Interview with Ernesto Di Iorio, Chief Innovation Officer at Vection Technologies and CEO of QuestIT.
One of the innovation elements introduced within the EMPAIRED project is the integration of Algho, the AI-powered Digital Human developed by QuestIT, into the immersive learning environment. This contribution has been made possible thanks to the collaboration with Moebeus, a partner in the project and responsible for bringing the Digital Human technology into the EMPAIRED ecosystem as part of the project’s innovation and experimentation activities. By combining conversational AI with XR-
based learning, EMPAIRED explores new ways to make ergonomic education more interactive, accessible and engaging.
In this interview, we spoke with Ernesto di Iorio from QuestIT, a company of the Vection Technologies group, to better understand the role of Digital Humans in EMPAIRED, the value they can bring to educational contexts, and how artificial intelligence can support more meaningful learning experiences.
Can you introduce QuestIT and your role within the EMPAIRED project?
QuestIT is the AI company within the Vection Technologies group, specialized in conversational artificial intelligence, Digital Humans, and solutions designed to make the interaction between people and digital systems more natural, accessible, and context-aware. Within the group, Vection Technologies combines AI, XR, and spatial computing technologies, while QuestIT contributes specific expertise in conversational interfaces, intelligent avatars, and semantic knowledge management. In EMPAIRED, our role is to bring this expertise into the immersive environment through Algho, our AI-powered Digital Human, in order to provide users with guidance, explanations, and support throughout the learning journey in a more intuitive and human-centered way.
What role has the collaboration with Moebeus played in this integration?
The collaboration with Moebeus has been essential because it created the bridge between our technology and the wider EMPAIRED ecosystem, turning the Digital Human from a standalone innovation into a coherent part of the training experience. In this process, Moebeus played a key role in enabling experimentation and integration, while QuestIT contributed its expertise in conversational AI, multimodality, and human-machine interaction. The real value of this partnership lies in the combination of different but complementary, capabilities, which made it possible to position Algho as a practical and meaningful component of the immersive learning environment.
What makes the Algho Digital Human particularly suitable for a project like EMPAIRED?
Algho is particularly well suited to a project like EMPAIRED because it does not simply provide answers; it is designed to build a more natural and engaging relationship with the user through conversational, multimodal, and empathic technologies. Algho Digital Humans are designed to interact in real time, adapt to context, operate across multiple languages, and support the user through both
verbal and non-verbal dimensions of communication. In an XR environment, this means embedding an intelligent guide directly into the simulation, making the experience more immediate, more inclusive, and more aligned with the actual pace of learning.
In your view, what is the added value of integrating a Digital Human into immersive training?
The main added value is that immersive training becomes not only an experience, but also a relationship. XR already provides presence, simulation, and involvement; the Digital Human adds conversational continuity, real-time support, and a more human interface between content, context, and learner. This allows learners to ask questions, receive timely clarification, and feel accompanied throughout the training process, with positive effects on both accessibility and retention.
EMPAIRED focuses on ergonomic education in industrial contexts. How can AI support this type of learning?
AI can support this type of learning very effectively because it makes knowledge more adaptive, contextual, and immediately available. In ergonomic education, users need to understand posture, movement, and workplace dynamics in a way that connects theory and practice; an intelligent assistant embedded in the XR scenario can intervene at the right moment with explanations, prompts, and feedback related to the task the user is performing. When information is delivered within the experience rather than outside it, the learning process becomes more natural and more effective.
From QuestIT’s perspective, what is most interesting about collaborating in EMPAIRED?
From QuestIT’s perspective, EMPAIRED is particularly interesting because it brings together research, education, immersive learning, and technological experimentation within a real application context. It is exactly the kind of project in which the Digital Human is not presented as a simple innovative interface, but as a tool capable of creating concrete value in the training experience and in the quality of interaction. Working with complementary partners also allows us to explore, in practical terms, how AI and XR can converge to support learning models that are more useful, more
accessible, and more human-centered.
Looking ahead, how do you see the role of Digital Humans evolving in education and training?
Digital Humans will play an increasingly important role in educational and professional environments, not as substitutes for teachers or trainers, but as digital presences able to extend the quality of support, the availability of information, and the level of personalization in training. Their evolution will move toward interactions that are increasingly multimodal, contextual, and empathic, integrated directly into both physical and immersive learning environments. In this perspective, projects like
EMPAIRED clearly show how the convergence of AI and XR can help create learning experiences that are more human, more accessible, and more effective.
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