Founded in 1999, iFLYTEK Co., Ltd., a listed company in the Asia-Pacific Region, focuses on intelligent speech and technology. Ren Pingping, the company's vice-president, has led her team in exploring and promoting the adoption of AI technology in children's education.
The team began exploring "AI-plus-children's education" after Ren visited a mountain school in rural China. "Students in that school studied in a tough environment. But they were eager to learn. What if we could bring AI technology there, so every child would be provided with a good-quality education resource?" Ren recalls.
Under Ren's leadership, iFLYTEK has made remarkable breakthroughs in its research combining AI and children's education. For example, AI-based models have been established to develop teaching methods that fit personal needs. By utilizing AI technology, the good practices of excellent teachers have been collected to form data and design efficient teaching modes. AI technology has also been used to collect and analyze students' performances in completing homework and writing tests and exams. Then, dynamic study plans have been developed to better meet children's needs, especially during different periods of their growth.
In addition to academic performance, iFLYTEK pays attention to the improvement of children's psychological health. By absorbing data contained in 400,000-plus published articles, and more than οne million psychological counseling cases, iFLYTEK has developed an AI partner to recognize children's emotions, express empathy and provide mild intervention to solve children's psychological problems.
Ren believes those technological breakthroughs form just the first step; the true challenge, she asserts, will be in promoting AI technology in those underdeveloped areas of China.
Since 2017, an AI-education, public welfare project has been conducted in approximately 20 provinces and autonomous regions across China, bringing AI-based education solutions to more than 1,100 schools. The project is intended to narrow the gap — caused by an imbalance in education resources — between urban and rural areas. Last year, while working in collaboration with China Women's Development Foundation, iFLYTEK extended the project in Neihuang County, in Anyang, a city in Central China's Henan Province. Devices were donated to children in two primary schools in the county.
"When I saw how excited the children in the remote mountain were as they learned about AI technology, for the first time, I felt all of our efforts had paid off," Ren says she has become more firmly determined to make good use of science and technology, and to help children in underdeveloped regions benefit equally from the development οf AI and digital education.
As a woman who works in the field of science and technology, and as a delegate to the 13th National Women's Congress of China, and a member of the executive committee of Anhui Women's Federation (in East China's Anhui Province), Ren thinks women's federations are playing their roles in integrating AI into children's education. "By allocating various resources, building platforms and innovating working modes, women's federations take an initiative in narrowing digital gaps and cultivating scientific and technological talents for the future. By utilizing AI, and other technologies, women's federations work as a bridge in promoting better balanced education among children in various places across China," Ren says.
What is her expectation for the future development of "AI-plus-children's education?" Says Ren: "The continuous technological progress and further expansion of AI adoption will surely bring more possibilities for the advancement of children's education. I hope to work with partners from various sectors, and to make efforts together to inject a stronger scientific and technological drive in children's education. Accompanied by the development of AI technology, every child will have an opportunity to embrace a smart and promising future."
Photos from Interviewee
(Women of China English Monthly June 2025)
Editor: Wang Shasha
