About us
Viva Vocina is an AI conversation platform designed and built by Scarlatti. Its development is shaped by our experience working with education organisations.
Who we are
Since 2012, Scarlatti has worked alongside education organisations, giving us a strong understanding of how educators work, what assessment needs to achieve, and the importance of tools that fit teaching and learning contexts.
Over the years, we have worked on projects involving education, training, research, evaluation, and digital innovation. That work has given us a practical understanding of the opportunities and challenges within vocational education and training, and has shaped how we developed Vocina; with a focus on assessment quality, learner experience, educator workflow, and credible evidence.
Why we built Vocina
Vocina began through a project commissioned by the Food and Fibre Centre for Vocational Excellence (FFCoVE), exploring how AI could support structured oral assessment in education. That early work showed the value of using AI-led conversations to help educators understand what learners know and how they explain their thinking.
Viva Vocina has grown from this work as a ready-to-use product for short, viva-style checks of understanding on submitted work.
Our people
Meet the people behind Viva Vocina. Our team brings decades of experience across education and training, research, and software development.
Adam Barker
DirectorAdam is the Director of Vocina and Scarlatti, Vocina’s parent company, which he founded in 2004.
His idea of a good time consists of interrogating a problem down to its logical roots then working his way back up to find solutions. Much of the time this is useful to Vocina although Adam’s wife and children are less convinced.
Kenny Bell
Product and Operations LeadKenny is the Product, Research and Operations Lead for Vocina and a Senior Research Manager at Scarlatti.
His expertise is in economic modelling and data analysis and has been using voice tools for knowledge work for the past 10 years.
Sam Cormack
Lead EngineerSam is the Lead Engineer for Vocina and a Research Manager at Scarlatti.
He builds AI products and decision-support software that turn messy, high-stakes problems into tools people actually use. His work spans AI agents, digital assessment tools, optimisation engines, routing systems and scheduling platforms for clients tackling complex operational challenges.
Alex Sharples
Founding EngineerAlex is a Founding Engineer at Vocina and a Researcher at Scarlatti. He leads user experience and evaluation, drawing on his research experience in data analytics and modelling to develop quantifiable metrics of success and striving to deliver intuitive, reliable, and performant conversational agents.
Lucy Barker
InternLucy is the lead agent developer, tester, and customer liaison for Vocina. She works with customers to ensure assessment quality and integrity.