Pearson integration of AI appears to excite investors as share price rises
Educational publisher Pearson is embedding AI across its products as the AI race heats up and the technology encroaches on the edtech sector.
The London-based publisher said on Tuesday that projects to embed generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology — meaning tools which can create new content from large data sets — were already “well underway.”
“As generative AI develops, we expect it to create significant positive opportunities for Pearson, due to our unrivalled depth of content and data,” said chief executive, Andy Bird.
“Learners and educators place enormous trust in us so we have a responsibility to be thoughtful and considered in how we use this technology, whilst continuing to move at pace to enhance our products,” he added.
Pearson said it wasdeveloping the technology for its products including the online assessment tools Workforce Skills, MyLab and Mastering, and Pearson+, where it can condense videos into simple bullet points and generate quizzes and practise problems.
The news comes as more companies and industry leaders are starting to grapple with the impact of rapidly advancing AI technology on their respective sectors.
Last week, Pearson’s US-based rival Chegg became one of the first companies to warn that AI tools were already having a negative impact on its business.
The California-based online learning platform said that ChatGPT was starting to have a negative impact on the number of students using the platform, as it reported a seven per cent slump in revenue to $187.6 million.
Pearson share price
Pearson’s shares fell by over 12 per cent on the same day to 740p per share as the news rippled across the sector, but has since recovered slightly.
Its share price was up almost 2 per cent on Tuesday to 832 pence per share.