Surprise! Ed techs sponsoring the 2024 AIR Show: AI Revolution tend to be very young companies.
Of the 80+ ed techs that sponsored ASU+GSV’s inaugural AI event…
- Average year founded = 2017
- Median year founded = 2019
Here’s a histogram:
In my last post, I noted that ed tech sponsors at the AIR Show tilted heavily toward Teaching & Learning Tools. Here’s a chart showing the average age of ed techs by product category:
This isn’t a large enough sample of ed techs to make any definitive statements about the state of AI in ed tech. However, this chart does reiterate that not only are a few product categories over-represented, they skew young as well:
- AI Student Assistance: 10 ed techs; avg. age = 2.4 years
- Learning Design & Dev: 9 ed techs; avg. age = 3.6 years
- AI Teacher Assistance: 8 ed techs; avg. age = 2.6 years
Foretelling Some Hot Competition
Most of these ed techs are focused on K-12, though some address HE needs as well. And while there is surely some differentiation amongst these ed tech products and companies, I think this view is sufficient to suggest that competition in the more obvious AI-based ed tech product categories is really going to heat up in the next couple of years.
Those AI-based ed tech startups who survive will likely be those who prove product market fit the fastest. They need to solve real, painful problems for students, teachers, or administrators in a way that proves their ROI, and at a price that fits with the realities of of education budgets.
Easier said than done.
Looking at these pretty noisy, emergent categories we can expect that those AI ed techs who will survive will succeed in differentiating their product / message, and optimizing their GTM to get wins quickly — and quickly snowball into ARR. Succeeding here won’t immediately knock competitors out of the running, however. Only when AI ed techs are able to prove a positive impact on the problem they are helping customers solve and thereby renew contracts should they actually start to feel confident in the long-term success of their business.