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CodeSignal Launches Cosmo: A Revolutionary Mobile Learning App
CodeSignal Inc., a skills assessment platform based in San Francisco and trusted by industry giants like Netflix, Meta, and Capital One, introduced Cosmo on Wednesday. This innovative mobile learning application transforms idle moments into career-ready skills through AI-powered micro-courses. The launch marks a significant strategic shift for CodeSignal, which has established itself as a leader in assessing technical talent for major corporations while aspiring to revolutionize workplace education.
Features of Cosmo
Cosmo offers over 300 bite-sized courses covering topics such as generative AI, coding, marketing, finance, and leadership, all delivered through an interactive chat interface that features an AI tutor. “Cosmo is like having an AI tutor in your pocket that can teach you anything from GenAI to coding to marketing to finance to leadership, and it does it through practice,” stated Tigran Sloyan, CodeSignal’s co-founder and CEO, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Instead of watching a video or reading about something, you immediately start practicing.”
Addressing Skills Gaps in the Workforce
The app’s launch comes at a time when organizations are struggling with significant skills gaps due to the rapid adoption of AI technologies. According to the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 76% of developers are currently using or planning to use AI tools, yet many lack the practical knowledge to leverage these tools effectively. Traditional corporate training programs, which can cost between $20,000 and $40,000 per person for executive-level training, have proven insufficient for scaling AI literacy across entire workforces.
The Journey to Mobile Learning
CodeSignal’s foray into mobile learning is the culmination of a decade-long vision that initially took an unexpected turn through the hiring technology sector. Sloyan founded the company in 2015 with educational aspirations but soon recognized that alternative education would struggle to gain traction without skills-based hiring practices. “I started the company with that dream and mission: I want to help more humans achieve their true potential, which naturally leads to better education,” Sloyan explained. “But roughly two years into the company’s history, I realized that without knowing companies would actually care about the skills you build through alternative education — rather than just asking ‘where did you go to college?’ or ‘what did you major in?’ — it wouldn’t work.”
Over the next six years, the company developed into a leading technical assessment platform, processing millions of coding evaluations for over 3,000 companies. This period focused on hiring provided CodeSignal with vital insights into the skills that employers truly value, which now inform the curriculum development for Cosmo. “We know exactly what companies are looking for,” Sloyan noted. “Without that, I feel like you’re shooting in the dark when you’re trying to prepare people for what is going to help them get that job, what is going to help them advance their career.”
Unique Learning Approach
Cosmo sets itself apart through what CodeSignal refers to as “practice-first learning,” where users immediately engage with realistic workplace scenarios instead of passively consuming video content. The app’s AI tutor, also named Cosmo, facilitates personalized learning through conversational exchanges that adapt to each learner’s knowledge level and pace. This approach addresses what educational psychologists call “Bloom’s two sigma problem,” a 1984 study that revealed one-on-one tutoring produces learning outcomes two standard deviations above traditional classroom instruction. For four decades, this concept remained theoretically intriguing but practically unscalable.
“We know one-on-one personalization and tutoring really makes a difference in learning, but it can’t be done at scale. How do you get a tutor for every human?” Sloyan remarked. “In 2023, when I saw early versions of generative AI, I thought: this is the moment. This technology, especially if it keeps getting better, can be uniquely used to help humans learn the way learning was meant to happen.”
Real-Time Personalization
The app combines pre-defined course content with real-time personalization. Each lesson follows a structured curriculum, but learners can interject with questions that elicit immediate AI-generated explanations before returning to the main content. Nearly one-third of Cosmo’s initial content focuses on generative AI applications, highlighting what CodeSignal identifies as the most critical skills gap in today’s job market.