Microsoft develops Shiksha copilot

Microsoft is using advances in AI to enhance teachers’ abilities and empower students to learn more effectively. The Windows maker is using generative AI to help teachers quickly develop personalised learning experiences, create hands-on activities, through a project called Shiksha copilot. 

The project aims at improving learning outcomes and empowers teachers to create comprehensive, age-appropriate lesson plans by combining available online resources. 

Advances in AI present new opportunities to enhance teachers’ abilities and empower students to learn more effectively. That’s the goal of a new project from Microsoft Research, which uses generative AI to help teachers quickly develop personalized learning experiences, design assignments, create hands-on activities, and more, while giving them back hours of time that they spend on daily planning today.

Shiksha copilot is a research project which is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Microsoft Research India and teams across Microsoft. Shiksha (Sanskrit: शिक्षा, IAST and ISO: śikṣā) is a Sanskrit word, which means “instruction, lesson, learning, study of skill”. The project aims to improve learning outcomes and empower teachers to create comprehensive, age-appropriate lesson plans combining the best available online resources, including textbooks, videos, classroom activities, and student assessment tools. To help curate these resources, the project team built a copilot—an AI-powered digital assistant—centered around teachers’ specific needs, which were identified right at the start through multiple interviews and workshops.

Working with Sikshana Foundation(opens in new tab), a local non-governmental organization focused on improving public education, the researchers are piloting this program at several public schools in and around Bengaluru, India, to build and improve the underlying tools. This post gives an overview of the project, including interviews with three teachers who have used Shiksha copilot in their own classrooms.