Embracing AI to enhance education delivery

EdTech saw a lot of churn during the pandemic era. Have we settled into a new normal? What does the current normal look like? Is there a crisis in the EdTech industry?

Defining a ‘new normal’ might not be appropriate as it may have different connotations, especially after a global pandemic that no one anticipated. At Physics Wallah (PW), we focus on continuous innovation to ensure affordable, high-quality education for students in India and beyond. We believe that labelling anything as the new normal would hinder our growth in an ever-evolving world.

PW continues to prioritise value addition for students, enabling us to explore avenues for making their learning experience better.   

What innovations has the Physics Wallah app seen since its inception and what is the current status of its penetration all across India?

Since its inception, PW’s app has seen multiple innovations to make education more accessible, scalable, and personalised. A key development is Alakh AI, an AI-driven platform powered by OpenAI's GPT-4, which customises learning paths for individual students. This allows us to offer adaptive tutoring, real-time question resolution, and curated content based on a student's progress.

Another innovation is the app’s low-data mode, designed to function in low-connectivity regions, ensuring that even students in remote areas can benefit from PW's educational resources. This technological backbone supports various learning styles and fosters a self-paced, efficient study environment. With these tools, PW has scaled its offerings rapidly and effectively, reaching over 10 million app downloads and penetrating most of India's pin codes.

In addition to AI-driven tutoring, PW’s app integrates features such as video lectures, comprehensive study materials, live classes, and interactive tests. These are tailored by analysing student performance, which helps build more personalised learning experiences. This level of customisation moves away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach, making PW stand out in India's highly competitive EdTech landscape.

What impact will AI have on the global EdTech industry and how Physics Wallah will deal with its future plans?

At Physics Wallah, we’re embracing AI to enhance how we deliver education, integrating it deeply within our app to tailor the learning journey for each student based on their unique needs and pace. AI allows us to provide content faster and in more captivating formats, which is crucial for capturing the attention of today’s generation with diminishing attention spans.

In addition to transforming the student experience, AI offers significant support to educators. It helps relieve teachers from repetitive, administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on what matters most, teaching. AI isn't here to replace teachers, rather, it augments their capabilities, creating new opportunities for innovation within the classroom.

However, this rapid advancement necessitates caution. Misinformation is a real risk, especially within education, where the accuracy of content is paramount. At PW, we take this responsibility seriously, implementing stringent monitoring processes to ensure our AI tools provide reliable information to our students.

Given that state-of-the-art AI models still show limited accuracy on complex exams like the IIT-JEE, we aim to build a specialised Educational LLM (Large Language Model). With our proprietary datasets and extensive content resources, we aim to fine-tune this model to meet the specific needs of competitive exam preparation, offering students reliable, high-quality assistance on challenging content.

Can India meet its target of becoming an economic and tech superpower by 2047? What role will EdTech play in that and also startups like Physics Wallah?

India's ambition to become an economic and tech superpower by 2047 can be achieved by continuing to invest in innovation, R&D, infrastructure, and human capital. EdTech will play a pivotal role in achieving this vision by equipping India’s vast youth population with the skills needed for a rapidly digitalising economy. Startups are important contributors, as we democratise education, making quality learning accessible to millions. By empowering a tech-savvy workforce, startups fuel economic growth and technological advancement, which are critical to India's superpower aspirations.