How Oratrics is enhancing the soft skills of students the world over

For years, India’s schools focused on academics, leaving little room for soft skills such as communication and public speaking. Students gained knowledge, but they often missed out on personality development.

Today, heavy use of digital media reduces social interaction, leading to low confidence, shyness, and social anxiety. Many students often struggle with soft skills, highlighting a gap in holistic education.

This has led to a sharp rise in demand for structured communication and soft skills training. Parents now seek programmes that build confidence, adaptability, and collaboration, recognising that technical knowledge alone is insufficient in today’s fast-changing job market.

With automation and artificial intelligence (AI) taking over routine tasks, employees increasingly need creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and teamwork skills that machines cannot replicate. Hard skills may quickly become outdated, but soft skills remain vital for problem-solving, leadership, and career growth. 

According to LinkedIn’s 2019 Global Talent Trends report, 92% of talent professionals consider soft skills more important than hard skills.

Bengaluru-based startup Oratrics aims to address the missing link in personality development and communication training. “A key motivation was the desire to prevent the next generation from facing the same barriers their parents once did. Parents today want their children to develop confidence and communication skills that will serve them for life,” says Co-founder and CEO Samad Shoeb. 

The vision behind Oratrics

Samad Shoeb founded Oratrics in 2018 alongside his brother Anas Shoeb, Co-founder and COO, to build communication, confidence, and leadership skills in students and professionals. The startup offers holistic personality development training programmes for all ages, combining public speaking, creative writing, leadership, financial literacy, and emerging skills such as AI, robotics, and cybersecurity, alongside health and nutrition classes. 

Oratrics was born out of Shoeb’s own struggle with confidence as a teenager. “During puberty, I was very thin and had many pimples on my face. People often made fun of me, and these are the same issues children face even today,” says Shoeb.

Along with these struggles, Shoeb notes that, a decade ago, debates and competitions in schools were occasional and rarely considered part of formal learning. While forums such as debate clubs, Model United Nations, public speaking competitions, and theatre groups have since gained prominence, he says there is still no single platform that offers holistic development. 

He founded Oratrics to bridge this gap, helping children express themselves with ease at a time when social interaction is declining and social anxiety is on the rise.

Also Read

How Snabbit is digitising India’s domestic help industry

Integrating AI with skill development

Oratrics offers six online programmes—Maths Explorers, Personality Enrichment, Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Confidence Building, and the Social Skill & Leadership Programme—catering to students, corporate professionals, and B2B clients. Courses can be taken individually or as part of the flagship personality development programme, with a duration ranging from 3 months to a year.

For students, the programmes are divided into four levels: kindergarten to Grade 2 level focuses on self-awareness and emotional growth; Grades 3 to 5 level builds communication basics and creativity; Grades 6 to 9 students advance to voice modulation, body language, confidence, and charisma; while students of Grade 10 and above are exposed to career counselling, Ivy League preparation, and professional development.

The company has developed its own AI platform, Oratrics AI, which features a speech assistant known as Oratrics Genie. “The genie analyses speeches for pitch, tone, and clarity, and then generates detailed reports with improvement suggestions. 

“The technology integrates with live mentorship, and coaches use AI insights to guide learners with empathy, ensuring progress in both skills and self-awareness,” says Shoeb.

The Oratrics platform also includes a writing assistant that refines student submissions for structure and punctuation. 

For corporate clients, Oratrics AI also provides specialised tools, including a spam checker to filter problematic words and a humaniser that converts AI-generated text into natural, professional language.

The startup also works with international corporate clients, offering tailored programmes for C-suite executives and senior leadership.

Also Read

PlaySuper is turning mobile gameplay into real-world rewards

Scaling for the future

The Oratrics platform serves trainees from over 15 countries, including India, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Singapore, enabling students to build public speaking and creative skills in a global peer environment. Today, Oratrics’s largest and most profitable market is the United States, accounting for 60–70% of total enrolments. 

"Parents in the US value education that builds real leadership skills, and they're willing to invest in programmes that deliver results," notes Shoeb.

This reflects a market readiness and mindset aligned with premium, outcome-driven training, he adds.

India too presents a large and growing opportunity for Oratrics. "It is a key growth market for us. With growing awareness about the importance of communication and leadership skills, we're actively expanding our programmes, adapting our pricing and offerings to suit Indian learners while maintaining the quality standards we're known for."

The core idea behind Oratrics remains the same worldwide, insists Shoeb. "Our goal is to prevent the next generation from facing the barriers their parents once did. Today, parents want their children to build confidence and communication skills that last a lifetime, and we want to fulfil that,” says the founder.

To date, Oratrics has trained around 15,000 students. It competes with Indian edtech startups such as PlanetSpark, Adda247, and Vedantu. Global competitors include Coursera and Outschool.

The global edtech market, valued at $250.16 billion in 2024, is expected to reach $721.15 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 11.86%, according to IMARC Group. To seize the global opportunity, Oratrics plans to set up 10 physical studios across the US within two years, starting with its first centre in Austin, Texas.

These studios, branded as Future Human Studios, are designed for international students and will complement online learning by hosting Oratrics programmes and offering opportunities for cross-cultural learning and professional networking, for example, connecting a design student in Bengaluru with peers and mentors in Austin or New York.

The startup also intends to broaden its offerings beyond communication and mathematics to include hands-on, conceptual science education, covering artificial intelligence from basic to advanced levels. New modules will include digital ethics, podcasting, sustainability communication, and entrepreneurial storytelling, aimed at equipping learners with relevant skills for the future.

Oratrics began as a bootstrapped venture with an initial investment of Rs 45,000 from the founder’s savings. It is now preparing to launch its first seed funding round in January next year.