The government is inviting EdTech companies and AI labs to develop AI tutoring tools, in collaboration with teachers, to ensure they support classroom practice.

The AI tutoring tools will be developed for pupils in Years 9 to 10 across English, maths, science and modern foreign languages. The tools will adapt to individual pupils’ needs, providing extra help when they get stuck and identify where they need more practice to master their lessons.

These tools will be designed in collaboration with teachers to ensure they support classroom practice, and will be tested in schools this year, with the aim to making them available from 2027.

Private tutoring can cost hundreds or even thousands of pounds a year, putting it out of reach for many families. The government is aiming for these tools to help level the playing field.

Every company bidding to take part must show clearly how their product will benefit disadvantage young children, as well as how it will be accessible, inclusive and usable for pupils with different needs.

Successful bidders will receive £300,000, with the government seeking up to 8 organisations in total to form a Pioneer Group to design and test what is possible from AI tutoring tools in real classroom settings.

The tools will provide teachers with actionable insights into how children are progressing and where they may be struggling. This will help teachers adapt lessons, target support and use classroom time more effectively based on evidence of how the materials were understood.

All tools must meet rigorous UK safety standards, align with the national curriculum, and be co-designed with educators. At the end of the pilot phase, suppliers will report on impact for both pupils and teachers.

New national benchmarks are being developed to check AI tools are accurate, age appropriate and safe for pupils to use.  This will make sure the AI models meet the needs of pupils and enable us to rapidly assess new models as they emerge, future-proofing it as the technology develops. 

To get this right, the government is working closely with teachers to create example classroom interactions and clear scoring criteria. This hands on input will help ensure the benchmarks are accurate, aligned to teaching standards, and safe to use.

The government is also opening up access to its AI Content Store, which hosts a range of educational resources to support development of AI for use by teachers and in classrooms. This will provide tech firms and developers with exploratory access to a library of publicly available, high-quality materials to support testing, evaluation, and development activities.