For edtech businesses, AI may be a potent tool to enhance services and maintain competitiveness rather than a danger.
The influence of AI on the publishing industry and allied educational industries has been a source of increased worry.
Investor worries about growing competition from generative AI led to a decline in the share prices of numerous significant edtech businesses, including Chegg, Pearson, Duolingo, and Udemy, in the first few days of May.
Large language models and generative AI will have an impact on society and industry at a faster rate than is typical, according to Rosenweig. These changes will be both beneficial and harmful.
Some experts, nevertheless, think that the growth of AI may be advantageous for public edtech businesses.
AI Can be Useful For Public Edtech Companies
In a recent interview, Pearson’s CEO Andy Bird mentioned that the business has access to some really rich, clean datasets that, when fed into generative AI models, result in superior results.
The calibre of the datasets that are fed into these generative AI models, he continued, « is largely predicted by the output of them. »
When you start to enter them into generative AI models, you get better outputs, since we are the owners of some extremely rich, clean datasets.
During the pandemic lockdowns, the edtech industry was booming, but now it seems to have lost some steam. Public markets demonstrate that, due to the broad multiple compression brought on by worsening macro conditions, the edtech sector is not immune.
Though it’s debatable that private feeling counts more when it comes to startups than public opinion, this does not always improve the situation for edtech.
Using AI, Edtech Companies Can Improve Their Services
Edtech firms shouldn’t be terrified of AI despite these difficulties. They ought to be utilizing it as a tool to enhance their services and products.
With CheggMate, a new learning assistant designed to offer personalized guidance to help students meet their academic objectives, Chegg, for one, has been attempting to leverage the potential of AI technologies like ChatGPT.
In order to provide individualized assessment and guidance for each individual in a manner that ChatGPT’s broader format cannot, the new study assistance application will analyze data on the questions students have missed and the classes they are taking.
The same should be done by other edtech businesses, which should look at integrating AI into their platforms.
For instance, AI can assist kids have more individualized learning experiences, provide real-time feedback and evaluation, and even offer predictive analytics to spot at-risk pupils and take early action.
As Bird pointed out, the calibre of the datasets fed into generative AI models greatly predicts their output. Rich, unadulterated datasets are advantageous for edtech organizations in providing better results from AI models.
While edtech organizations may face difficulties growing and making money off of their services, AI could support them by enhancing the effectiveness and customization of their solutions.
