Why Building AI for Schools Is Harder Than Building a Chatbot: Inside Smartschool’s Approach to Exam Prep
July 3, 2026 – 6:29 pm
Image by: Smartschool
Artificial intelligence has proven its ability to trawl the internet quickly retrieving information to answer questions. But teaching students using AI presents a steeper challenge. The stakes are higher when aiming for performance on high-stakes exams like the SAT and ACT.
On the surface, education might seem a natural fit for large language models. However, educators and administrators seek tools, not chatbots. Chatbots can hallucinate, make mistakes, and handing over pupil instruction to them could impede progress for months. Educators require tools that are robust, accountable, and consistent.
That’s why the creators of Smartschool, an educational technology company based in Palo Alto, decided to start by addressing student and educator challenges. They developed an AI tutor designed for genuine learning and performance under pressure, rather than adapting existing AI tools. Their platform supports key exams like the SAT and ACT.
This undertaking stemmed from the founders’ shared background: Polish entrepreneurs Matt Masłowski, Paul Burzyński, and Kajetan Lewandowski. Each had experience in tech and education, and grew up in Poland during a challenging economic transition where access to quality education was limited.
"Coming from relatively underprivileged backgrounds, we wanted to help people get great educations," says Maslowski, Smartschool’s CEO. "Because if we keep the current education system as it is, with rapid global change, we’ll have an extremely unfair and unequal society in the future."
The Challenges of AI-Based Learning
Smartschool’s team believes generic AI systems weren’t designed for classroom realities. This is especially true in math education, where models are known to hallucinate. They might skip steps or reward incorrect answers, causing issues for teachers and students and reinforcing skepticism towards AI.
A successful platform must be customizable to align with curricula, state standards, and data privacy regulations.
"Most edtech tools are just wrappers around ChatGPT," notes Burzyński, Smartschool’s chief product officer. "They have no understanding of what a student is actually working on in class."