Attackers are getting smarter. AI is making social engineering more convincing, more personalized, and harder to spot than ever before. Training the digital workforce, employees and agents, to recognize threats is necessary, but even the most security-conscious users can still make a mistake at the moment of risk.
Workforce risk is a behavior change problem, and effective behavior change requires knowledge, pressure-tested application and real-time reinforcement all working together. That’s why we’ve added Real-Time Coaching (an enhanced version of our product formerly called SecurityCoach) directly into our AI-native Security Awareness Training (SAT).
The Real-Time Coaching Layer
KnowBe4 customers already experience significant improvements in risk management with SAT. On average, users see their Phish-prone Percentage™ drop from 33.1% to 4.1% within one year. That’s an 87% reduction in human-related cyber risk.
Real-Time Coaching builds on that foundation by adding an additional layer of reinforcement that reaches users at a moment when training and phishing simulations alone can’t: the instant a real-world risky decision happens. Real-Time Coaching reinforces security awareness training right when a user needs it most — making lessons stick and correcting risky actions before it becomes a habit.
How Does Real-Time Coaching Work?
When a user engages in risky behavior like clicking a suspicious link or visiting a malicious website, Real-Time Coaching automatically analyzes that signal and delivers a contextual SecurityTip directly to the user in Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Chat or email. Coaching is triggered through KnowBe4’s own signals like missed Social Engineering Indicators in a phishing simulation, or from risk signals from integrated tools in your security stack including CrowdStrike, Microsoft, Cisco, Splunk and more.
SecurityTips aren’t generic. They are directly relevant to the user’s action and, importantly, they aren’t punitive. They explain what the user did, why it was risky and what to do differently next time. It’s a quick, helpful nudge to guide users toward more secure behavior.
Employees who experience security as something that helps them in the moment are more likely to pay attention, report suspicious activity and actually change how they behave, and the results prove it. Nearly 3 out of 4 users don’t repeat the same risky behavior after one Real-Time Coaching message from KnowBe4.
What’s Included
Real-Time Coaching is built into KnowBe4 SAT and connects with your existing security stack, integrating with endpoint security, web and email security tools, identity security and SOAR/SIEM to turn their alerts into automated coaching moments.
Getting started doesn’t require manual rule-writing. Real-Time Coaching includes more than 20 pre-built coaching categories such as Phishing, Data Exfiltration, Risky Web Activity and more that are all ready to coach immediately. All categories begin in monitoring mode, giving admins instant visibility into coaching opportunities before simply turning the category on. If you need to create custom categories or SecurityTips, setup is an easy and guided process.
AIDA (our suite of AI Defense Agents powering the KnowBe4 Platform spanning Attack Simulation & Training, Email and Collaboration Security and Agent Security) brings it all together. When a user fails a phishing simulation, AIDA Orchestration automatically determines whether to send a SecurityTip or assign remedial training based on user history, so the most contextually appropriate response happens without manual work from your team. AIDA customers see a 10% greater reduction in Risk Score over human-managed programs, and with AIDA Orchestration’s autonomous management, that reduction happens four times faster.
What This Means for Your SOC
SOC teams are managing thousands of alerts per day. A lot of that volume comes from repeat incidents caused by the same users making the same mistakes. When those behaviors go unaddressed, they repeat. When they repeat, they generate more alerts.
Real-Time Coaching breaks that cycle. When risky behavior is addressed at the source with immediate, contextual coaching, repeat incidents go down, alert volume decreases, and your security team gets time back for high-priority work that requires human expertise.
Address the Complete Workforce Risk Loop with KnowBe4 SAT
With Real-Time Coaching built into SAT, the full loop of training, testing and reinforcing secure behavior for your users all runs in a single platform. The training and simulation capabilities KnowBe4 users rely on are now paired with in-the-moment reinforcement, so the knowledge employees build through training gets reinforced exactly when it’s needed to help mitigate risk.
Real-Time Coaching also actively feeds into Risk Score, just like training and phishing simulation data. This gives you a more complete picture of risk across your environment, and SAT gets even more accurate as it learns and ingests more data, so your program continuously improves without additional effort from your team.
This combined approach also strengthens your security culture. When users experience security as something that helps them in the moment, they understand its impact and become active participants. That’s the kind of behavior change that shows up in Risk Scores and lower Phish-prone Percentages, higher Phish Alert Button usage and a security culture employees believe in.
