– Hispanic youth AI users are more likely to be Emotionally Entangled Superusers.
– Youth in families receiving government assistance are more likely to be High-Hope, High-Use Skill-Builders.
– LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to be Low-Use Anxious Skeptics, reflecting stress and concerns about safety and control rather than lack of access.

“This research confirms what we hear at Young Futures: young people aren’t a monolith and their relationship with AI reflects the broader context of their lives—their relationships, their stressors, and their access to support systems and caring adults,” said Dr. Kristine Gloria, COO & Co-founder of Young Futures. “Instead, we need an ecosystem approach that prioritizes social connection, trusted mentorship, and adaptive support structures that can meet young people where they are and respond to their diverse needs and circumstances. One-size-fits-all solutions simply can’t serve a generation this varied in how they navigate technology and seek support.”

How Youth Use AI During Mental Health Struggles:
The Jed Foundation (JED) contributed to the question design and interpretation of findings in the second report on mental health care-seeking pathways. Youth who turned to AI during mental health struggles reported greater barriers to professional care, including cost, lack of caregiver support, and not knowing help was available. Many described using AI because it felt easier than talking to people in their lives and helped them avoid burdening others.

Additionally, while short-term emotional relief after AI use was common, it did not consistently translate into positive experiences over time. Neutral or negative experiences were more common when AI functioned as a substitute for care rather than part of a broader support system.

“This report confirms that many young people are turning to general-purpose AI tools to address mental health concerns, especially when they face barriers to care. Importantly, these systems were not designed for this purpose and often serve as endpoints rather than pathways to support from caring adults or mental health professionals,” said Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth, JED’s Chief Medical Officer. “The Jed Foundation is proud to partner with Surgo Health to improve our understanding of young people’s mental health-related experiences with AI.”

Implications for Policy and Practice:
The findings call on public health leaders, educators, and policymakers to move beyond blanket approaches to youth and AI. Instead, the report emphasizes segment-informed strategies that strengthen offline support, protect youth agency, and ensure AI complements, rather than replaces, human connection. The findings also underscore the responsibility of AI developers and platforms for how these systems shape youth help-seeking and emotional support, particularly during moments of distress.

“The most effective responses to youth mental health in the AI era won’t come from technology alone,” said Sema Sgaier, CEO and Co-Founder of Surgo Health. “They will come from investing in the social and emotional environments that shape how young people use these tools, alongside responsible design and governance.”

Together, these studies show that generative AI is already part of youth mental health help-seeking, often on platforms not designed for this purpose. Whether AI reduces harm or deepens inequities depends on how it is built, governed, and integrated into real pathways of care.

Click Here to Read the Reports

Media Contacts

Cathryn Meurn
Chief of Staff
Surgo Health
media@surgohealth.com

Brooke Messaye
Young Futures
brooke@youngfutures.org

Justin Barbo
PR Director
The Jed Foundation
justin@jedfoundation.org

Cathryn Meurn
Surgo Health
+1 301-448-9234
email us here
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EIN Presswire provides this news content “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability
for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this
article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.