Higher Education (HE) graduates are expected to demonstrate strong communication skills and apply them with confidence in high-pressure, real-world situations. Immersive learning platforms offer students opportunities to address knowledge or skills gaps, allowing them to make mistakes in a low-stakes, safe environment and receive feedback on their verbal and non-verbal engagement. This paper focuses on a funded action research project between two higher education institutions from different countries, examining how immersive technologies, specifically AI-enabled virtual reality (VR), can enhance the development of communication skills. Guided by the project mentors, academic leads worked with students across iterative research cycles, using student feedback to refine the design of the VR-based learning experience. The project is informed by key literature in immersive pedagogy. Queiroz et al. (2025) highlight that virtual reality provides authentic, immersive learning simulations that increase emotional and behavioural engagement in communication skills training. Helle et al. (2023) explored the use of virtual reality for individual learning amongst health and social care students, concluding that VR has significant potential to enhance professional competencies. Shorey et al. (2020) explored the potential of virtual reality to develop nursing students’ communication skills, concluding that VR enhanced students’ confidence and preparedness for clinical performance. However, this study also noted that challenges were associated with poor speech recognition and conversational flow, which affected students' overall experience. Additionally, identifying where immersive VR learning experiences fit within the curriculum was a key factor in promoting student engagement (McDermott et al., 2024). Findings suggest that carefully aligning immersive learning pathways with core competencies, combined with iterative, student-informed design, can meaningfully enhance learner confidence and engagement. This paper discusses the implications for educators seeking to embed human-AI collaboration tools into HE curricula and reflects on the opportunities and challenges of conducting immersive learning research within an international institutional partnership.