Arbor Education
At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform how schools and trusts work. That means we never develop “AI for AI’s sake.” We start with schools’ real problems, focusing on the tasks that consume the most time, and work hand-in-hand with schools at every stage of development. Our particular focus is on reducing the admin burden for back-office staff and leaders.
In our 2025 survey of 9,956 Arbor users, customers told us that Arbor’s AI features save an average of 70 minutes per staff member, per week, which equates to 45 hours per year (over a whole working week) per staff member.
In this entry, we’ve highlighted two of our innovations from the past year:
– Auto Absence transcribes, translates, codes and logs absence calls, cutting a two-hour daily task to 30 minutes, improving safeguarding
– Ask Arbor, our in-MIS AI assistant. Built on top of each school’s data, Ask Arbor is uniquely positioned to answer questions and build reports unique to that school, saving leaders at least one hour a week.
To make sure every feature we create answers a genuine workload problem, all our AI development is grounded in co-creation with schools.
Developing Experts
Developing Experts is an award-winning digital learning platform that uses Artificial Intelligence to transform primary and secondary education by reducing teacher workload, personalising learning, and aligning curriculum with future workforce needs. Over the past 12 months, the platform has introduced AI-driven innovations that streamline lesson planning, differentiation, and assessment, allowing educators to focus on teaching and student support.
AI-powered lesson creation enables teachers to draft a single plan, which the platform expands into presentations, quizzes, scaffolded explanations, and career-linked content. The AI Pupil Zone personalises learning pathways for every student, including SEND and EAL learners, adapting content to reading level, pace, and accessibility needs.
A standout feature is AI-driven workforce data modeling, which analyses labour market trends and economic forecasts to predict emerging skills and employment needs. Curriculum content, virtual work experiences, and career pathways are aligned to these insights, ensuring learners develop skills relevant to the future economy.
Additional AI tools automate resource discovery, reporting, and parental engagement, further reducing teacher workload while maintaining quality and inclusivity.
By combining AI lesson creation, personalised learning, and workforce-aligned career education, Developing Experts enables schools to deliver high-quality, inclusive education efficiently, preparing learners with the knowledge, skills, and insight to succeed in.
EditAI
EditAI is a digital teacher twin that instantly creates project-based, curriculum-aligned lessons connecting K-12 classroom topics to real-life issues using future-ready pedagogy. Teachers simply select grade, subject, and theme; within seconds they receive a complete interactive lesson package (slides, textbook material, worksheets, handouts, suggested multimedia, lesson plans, etc.) ready to use or adapt. National educational standards and trusted sources ensure accuracy, compliance, and safe classroom use.
Teachers can further tailor lessons to individual needs, from advanced students to neurodiverse learners with expert-recommended SEN adaptations. The no-code, low-threshold interface empowers every teacher, regardless of digital skills, to create engaging and inclusive learning experiences for students.
Trusted internationally, EditAI has received glowing feedback from educators and school leaders. Teachers who use EditAI report significantly reduced preparation time, a wealth of new ideas, and the ability to design more personalised, inclusive and dynamic learning path for every learner. By seeing how classroom knowledge applies to real-world challenges, students grow more invested and active in their learning.
Co-created with teachers and recognised among the most innovative EdTech solutions, EditAI is built to empower educators and inspire learners. Above all, it brings back the joy of teaching.
FlashAcademy®
FlashAcademy® is transforming English as an Additional Language (EAL) support by tackling one of education’s biggest challenges: teacher workload. In schools with large numbers of multilingual learners, assessment has traditionally been repetitive, slow, and a major drain on teacher time.
FlashAcademy® combines an EAL learning app with a digital assessment platform, already adopted by over 2,400 schools and 700,000 learners worldwide. Its breakthrough innovation is the AI reviewer, the first of its kind for EAL. The system analyses responses instantly, identifies partially correct answers, and produces clear summaries for teachers to review. This ensures teachers stay in control, while saving an average of 150 hours per school every year. Across FlashAcademy® schools, that adds up to over 280,000 hours of teacher capacity released annually.
The benefits go beyond time savings. Consistent assessment and reporting across year groups give leadership teams clarity on progress and help shape whole-school strategies. Unlimited teacher licences mean every teacher can support EAL learners, while simple PDF reports make it easy to share progress with parents.
By combining measurable workload reduction with ethical, transparent AI, FlashAcademy® is helping schools focus more time on high-quality teaching and accelerating learner progress at scale.
Olex.AI
Most AI solutions focus only on reducing workload through providing individual, ready-made resources. But the true workload burden for teachers and leaders spans much wider: Marking, planning, reporting, moderation, and teacher development. This is where Olex.AI stands apart from the ‘single request in, single resource out’ model.
