The education sector is lagging behind in the implementation of AI among other industries. AI technologies are used by only 10% of universities; Education from the point of view of the introduction of AI, especially public education, is only at the beginning of its path, ANO Digital Economy points out. For comparison, according to the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia, priority sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, industry, energy and transport, are already actively using AI technologies: 20% of companies are already using them. organizations. And in some industries, more than 50% of companies have already implemented them.
“Even today we can say that with the help of AI people have the opportunity to master almost any profession and skill,” says Maria Kosberg, head of the educational content team at the interactive homework platform for Russian school teachers Skysmart Class. At least a third of online course students already turn to AI during their learning process.
“About 30% of Yandex Practicum users regularly turn to the GPT model with questions, which answers at any time of the day, does not get tired and is ready to repeatedly explain the same material in a language that everyone understands,” says the director of Yandex education, Daria Kozlova. As a result, teachers and mentors have fewer routine tasks and more time to work productively with students.
In education, AI is capable of assuming three main functions: personalization of learning (AI analyzes the student’s knowledge and offers the most appropriate teaching materials); automation of routines (AI acts as a virtual assistant, answering questions, guiding throughout the course and verifying the completion of tasks); feedback (from analysis of errors and advice to correct them to full dialogue with the student).
Today, the field of foreign language learning is experiencing the maximum shift towards digital format. 56% of students learn a language through online applications and another 39% study in online schools. Fewer and fewer students use the services of a personal tutor, currently 19%. Online schools and apps are gradually displacing tutors. In addition, AI has “overcome” two childhood problems of digital formats: the lack of a personal approach and conversational practice. It is AI that now helps applications and online schools select tasks and assignments based on the student’s knowledge and provide access to voice interlocutors that allow them to gain practice.
The virtual interlocutor has become the most popular solution among those learning a language: 62% of students want to have access to this tool. In comparison, automatic voice translation has half the demand. “Lack of language practice remains the main problem in self-learning a language,” says Marina Evstratova, director of the training center for entrepreneurs at the Skyeng online school. Simply repeating words does not help you speak another language. Therefore, simulators that allow you to perfect conversational structures and communicate with someone in the target language are in high demand. And the spread of AI has made it possible to take them to a new level.
Artificial intelligence is being actively integrated into the online education process. And today it is in demand in almost any area, says Sergey Lipov, director of information technology at EdgeCenter. In the IT field, AI helps students master programming languages by offering personalized challenges and practical exercises. “Platforms such as Codecademy or Coursera use AI to analyze student progress and suggest appropriate educational materials,” Sergei Lipov gives an example. In science and mathematics, AI can adapt the difficulty of problems according to the student’s level. In art and design, AI can offer personalized recommendations and tutorials based on the student’s style and preferences.
Soon, instead of a teacher, AI will be able to select vocabulary, grammar and important topics, according to Skyeng. For example, if a student studying a foreign language needs highly specialized vocabulary related to its professional activity. There are already some results of the introduction of AI in the learning process and they are positive. Skyeng compared the results of an experimental group of students, taught by AI, and students with a teacher. In the experimental group, progress in language acquisition was greater. However, it is still not possible to say with certainty that AI is more effective than training with a normal teacher. It has been about a year and a half since the introduction of the first generative models; This is not enough to draw clear conclusions.
