Frequently Asked
Questions.
Dehurdle is an enterprise AI coaching platform that makes world-class leadership development accessible at scale. We deliver continuous, measurable proof of behavioral growth — helping HR leaders demonstrate coaching ROI, predict succession readiness, and identify early signs of disengagement across the workforce.
Dehurdle deploys personalized AI coaching agents directly into the tools your employees already use — Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Workspace. Rather than waiting for users to log in, the system detects real-time coaching opportunities based on workflow context and delivers targeted micro-coaching at the moment it matters most.
Absolutely. Dehurdle uses a zero-payload privacy architecture. We analyze structural workflow patterns — never the content of private employee messages. No message text, email content, or chat transcripts are ever read, stored, or transmitted to any AI provider. This is why Fortune 500 CISOs approve Dehurdle on first review.
Zero-payload means Dehurdle never reads, records, or transmits private employee message content to any cloud AI provider. Instead, we analyze structural workflow patterns — like meeting cadence, collaboration density, and response timing — to surface behavioral insights without accessing what anyone actually said. This is why enterprise security teams approve Dehurdle significantly faster than typical HR AI tools.
Unlike generic HR AI tools that send employee PII to shared cloud models, Dehurdle's zero-payload architecture never touches private message content. With architecture aligned to SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, GDPR, DPDP Act, and EU AI Act standards, Dehurdle is designed to pass enterprise security reviews on first submission — significantly reducing the typical multi-month vendor approval cycle.
Every coaching interaction generates structured behavioral intelligence that compounds over months and years. Unlike point-in-time assessments, Dehurdle builds longitudinal capability maps, cohort development trends, and leadership readiness profiles that become richer with every conversation. This means your behavioral data becomes an increasingly valuable organizational asset — enabling more precise succession planning, better-targeted development investments, and deeper workforce intelligence with every quarter.
Our platform deeply integrates your organization's specific "Focus Areas," "Leadership Frameworks," and policies directly into the AI's cognitive model. This ensures that every coaching conversation reinforces your unique values and strategic priorities, rather than giving generic advice.
User privacy is paramount for trust and adoption. You cannot see individual conversation transcripts. You only receive aggregated insights and usage statistics. The only exception is during a confirmed high-severity safety escalation event, where duty-of-care takes precedence.
We employ a robust, multi-tiered distress detection system. If the AI detects high-severity keywords indicating self-harm or violence, it triggers an immediate "escalation" protocol. This directs the user to emergency resources (like 988) and can notify designated admin contacts, ensuring safety is never compromised.
We use a streamlined "Join Code" system. We generate unique codes for your organization, which you distribute to teams. Employees use these codes to "redeem" access, automatically linking them to your organization and funding their account with the allocated coaching minutes or sessions.
Yes. Our admin dashboard provides tangible metrics on engagement, including "Coaching Conversations Started/Finished" and "Goals Created/Completed." This allows you to track the actual professional development activity occurring within your workforce.
The AI is built on established coaching frameworks, defaulting to proven models like TGROW (Topic, Goal, Reality, Options, Will). This ensures that conversations are structured, outcome-oriented, and drive towards actionable results, rather than being open-ended chats.
Yes. Unlike human coaches who require scheduling, our AI Coach is available anytime, anywhere. This provides immediate support for employees facing urgent challenges, stress, or important decisions, exactly when they need it.
Absolutely. When creating access codes, you can define specific limits for "minutes per user" or "sessions per user." This gives you precise control over your L&D spend while ensuring equitable access across your team.
Dehurdle is a purpose-built behavioral intelligence platform, not a generic LLM wrapper. We build custom agents tailored to your organization's specific policies and culture, with professional safety guardrails, zero-payload privacy architecture, and long-term coaching memory. Unlike a ChatGPT subscription, each Dehurdle agent is architected for sustained professional growth, goal accountability, and continuous capability measurement.
The AI actively helps users crystallize vague ambitions into concrete, trackable goals. It intelligently breaks down user intent into specific execution plans and sub-tasks, acting as an accountability partner by checking in on progress in subsequent sessions.
Unlike traditional coaching tools that wait for the user to initiate a session, Dehurdle builds custom coaching agents that proactively identify coaching opportunities by reading context signals — calendar events, communication sentiments, and workflow patterns. Each agent is tailored to your organization and deployed quickly into tools like Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace, reaching employees at the right moment with relevant coaching.
The AI uses contextual signals from calendars and workplace tools to identify coaching-relevant moments — such as upcoming difficult conversations or high-stress periods. It does not store or surface private message content. All context processing adheres to our enterprise-grade privacy standards (aligned with SOC 2 & ISO 27001) and your organization's data policies.
No. We use enterprise AI contracts with our model providers (such as Google and OpenAI) that explicitly prohibit training on customer data. Your employees' coaching conversations, goals, and organizational context are never used to improve or fine-tune any third-party AI models. Your data stays yours.
Dehurdle supports coaching across 25+ languages — including English, 9 Indian regional languages (Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu), and 15 international languages including French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, and more. Employees interact with the AI coach in their preferred language while HR sees unified analytics in English.
