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🎉 In our 100th edition:
AI Daily Brief for Educators
The Biggest Threat AI Poses To Education
A visionary manifesto
The AI Pioneer Ensuring No Child Is Left Behind.
AI Daily Brief for Educators
I'm excited to launch a brand-new daily podcast to help you quickly absorb AI in education news Monday to Friday.
I'll do the hard part of keeping up with developments and make it easy for you!
The Biggest Threat AI Poses To Education
This week on the AI Daily Brief podcast, I covered 15 news stories about AI in education, but one in particular stood out. It’s a piece by Elizabeth Anderson, CEO of the Digital Poverty Alliance, titled "Why Digital Literacy is the Cornerstone of AI in Education." Her words strike at the heart of a critical issue:
"One in five children in the UK already lives in digital poverty, unable to access the right devices or connectivity needed to participate in the digital world. Without intervention, AI will exacerbate these divides, cementing disparities in education and employment opportunities. Addressing this challenge demands a reimagining of the curriculum – one that weaves AI education into every subject, demystifies its complexities, and makes its tools accessible to all."
This isn’t just a challenge; it’s the biggest threat AI poses to education. Not cheating. Not data privacy. Not copyright issues. The main danger lies in AI’s potential to widen the already glaring digital divide. If we don’t equip students with critical skills like AI collaboration, entrepreneurial thinking, and effective communication, they risk falling far behind peers who are afforded these opportunities. And as AI continues to advance, that gap only widens.
Our education systems remain trapped in a "business-as-usual" mindset, failing to address the transformative demands of AI. Meanwhile, forward-thinking independent schools are seizing the chance to innovate, preparing their students for a future where these skills are essential.
My upcoming book is a practical guide to reimagining education—helping schools break free from traditional boundaries and embrace innovative approaches they never thought possible. Let’s ensure every student is prepared for the opportunities AI offers, not left behind by its challenges. 👇
"A visionary manifest"
I can't wait for you to have Infinite Education on January 6, 2025.
The AI Pioneer Ensuring No Child Is Left Behind
Priya Lakhani doesn’t just talk about solutions. She builds them. I caught up with her to learn more about her journey, from her first entrepreneurial venture in the food industry to her groundbreaking work in education. Today, as the founder and CEO of CENTURY Tech, she’s transforming how students learn and teachers teach, driven by a straightforward goal: ensuring no child is left behind.
“I want every child to have opportunity and choice,” Lakhani says. “I don’t want anyone to be left behind, struggling, because they don’t have the knowledge or skills to help them earn a living.”
Her journey started long before CENTURY Tech existed. As a child, Lakhani spent time in parts of the world where children begged on the streets, unable to access even the most basic education. The images stayed with her. They shaped how she saw the world and the role she wanted to play in it. “I knew I’d spend my life working to try and create opportunities for those children less fortunate than I was,” she says. “Education, healthcare and food—those were the areas I wanted to work on.”
She began her career as a libel barrister, but the call to create something impactful never faded. In 2008, she left the legal profession to launch Masala Masala, a food brand with a one-for-one model that provided school meals and vaccinations in India and Africa. It was a success, but Lakhani wanted to go further. The deeper, systemic problems she saw in education demanded something bigger.
The moment that shifted her focus entirely came during a meeting with Sir Vince Cable, then the UK’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Cable described the scale of underachievement in the UK, a country with infrastructure, qualified teachers and established schools. “I thought, if we couldn’t solve these problems here, what chance did we have in parts of the world where children were learning on pavements or under tarpaulin tents in slums?” she recalls. “I knew we needed to understand the root causes and fix them.”
Lakhani dived into research. She studied machine learning and drew on her experience teaching law to postgraduate students. She met with teachers, asking questions to understand the challenges they faced. Three fundamental problems stood out: access to education, students needing help with a straightforward way to move forward and overwhelming teacher workloads. She saw technology as the answer.
The result was CENTURY Tech, an AI-powered platform designed to make learning personal. “We wanted to produce a solution that allows a learner to receive material in a way that suits them,” she explains. “At the same time, it needed to enable teachers to make timely, targeted interventions. And it had to reduce the hours teachers spent on admin like marking and assessing.”
CENTURY’s AI adapts to how a student learns. It identifies where they struggle and offers material that helps them progress. Teachers, meanwhile, receive actionable insights, showing where their students excel and where they need support. It’s not just about efficiency for Lakhani; it’s about empowerment. “Teachers spend more than half of their valuable time on admin,” Lakhani says. “That time needs to be reduced as quickly as possible so they can focus on what they do best: teaching.”
CENTURY now serves universities and professional training environments in law, healthcare and retail industries. Learning doesn’t end after school and Lakhani believes technology like CENTURY can make education accessible at every stage of life.
The work hasn’t come without challenges. Education is a profoundly traditional sector and introducing new tools often means asking teachers to change how they’ve worked for decades. “Rather than a belief in education that we are challenging, we are changing how teachers deliver education in their daily classroom setting,” Lakhani says. “While many see the benefits and the impact data proves itself, the process of integrating technology takes time. It’s up to us and our schools to invest in that process.”
Despite the hurdles, the impact has been undeniable. Schools using CENTURY report improved outcomes for students and less stress for teachers. Lakhani remembers one teacher telling her how the platform had transformed their day-to-day experience. “They said they finally felt like they could spend more time teaching again, rather than managing,” she recalls. Another memory that stands out is a shy student who approached her after a CENTURY lesson. “She quietly whispered how she felt more confident in maths,” Lakhani says. “She told me she couldn’t put her hand up in class when she was stuck, but the platform helped her progress on her own and her results were so much better.”
Lakhani has seen CENTURY’s impact stretch far beyond UK classrooms. One of her favorite moments came from a school in Kenya, where CENTURY is provided pro bono. The students wrote and performed a rap about the platform, celebrating how it had changed their learning experience. It was a moment that captured the heart of her mission.
“Education needs to be about enabling people—students and teachers alike,” she says. “When I saw the state of edtech a decade ago, there was no machine learning and no investment in the tools and technologies that other sectors had been leveraging for years. That had to change.”
Her ambitions extend beyond CENTURY itself. As a co-founder of the Institute for Ethical AI, she’s working to ensure that technological advancements are used responsibly. She’s advised the UK government on AI regulation and served on critical councils, including the UK AI Council and the Vallance Review of AI Regulation. For Lakhani, the ethical application of AI isn’t just a talking point—it’s essential.
“We have a responsibility to ensure AI benefits society as a whole,” she says. “In education, that means using technology to enhance human potential, not replace it.”
Lakhani’s vision is clear. She wants CENTURY to set a new standard for what education technology can achieve. “We’ve invested in cutting-edge technology and we’ll keep doing so,” she says. “I hope our legacy is that we’ve set the minimum bar for the sector and shown what’s possible when you aim high.”
Her journey has been marked by determination, resilience and a refusal to accept limits. For Lakhani, this work isn’t just about improving education—it’s about equity, opportunity and the chance to change lives. “The big goal,” she says, “is to provide this to all, so future generations have everything they need to fulfill their potential.”
Priya Lakhani isn’t just creating tools for education. She’s building a future where learning is personal, accessible and transformative. Her work reminds us that real change starts with bold ideas—and the courage to make them happen.
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