How SkillDrill works

One Platform to Replace the Spreadsheet, the Form and the Guesswork

AI-led conversations uncover the skills your team has. A searchable map makes them usable. Everything below happens inside a single, secure platform, built for organisations that can't afford to get data wrong.

AI-Powered Conversations

AI Conversations

Most organisations still ask people to fill in a form to describe their own skills. Forms only capture what people remember to write down, in the ten minutes they can be bothered to spend on it.

SkillDrill replaces the form with a short, adaptive conversation. It asks a real question, listens to the answer, and follows up like a person would. Mention project management, and it asks which methodology, which tools, how many people you managed. Mention a language, and it asks how confident you'd be using it at work.

  • Runs as a natural chat, 5 to 15 minutes depending on the question set
  • Available on any device, no app or account needed to complete it
  • Adapts in real time. No two conversations follow the same path
  • Captures depth and context, not just a skill name: proficiency, recency, real examples
Adaptive follow-ups

You mentioned managing projects. Which methodology do you usually work with?

Mostly PRINCE2, with some Agile on smaller pieces of work.

Which tools did you use, and how many people were on the largest team you managed?

Each question builds on the last answer
From question set to skills map
1

You create a question set

Define topics, depth, and conversation limits, or start from a template

2

AI plans the conversation

Tailored prompts generated from your questions, no prompt-writing needed

3

People have a natural chat

5 to 15 minutes, adapting to their answers in real time

4

Skills extracted automatically

Structured, searchable data from an unstructured conversation

Interactive Skills Map

Skill Explorer

Once conversations are complete, every skill discovered becomes part of a single, searchable map of your organisation.

  • Interactive visual explorer. See every skill across your whole team at a glance
  • Click any skill to see exactly who has it and how strong they are
  • Search by skill, not job title, to find people you didn't know had what you needed
  • Filter by team, department, or proficiency level
See it in action
Skills map
Sample data

160

Unique skills

47

Avg per person

Leadership34 people
Technical28 people
Compliance22 people
Project Management19 people

Click any category to drill down from group to sub-skill to individual people.

Smart Team Building

Smart Teams

Building a project team usually comes down to who you happen to remember is good at what. Smart Teams replaces memory with data.

Tell it what a project needs. It shows you who already has the right mix of skills, flags any gaps in what's available, and suggests who could realistically fill them.

  • AI-recommended team composition based on real, current skills data
  • Highlights capability gaps before a project starts, not halfway through it
  • Useful for one-off projects, ongoing team planning, and succession thinking alike
Team Terms of ReferenceEvery team gets a shared purpose and scope.
Invite trackingSee who has accepted and who is still deciding.
Ask a scenario
Sample data

"I need a team of 5 for a GDPR remediation project. They'll need data protection expertise, project management skills, and someone who can train the wider staff..."

AI recommendation
PM

Project Lead

GDPR, Change Management

98% match
DP

Data Protection Officer

ISO 27001, DPIA

94% match
TR

Training Lead

Staff Development, Communication

Gap flagged

Gaps are flagged with realistic suggestions for who could fill them.

Career Development

Career Pathways

People stay longer when they can see where they're going. Career Pathways turns your skills data into a visible route forward for every person in your organisation.

Define progression routes and the skills or qualifications each one needs

Build prerequisite chains, and control who sees which pathways using tags, so people only see routes that are relevant to them.

Staff see pathways that genuinely match the skills they already have

Each pathway shows a match against the person's real skills profile, so the next step is grounded in evidence rather than aspiration.

People can express interest in a pathway directly, feeding your development planning

Managers see aggregated interest across the organisation to plan development, succession, and recruitment.

Career Pathways
Matched to your skills and profile
Sample data
Team Leader 72% match

Lead a small team, set direction, and mentor newer colleagues.

leadership mentoring planning
Team Member Senior Team Leader
Data & Reporting 28% match

Build and maintain reporting, analysis, and information management.

Service Management Expressed interest 3 days ago
Skills Intelligence

See what your organisation really knows

Once the map exists, Skills Intelligence shows you the full picture: which skills are concentrated in one person, where the gaps are, and how two groups compare. Useful for mergers, restructuring, or simply understanding where your organisation is strong and where it is vulnerable.

