What do you say when a coworker tells you about their weekend? For many autistic individuals, social exchanges like this can feel daunting. Enter Noora — a new AI-powered social coach developed at Stanford that helps autistic teens and young adults practice empathy in everyday conversations.

Traditional face-to-face interventions can be effective, but they’re often costly and hard to access. Motivated by this gap, Stanford’s Dr. Lynn Kern Koegel (Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences) and Professor Monica Lam (Computer Science) created Noora — a chatbot that simulates social scenarios and provides real-time feedback to improve empathetic responses.

Supported by initial grants from Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute and the Kind World Foundation, Noora was tested in a four-week study with autistic individuals aged 11 to 35. Participants completed 200 empathy trials — one “leading statement” per day, five days a week — and received feedback after each response.

The results were promising:

• Significant improvement in empathetic responses, with 71% of participants showing stronger responses in later trials (an average improvement of 13.2%)

• A dramatic 37.7% improvement in empathy compared to just 2.5% for the waitlist control group.

• Many reported increased confidence in social conversation and high satisfaction with Noora

This technology holds immense promise: scalable, accessible social coaching for autistic individuals who may find conventional training difficult to access. While Noora isn’t a substitute for clinical therapy, it offers a supportive, judgment-free space to practice and build confidence.