AI empowers education and subverts the learning experience.

Efficiently learning a new language is a dream skill for many people. However, the reality is that even if you have clocked in Duolingo for thousands of days, you can still speak the words in actual conversations. Poor, because most language learning begins with reading and writing, while native speakers begin to master the language by listening and speaking.

Language learning application Speak has captured this point and used generative AI to create a language learning platform with "speaking" as the core. Conversation exercises help users truly master a language, rather than just relying on a few phrases and textbook grammar.

In early December 2024, Speak completed a US$78 million Series C financing, with a valuation reaching US$1 billion. This round of financing was led by Accel and OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator continue to increase their support. Just six months ago, Speak had just completed a $20 million Series B round of financing. Only half a year later, Speak successfully doubled its valuation. Ben Quazzo, a partner at Accel, will join the Speak board of directors after the financing. He believes that Speak has become a leader in consumer AI, not only growing rapidly, but also showing huge market potential and redefining the language learning experience.

Listening, speaking, reading and writing = explosive growth

Since its inception, Speak has Fluent language expression is the core of technology. Although it is the most important part of learning a language, it has always received the least technical support. With the help of generative AI, Speak can fill this technical gap and split the language learning process into Three steps, focusing on simulating the real language environment:

Start with listening and speaking: put aside complicated grammatical rules and let users enter the conversation directly. Founder Zwick explained: "We will not explain the grammar one by one, but let the users directly experience the language."

Continuously repeat the practice : Users repeat new phrases in diverse contexts until they become proficient, without the need for translation.

Real situation application: Use real scene dialogue generated by AI to help users integrate language into actual useUsed.

Speak interface

The entire process is completed through AI without any human intervention. Speech recognition, natural language processing and generative AI work together to accurately match user needs. OpenAI not only provides financial support for Speak, but its language model is also an important enabler of Speak technology. OpenAI has invested in Speak since 2022, hoping to jointly use generative AI technology to change the future of language learning.

Although the mode of allowing users to talk to the machine and practice repeatedly is similar to language learning software such as Duolingo, Speak has more advantages in "listening" and "speaking". Focus makes it stand out and is favored by users. Currently, the average daily usage time of users is 10-20 minutes. The subscription price is US$20 per month or US$99 per year, which is only a fraction of the cost of hiring a real language tutor.

Since its launch, Speak’s performance has been very impressive: the application has been downloaded more than 10 million times. This year alone, users have completed more than 25 million personalized courses. At the same time, users have spoken out on the platform. The total number of foreign sentences has exceeded 1 billion; in South Korea, the first market, Speak has helped 6% of the Korean population become fluent in English through Speak; on the corporate side, more than 200 companies have chosen Speak as an employee language training tool, and employees use The rate is as high as 85%.

Phrases spoken by Speak users

Speak’s ambitions are not limited to English. Currently, users can also learn Spanish. Its website also shows that French, German, Chinese, Japanese and other languages ​​will soon be available for learning. The learning method adopted by Speak with "real dialogue" as its core provides language learners with a more immersive experience and greatly improves the learning effect, making Speak a dark horse in AI language learning.

AI empowers education: subverting the learning experience

AI is reshaping it at an alarming rate The education industry not only optimizes the learning experience, but also changes the core value of educational products. Not only language learning, many educationCompanies are exploring how AI can maximize learning efficiency. For example, Duolingo, one of the world's most popular language learning applications, has attracted hundreds of millions of users with its easy and interesting gamification experience. In recent years, it has also been using AI Adding value, such as using AI to generate personalized exercises for users , ensuring that the learning content is highly matched to the current level. Data shows that this function increases user retention rate by 15%-20%; at the same time, the function of using AI to provide users with instant feedback makes 78% of users believe that this function has reduced They learn with less frustration and increase course completion rates.