  • Single-point-of-failure risk alerts for critical skills
  • Compare two groups side-by-side for mergers and restructuring
  • AI-generated analysis reports with retention priorities
  • Filter and hide non-essential skills to focus on what matters
Skills concentration
Sample data
GDPR Compliance
14 peopleOK
Forensic Accounting
1 personSingle holder
Project Management
22 peopleOK
ISO 27001
2 people1 expert

3 single-holder risks detected

Skills held by only one person in the organisation

Human in the Loop

Concern Flagging

Conversations sometimes surface more than a skill. Someone might mention a welfare concern, a safeguarding issue, or something that needs a human, not an algorithm, to respond.

SkillDrill is built so that never gets missed and never gets handled by AI alone.

  • Custom keyword monitoring flags anything that needs human attention
  • Flagged items route directly to a named person in your organisation, not a general inbox
  • A human always makes the decision on what happens next. The system never acts on a concern by itself
Concern flagged
Sample data

Workload concern detected

During skills conversation · held for human review

"...I've been covering two roles since March and it's really affecting my ability to deliver on either properly..."

Routed to a named person

Not a general inbox

Human decision only

No automated action is ever taken

3

Pending review

12

Resolved

2

Escalated

Always Current

Scheduled Catch-ups

Skills change. A one-off audit goes stale the day after you run it. Scheduled Catch-ups keeps profiles current without starting from zero each time.

  • Set a review interval per question set, matched to how often things realistically change
  • People are reminded automatically when a catch-up is due
  • Previous answers carry forward, so people only update what's actually changed
Catch-up schedule
Sample data

General Skills Audit

Every 90 days

Active

Leadership Assessment

Every 180 days

Active

Wellbeing Check-in

Every 30 days

Active

12 people due for catch-up

Reminders will be sent automatically

The Right Next Step

Automated Signposting

After a conversation, SkillDrill can point people toward what's actually relevant to them, based on what they said.

  • Configure rules that match specific skills, gaps, or keywords to training, resources, or support contacts
  • Reduces the manual follow-up work of matching people to next steps by hand
Links, contacts, or bothShow whatever fits the situation.
TrackedSee what was shown and whether it was clicked.
Example signposting
Sample data
Leadership Development

Triggered by: skill detected (leadership, management)

View our leadership courses on the Learning Portal

Wellbeing Support

Triggered by: concern flagged (wellbeing, workload)

Contact the Employee Assistance Programme: 0800 123 456

First Aid Training Due

Triggered by: keyword (first aid, expired)

Book your refresher on your training site

Sent automatically after the conversation ends

AI Insights

Turn responses into actionable intelligence

AI analyses all responses across your team and writes an executive summary. Charts visualise structured answers, word clouds surface common themes, and demographic breakdowns show patterns by department, location, or tag.

  • AI-written executive summary of all responses
  • Charts for scale, yes/no, and choice questions with averages
  • Word clouds from open-text responses
  • Built-in anonymity: groups under 5 are hidden automatically
Sample Insight
Sample data

"Communication scores are the lowest across all metrics at 2.6/5, particularly in departments with fewer than 20 staff. Recognition is also a concern at 2.8/5. The data suggests a clear link between low communication scores and reduced overall satisfaction."

3.5

Satisfaction

2.6

Communication

2.8

Recognition

Question Set Types

Five conversation modes for every need

Each type adapts the AI's behaviour, tone, and data extraction. Write your own questions or start from a template, then create as many sets as you need, each with custom questions, response tracking, and AI-generated prompts.

  • Skills Audit: discovers and records skills, qualifications, and experience
  • Training Needs: identifies gaps and development priorities
  • Wellbeing Check-in: warm, empathetic conversations with concern flagging
  • Feedback Survey: structured feedback with tracked responses and reporting
  • Signposting: understanding conversations that direct people to the right resources
Question Builder
Sample data

Open conversation

What are your core professional skills?

Scale 1-5

How confident do you feel in your current role?

Multiple choice

How do you prefer to learn?

Yes / No

Do you feel supported by your team?

Drag to reorder. AI generates conversation prompts automatically.

Knowledge Assistant

Turn your policies and guides into a question-and-answer assistant

Paste in policies, FAQs, training notes, or career-progression material. The AI breaks each document into named sections automatically. Staff then ask questions in natural language and get answers grounded in your own content, with citations back to the source.

