Episode Details

What if your managers could get real-time coaching during a tough performance conversation—while it's actually happening? Not in a training module they'll skip. Right there, in Zoom. That's what 15Five is doing with Kona AI, which it acquired in January 2025 and fully integrated into its platform by May. Kona joins live meetings, draws on each employee's review history and engagement data, and offers contextual coaching to managers in the moment they need it most. But 15Five didn't stop at coaching. They also launched AMAYA in February 2026—a conversational AI interface that lets HR leaders query people data directly, without waiting on an analyst. Together, Kona and AMAYA create a closed loop: coach the manager, then give HR the evidence that it's working. In this episode, we break down how this system works, why it's structurally different from Workday, Lattice, and other performance platforms, and what HR buyers should verify before rolling it out.