In 2023, Duolingo launched Duolingo Max, a premium subscription service based on GPT-4. Users can talk to AI characters and simulate real communication scenarios, data It shows that the average daily learning time of users using Duolingo Max is 30% higher than that of ordinary users, which directly promotes a 62% year-on-year increase in the number of subscribers. These AI functions have not only allowed Duolingo's users to grow significantly, but also improved users' learning experience and satisfaction. Since the launch of AI functions, Duolingo's App Store rating has increased from 4.5 in 2022 to 4.7 in 2023. point. Benefiting from AI capabilities and user growth, Duolingo's stock price has risen by more than 50% in 2023, climbing from US$90 at the beginning of the year to US$140 at the end of the year.

Duolingo max

At the same time, the emergence of AI has brought unprecedented impact to traditional online education platforms like Chegg. As a former online education giant, Chegg mainly provides test preparation and homework tutoring services. However, the emergence of ChatGPT in 2023 has brought a fatal threat to Chegg. For example, ChatGPT can quickly generate homework answers and study suggestions, directly replacing Chegg's core services. , which made users no longer willing to pay for Chegg's subscription model, leading to serious user losses. Chegg's subscription revenue fell 7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2023, and total revenue fell further to US$182.8 million in the second quarter.

Chegg tried to compete with ChatGPT through its self-developed AI tool "CheggMate", but due to the delayed launch time and single function, it failed to reverse the situation, and its stock price also plummeted. It plummeted from $30 in 2022 to $2 today. This impact shows that in the face of the rise of generative AI, traditional education platforms are likely to be completely marginalized if they cannot quickly adjust their strategies.

Chegg stock price trend

In the AI ​​wave , other educational products are also actively embracing this technology in order to break through the traditional model: Quizlet, an efficient learning card platform, has improved learning efficiency by 40% through personalized learning paths and real-time interactive functions of generative AI, and new user registrations have increased by 30% %; Online education platform Khan The AI ​​tool "Khanmigo" launched by Academy can act as a virtual tutor to help students improve test scores by about 15%; the cognitive ability training application Elevate uses AI to adaptively adjust the difficulty of questions, allowing users to improve their memory and processing speed within three months. 25%.

Khanmigo

The education industry has always iterated at a slow pace. However, the emergence of AI is breaking this deadlock at an alarming rate. From improving learning efficiency to completely subverting business logic, AI has made "personalization" and "scale" compatible for the first time. This opens up a whole new space for growth for education technology companies.

A platform like Speak is a perfect example. It uses generative AI to build a highly personalized learning experience, so that users’ learning is no longer passive memorization. , but a dynamic practice. Speech recognition and contextual dialogue technology make "speaking" the core of language learning. This low-cost, scalable model not only allows more users to afford high-quality education services, but also provides rapid development for education start-ups. Expanding market business opportunities.

The charm of AI education is that it makes learning closer to real scenes. Generative AI simulates conversations and life scenes, so that users feel that it is not cold teaching. A tool, but a caring learning partner. The key to success is not how complex the technology is, but how natural the user experience is. Whether it is Speak’s immersive language learning or Quizlet’s use of generative AI to optimize memory efficiency, these products are capturing users with intuitive and delicate experiences.

The innovation of business models has raised the appeal of education to a new level. Subscription services provide the company with stable cash flow, and the continuous accumulation of user data It can also feed back product optimization and form a closed loop. More importantly, the rapid iteration of AI technology allows educational tools to be used at lowMarginal costs enter more vertical fields, extending from language learning to corporate training and even vocational skill improvement.

AI has not changed the essence of education - helping humans learn more efficiently, but it is completely rewriting the rules of the education industry. When education becomes smarter, more inclusive, and more people-centered, the AI ​​revolution has just begun. In this game, whoever can seize the balance between technology and user experience may dominate the future landscape of the education industry.

Reference source:

Language learning app Speak nets $20M, doubles valuation (TechCrunch)

Our Investment in Speak: The Language Learning App That Gets You Talking (Accel)

ChatGPT WRECKS Chegg's stock price (Superhuman AI)