  • Paste raw text, no formatting needed; AI organises it into sections
  • Tag-based access so sensitive policies only reach the right roles
  • Answers cite the source section so staff can verify and read more
  • Lives next to the career chat on the staff profile, one place to ask anything
AI

Knowledge tab

Grounded in your documents

Sample data
What's our policy on hybrid working?
AI

According to the Hybrid Working policy (Eligibility section), you can:

  • Work remotely up to 3 days per week
  • Coordinate office days with your team
  • Apply for additional flexibility through your manager
Sources
Hybrid Working · Eligibility Employee Handbook · Flexible Working
No Lock-in

Your AI, your choice

SkillDrill doesn't lock you into one AI provider.

  • Connect Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or self-host with Ollama for a fully air-gapped deployment
  • Your conversation data goes directly to the provider you choose. SkillDrill never proxies, stores, or sees that traffic
  • Switch providers at any time. No migration, no lock-in
Read more about how we handle your data
AI provider

Anthropic

Claude

OpenAI

GPT

Azure OpenAI

Your tenant

Ollama

Self-hosted, air-gapped

Conversation traffic goes straight from your tenant to your chosen provider.

Enterprise Security

Security that stands up to scrutiny

Built for organisations where data protection isn't optional. Per-tenant encryption, SSO, full audit trails, and your choice of AI provider, keeping your data firmly under your control.

  • AES-256-GCM encryption at rest with per-tenant keys
  • Microsoft Entra ID SSO for seamless organisation-wide login
  • Complete audit trail: every login, change, and action logged
  • Custom roles and permissions with department and location scoping
Trust & Security in full
Security architecture

AES-256-GCM

Per-tenant encryption keys derived via HKDF

SSO / Entra ID

Single sign-on with OIDC, no password needed

Built for UK GDPR

UK data residency, DPA on request, right to deletion

Full Audit Trail

Every action logged with timestamp, user, and IP

Custom Domains

Your domain, your brand, seamless experience

Run SkillDrill on your own domain like skills.yourcompany.com. Your team sees your brand everywhere: login, onboarding, registration, and all communications. No mention of SkillDrill unless you want it.

  • Simple CNAME setup with built-in DNS verification
  • Automatic SSL certificate management
  • Full white-label: your logo, colours, fonts on every page
  • Microsoft SSO integration for seamless sign-in
Setup
1

Add a CNAME record

Point skills.yourcompany.com to skilldrill.app

2

Verify in settings

Click "Check" to verify DNS is configured

3

Done

SSL is automatic. Your domain is live.

Your branding

Colours, logo, fonts, and sidebar theme, all customisable per tenant.

Cross-Organisation Sharing

Share skills data across organisations securely

Link with partner organisations, contractors, or other branches to share skills data. Data is re-encrypted with the receiving organisation's key so each party can only see what they are authorised to access.

  • Request, accept, or decline links between organisations
  • Data re-encrypted with each organisation's unique key
  • Revoke access instantly: all shared data deleted immediately
  • Full audit trail of all cross-organisation data access
How it works
A

Organisation A

Sends link request

B

Organisation B

Accepts and chooses what to share

Data synced with per-organisation encryption

Revoke access at any time

Microsoft Teams

Works with Microsoft Teams

SkillDrill works with Teams rather than trying to replace it. Search your skills map, and the person you find becomes a contact card: message, call, or email them in one click, without retyping anything.

Pay only for the staff you map. Anyone you authorise can search them.

  • Single sign-on: sign in with your Microsoft account, no second password.
  • One-click contact: results deep-link straight into a Teams chat, call, or email.
  • Live presence: green dot if they're free, red if they're busy. Stop calling people who can't answer.
  • Audit-logged: every search recorded with who searched, what they typed, who they saw.
Find skills Sample data
german speaker
SJ
Sarah Jones Strong match
Project Officer · Riverside House
German (Fluent) #language
RA
Rachel Adams Good match
Volunteer Translator · Community Team
German (Conversational)

A comprehensive interactive help guide is built into the application

Every feature on this page is documented inside the product, with an AI assistant your team can ask in plain English, so they're never stuck waiting on a colleague for the answer.

Try the Demo

Frequently asked questions

No. It runs in a browser, on any device, with no account needed to take part.

Typically 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the question set you've built.

Yes. Build a custom question set, or start from a template and adjust it.

It's flagged and routed to a named person in your organisation. AI never makes a decision about it. See Concern Flagging above.

SkillDrill connects to your choice of AI provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or a self-hosted Ollama deployment. You connect your own provider account, which keeps you in control of your AI usage, costs and data flow. Setup takes a few minutes and we're happy to help.

See it for yourself