AI for Kids - Surprising Learnings While Deploying at Novakid

What happens when a company built on live teachers deploys AI-powered tutor to its students?In this session, Novakid shares surprising learnings from deploying AI to young learners. These learnings led Novakid to believe that AI-first future is powering the next phase of the company's growth. As a global leader in live, teacher-led online English learning for children, Novakid is uniquely positioned to answer a question most EdTech startups can’t: Does AI really outperform humans for certain learning outcomes?With the launch of NovaPals (our AI-first language learning app) and Novakid’s AI tutor (friendly Pandy), we gained access to high-quality data across live-only, AI-only, and hybrid learning models. The results were both surprising and nuanced. For example, we learned that compared to AI, live teachers spend more time teaching (i.e. speaking themselves), while AI does less teaching and more prompting students to speak, leading to significantly higher student speaking time, more practice, and increased confidence.This session explores why Novakid took a calculated risk to lead with AI, what our side-by-side comparisons reveal, and why AI is not about replacing teachers but about unlocking what matters most in language learning: practice. We’ll share how Novakid uses AI to scale learning impact and how it strengthens learning outcomes. By challenging long-held assumptions about live instruction, Novakid is accelerating its growth and becoming a future-proof market leader in language learning for kids and teens.