By Paul Sandle LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - British education company Pearson said its use of AI in its education courses was delivering better outcomes for students, in contrast to general AI models,
Pearson says its AI improves student outcomes as AI fears weigh on shares
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - British education company Pearson said its use of AI in its education courses was delivering better outcomes for students, in contrast to general AI models, which the company said had a negative impact on learning and reasoning skills.
Pearson results and AI strategy
Shares slide as investors weigh AI disruption risk
Shares in Pearson, which provides assessments, virtual schools, textbooks and digital courseware, have fallen by around 30% in the last 12 months on concerns that AI could replace some of its products and services.
The shares were trading down 0.5% at 955 pence on Friday after it published full-year results.
CEO outlines scaling AI across products built with teachers
Chief Executive Omar Abbosh said Pearson was scaling AI across its products, which were designed with teachers and had to meet exacting standards.
Profit mix highlights resilience of assessments and virtual schools
He said 80% of 2025's operating profit of 614 million pounds ($830 million) came from assessments and virtual schools.
"That requires a level of operational excellence that the accreditation authorities demand, and that you can prove works, sometimes in a court of law and often in a regulatory audit," he said, adding that it was "very defensible and robust".
Digital courseware viewed as more exposed to AI substitution
Around 10% of profit came from digital courseware, which some investors viewed as more vulnerable to AI.
Pearson contrasts its AI with general models and learning impacts
But Abbosh said general AI models did not compare to the skills Pearson was providing.
Pearson says its AI can improve learning versus “AI in the wild”
"We can show that learners learn better when they use our AI, which is not true when you use AI in the wild, actually that can cause cognitive atrophy problems," he said in an interview.
"In educational systems, the nearer you are to students and teachers the more trust that you need to have to operate. Pearson operates at a very high level of trust, and that's why I feel good about our business model."
Full-year performance and outlook
Pearson reported a 6% rise in 2025 operating profit to 614 million pounds ($830 million) on sales of 3.58 billion pounds.
It said it expected profit to increase to 640 to 685 million pounds this year.
($1 = 0.7401 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Susan Fenton and Jane Merriman)