Developed with teachers, leaders, and literacy experts, Olex is the only AI-powered platform addressing multiple workload challenges simultaneously:
Marking & Planning: Entire class sets of 30 essays marked in under 2 minutes, with instant priority next steps and lesson plans.
Reporting: Automated OlexAnalytics generates inspection-ready progress reports at individual, class, and cohort level, saving SLT valuable time.
Moderation: Every judgment is evidenced with quantitative data, cutting out hours of debate and paperwork.
Teacher Development: By showing what “good” looks like in student writing, Olex accelerates ECT development and reduces pressure on senior leaders to find time for mentoring.
Oxford International
Oxford International: Transforming University Admissions with AI
Oxford International has revolutionised international student admissions with the launch of its AI-powered Admissions Engine. This proprietary platform automates eligibility checks, document verification and conditional offer generation, using adaptive machine learning to deliver instant decisions and reduce staff workload.
Previously, conditional offers could take up to 48 hours. Now, students receive decisions in just eight minutes. Staff time per application has fallen by 80%, saving more than 3,000 hours in its first quarter alone, equivalent to four full-time roles now dedicated to student support.
In its first quarter, the Admissions Engine helped Oxford International processed 26,438 applications, double the number handled during the same period in 2024.
Already live across most UK academic partners and expanding to the USA, Canada and Australia, the Admissions Engine sets a new benchmark for speed, accuracy and scalability in higher-education admissions.
By combining innovation with human-centred design, Oxford International demonstrates how AI can reduce workload, improve access, and transform the experience of students and academic institutions worldwide.
SmartEducator
SmartEducator is helping solve one of education’s most urgent challenges: teacher workload and in turn student outcomes. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, the platform is giving teachers back valuable time while improving fairness and outcomes for students.
In the past year, SmartEducator has launched breakthrough features that are transforming classrooms. Its automated, bias-free marking saves teachers up to six hours a week, while adaptive feedback gives students clear, personalised guidance instantly. Beyond marking, SmartEducator provides real-time insights into progress at individual, class, and whole-school levels, removing the burden of manual data analysis and reporting.
The impact is significant. Teachers in pilot schools report reclaiming nearly a full day of work each week, reducing stress and boosting morale. Leaders note improvements in teacher retention and wellbeing, while students benefit from faster feedback and more engaged teaching.
Designed with educators and underpinned by transparency and safeguarding, SmartEducator is not replacing teachers; it is empowering them. By reducing workload at scale, it is helping to protect the future of the teaching profession and enabling schools to focus on what matters most: inspiring learning.
Teachmate
Teachmate is an AI-powered assistant for teachers and school leaders comprising over 150+ AI-powered tools created to reduce workload and promote learning. From lesson planning and resource creation, to administrative and leadership tasks, Teachmate’s suite of innovative tools save teachers and school leaders on average over 10+ hours every week.
Trusted by over 350,000 users worldwide, Teachmate’s easy to use yet powerful online platform enables all teachers to leverage the transformative power of AI, whilst retaining their professional expertise and oversight – we’re assisting teachers with AI, not replacing them.
Innovative features, such as our ‘Tool Linking’ and ‘Refinement Bar’, along with our seamless integrations with productivity tools, offers a complete solution for teachers and school leaders looking to embrace AI to enhance their planning, resource creation and wider school duties.
Teachmate is fully GDPR compliant with no user data being used to train AI models, making it the trusted school-wide AI platform for over 2100 schools, colleges and MATs.
Trusted AI built for education.
Toddle
Toddle AI is the world’s first fully embedded AI suite designed to reduce teacher workload at scale. Trusted by more than 2,000 schools in 100+ countries, it lightens the heaviest parts of a teacher’s job – lesson planning, assessments, grading, reporting, and communication – while keeping teachers firmly in control.
Teachers use Toddle AI to generate lesson ideas in minutes, create assessments instantly, cut grading time in half, and draft report comments that once took weeks in just a few days. Worksheets, announcements, and portfolio captions can also be created instantly, cutting down on everyday admin.
The results are measurable. At KAUST School in Saudi Arabia, Toddle AI reporting saved more than 120 hours per cycle. At International College, Ras Beirut, planning time dropped from 1–2 hours per lesson to 15–20 minutes. At Creation Village International School in the USA, review time for reports dropped by 40 percent while the quality of comments improved thanks to AI-generated, evidence-based feedback. Across all Toddle schools, 90 percent of teachers report saving up to five hours every week.
Built on four pillars – embedded, human-centred, privacy-first, and constantly improving – Toddle AI acts as a personal teaching assistant that reduces workload, restores balance.
