C A S E S T U D Y
What are the most promising applications of AI in education today?
When it comes to education, great tech on its own isn’ t enough. The best uses of AI are built on learning science, trusted content and a real understanding of how people learn.
Ask any teacher, and they’ ll tell you that time is the one thing they never have enough of. That’ s where AI is starting to help. In K – 12, teachers are using it to save time on everyday tasks like building assessments. What used to take over an hour can now take less than 10 minutes. That gives them more space to focus on what really matters: their students.
In higher education, students want a study coach who’ s there in the moment – when they’ re stuck on a topic, revising late at night or getting ready for an exam. So, we’ ve built AI into our digital textbooks to give them personalised summaries, practice questions and clear explanations. From what they’ re telling us, it’ s helping them feel more confident and better prepared, especially during high-pressure times like midterms and finals.
The data and insights from these tools are helping us to understand more about how students learn. For example, a third of the prompts students enter into our higher education AI tools show high cognitive complexity, which is a sign of critical thinking and deeper learning. It makes me optimistic about the outcomes AI could help deliver for students in the years ahead.
How has AI transformed traditional teaching methods?
One of the biggest shifts I’ m seeing is how AI is helping us move past one-size-fits-all teaching to greater personalisation.
It’ s helping learners stay engaged by supporting the way they learn best, whether that’ s visually, through audio or by interacting directly with the material. In language learning, that might mean pronunciation coaching for one student and a conversational agent for another. And it also brings flexibility in where learning happens, and that could be at home, at school, on an app – or a combination of all three. That level of personalisation just hasn’ t been possible until now.
And we’ re already seeing it work in classrooms. Teachers are using AI to expand what they can offer, whether that’ s generating activities, sourcing materials, planning lessons or creating tools like flashcards and quizzes.
It’ s also changing how students study. We’ ve seen that learners using AI-powered flashcards are nearly three times more likely to return and practise. That’ s a real shift away from cramming and toward more confident, active learning.
How can AI support personalised learning without replacing human educators?
Speaking as a former teacher, I’ ve always believed that AI should work with educators, not replace them. It can’ t replicate the empathy, encouragement or judgement that teachers bring to the classroom. What it can do is take some of the pressure off, by handling repetitive, time-consuming tasks and giving teachers more time to focus on students.
It can also give teachers sharper insights into how each learner is progressing – where they’ re strong, where they’ re struggling and how best to support them. That kind of personalised support, at scale, is hard to do without the right tools.
I see real potential for AI tools to help teachers, and our studies show they agree. In fact, 77 % say they see value in using AI to enhance their teaching, whether through tutoring, content creation or study support.
Which area are you seeing the most changes with regards to education – school, universities or workplace learning?
We’ re seeing major shifts across all three, but perhaps the most urgent transformation is in the workplace. Demographic change and AI are reshaping jobs faster than ever. Hiring alone is not going to solve everything. We’ ve got to focus on training and re-skilling at the same time.
The future workforce will see humans and digital agents working side by side. That’ s going to require a whole new set of skills – not just for workers, but for managers and leaders too.
We’ re helping workforces build language proficiency and soft skills with products like the Digital Language Tutor, which combines English learning with professional roleplays
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