Yes. Dehurdle is the subject of an official Harvard Business Review case study titled "Dehurdle: Democratizing Executive Coaching Through AI-Powered Coaching App" (Product #IM129B), authored by Prof. Debolina Dutta and sourced from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B). Published in August 2025, the case study examines how Dehurdle is transforming executive coaching through AI. It is available at: https://store.hbr.org/product/dehurdle-democratizing-executive-coaching-through-ai-powered-coaching-app/IM129B
Yes. Dehurdle supports full organizational customization — including custom competency frameworks, leadership goals, coaching personality, distress escalation protocols, and notification preferences. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model, we ground the AI explicitly in your company's leadership framework, focus areas, and strategic values. All customization is managed through the enterprise admin dashboard.
Onboarding is seamless and requires no heavy change management. Dehurdle is typically live within your organization in under 2 weeks. Because the AI agent is deployed directly into the flow of work (via Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Google Workspace integrations), there are no new mobile apps for employees to download or portals to log into.
Our engine uses strict professional guardrails and adherence to International Coaching Federation (ICF) guidelines. It's programmed to act as a framework-based sounding board, rather than explicitly telling an employee to take HR-sensitive actions. We also have rapid escalation models for flagged conversation patterns.
No, Dehurdle operates completely in the cloud with zero on-premise installation needed. It integrates natively via OAuth and enterprise SSO straight into the platforms your teams are already using every day.
Dehurdle offers regional data residency to meet compliance requirements. For European clients, all persistent data resides within the EU (Frankfurt, eu-west-1). For Asia-Pacific clients, data resides in Mumbai (ap-south-1). All AI processing is transient and contractually guaranteed to never retain or train on customer data. A signed Data Processing Addendum (DPA) is available upon request.
Yes. Dehurdle includes real-time voice simulation where employees can practice tough conversations — giving difficult feedback, managing conflict, or navigating high-stakes negotiations — with AI-powered adversaries. After each session, the system provides a behavioral debrief analyzing speech patterns, emotional tone, and conversational effectiveness.
The Behavioral Growth Dashboard is the HR leader's command center for coaching ROI. It provides mathematical, before-and-after proof of behavioral change across competencies — not self-reported surveys. HR leaders can track growth by individual, cohort, department, or organization-wide, with objective scores that a CFO will trust alongside revenue metrics.
Yes. Dehurdle offers AI-facilitated group dynamics simulation where multiple participants engage in scenario-based exercises with AI adversaries. Each participant receives an individual behavioral debrief afterward, making it ideal for team development, cross-functional leadership cohorts, and high-potential programs.
Dehurdle's coaching system is calendar-aware. Before important meetings, the AI proactively offers preparation coaching and agenda suggestions. After meetings, it facilitates structured reflection — helping managers improve how they lead conversations, delegate outcomes, and follow up. All of this happens automatically without employees needing to initiate anything.
Yes. Dehurdle creates dynamic, AI-driven development plans that evolve continuously based on coaching interactions and behavioral progress. Unlike static IDPs created once during a review cycle, Dehurdle's plans update in real-time — ensuring development priorities stay aligned with actual growth and emerging challenges.
Dehurdle provides objective, data-driven succession intelligence. The platform continuously tracks leadership readiness across behavioral dimensions — showing which leaders are ready for the next role and where capability gaps exist. This replaces subjective manager opinions with mathematical evidence, enabling proactive talent decisions before succession becomes a crisis.
Yes. Dehurdle supports enterprise SSO via SAML and OAuth 2.0. This means employees authenticate through your organization's existing identity provider — no separate credentials required. Integration is typically completed within the standard deployment timeline.
Individual coaching conversations are strictly confidential. HR and leadership teams only see aggregated, cohort-level insights — never individual conversation content. Behavioral scores are aggregated at the team or department level. Employees must explicitly consent before any individual-level developmental data is shared with their organization.
Dehurdle has deep institutional ties to INSEAD. Founder Amit Kasliwal is an INSEAD Executive Program alumnus whose coaching transformation during the program inspired Dehurdle's creation. Dehurdle was selected for the inaugural cohort of the INSEAD AI Venture Lab (AI Founder Sprint), co-led by INSEAD and Harvard Business School faculty. Additionally, INSEAD Professor Narayan Pant is an angel investor in the company, and Dehurdle has been selected to pitch at the INSEAD Alumni Forum Startup Showcase in Oslo (May 2026).
Dehurdle's entire technology stack was architected and built in-house by Co-Founder & CTO Vishal Verma, an alumnus of IIT Delhi with deep expertise in robotics, physics, and zero-to-one systems engineering. His background also includes three years of Indian Civil Services preparation spanning economics, ethics, and governance — giving him a systems-level understanding of institutional behavior that directly shapes the platform's intelligence layer. The platform is 100% proprietary — from the zero-payload privacy architecture to the behavioral intelligence engine — ensuring complete control over security, performance, and data sovereignty.