Of the professions that are at risk of being replaced by ai, the language teacher is undoubtedly at the forefront.
That's not necessarily because it's a good idea. Some employers have decided, including Duolingo recently, that ai is a fairly reasonable substitute for human experts when it comes to language teaching. Although ai-translated text tends to be ai-translated-text-is-less-lexically-rich-than-human-translations/”>less lexically rich Than human translations, the cost savings are attractive enough to make the trade-off worth it in the minds of certain managers.
But some companies argue that ai can do at scale what language teachers can't.
One of those is ai/”>lora, which relies on conversational ai to teach English to students. Founded by Roy Mor and Yonti Levin, Loora's iOS app has users chat with a chatbot that provides feedback on their understanding of English.
“The idea for Loora (came out of) our frustration with language learning,” Mor told TechCrunch in an email interview. “Language learning apps are only aimed at beginners or casual learners, and human tutors are very expensive, inconvenient, and have limited availability.”
Loora, whose namesake is the Arabic word for “language,” offers students various conversation topics and ai-generated scenarios to choose from, from sports, technology, business, fashion, books and TV shows to interviews and presentations. The app provides feedback on grammar as well as pronunciation and accent and, if users get stuck, a direct translation into their native language.
Image credits: lora
Loora rates users on their proficiency over time and uses this score to personalize conversations based on their speaking level.
Many English learning platforms offer features in that regard, including Speak, Preply, backed by OpenAI (which recently doubled down on ai technology), and ELSA. But Mor says Loora differs in that it is aimed at “serious students” trying to achieve fluency in English for personal purposes. and professional advancement.
“Most other language learning apps on the market are limited and gamified,” Mor said. “Loora has built, trained and optimized its ai with the sole purpose of enabling users to achieve fluency in English, far beyond casual conversation skills… We only use our own data and a customized training and evaluation system to train and optimize our models, resulting in continuous improvement. -improve retention.”
Mor makes the additional argument that Loora is better suited to other apps and tutors for specific language learning use cases, for example, presenting ideas at a business meeting. Tutors, she claims, are limited by their domain knowledge, a limitation that the Loora app does not have (or so Mor claims). And specialized tutors are likely to be in greater demand than general and versatile tutors, adds Mor.
“Suppose a student is interested in learning how to discuss business concepts at a high level for work reasons,” Mor said. “If the tutor is not familiar, despite being a native speaker, he will not be suitable to teach English for that specific purpose.”
This is very promising considering the inherent limitations of language education apps, particularly those that do not have a human feedback element.
At a Michigan State University study Of the effectiveness of popular language learning apps, almost all participants improved in grammar and vocabulary, but only about 60% improved in oral proficiency, a common sticking point in digital language learning programs. The study's authors concluded that a hybrid setup, combining online and classroom learning, was the best approach to learning and retaining second language skills.
Loora assigns a score depending on the user's perceived English proficiency.
But this has not deterred Loora investors, who might have been persuaded by the size of the total English language learning market (more than $70 billion by 2030, according to the data analysis firm Research and Markets).
Loora announced today that it raised $12 million in a Series A round led by QP Ventures with participation from Hearst Ventures, Emerge and Two Lanterns Venture Partners, bringing Loora's total raised to $21.25 million. The money, Mor says, will go toward funding the development of Loora's Android app, “deepening” Loora's core ai technology and conversational capabilities and expanding the startup's workforce from 14 employees to 25 by the end of the year. of 2024.
Loora also intends to launch an enterprise service, expanding beyond its current customer base of 15,000 app users. (Loora charges $15 a month or $120 a year for access to its app.) While the startup's consumer business has expanded steadily (eightfold in 2023, in terms of annual recurring revenue), Mor sees a growth accelerator in corporate clientele.
“Our planned business-to-business offering will make Loora available through employers, universities and institutions, making it increasingly accessible to those who want and need it most,” Mor said. “With (Series A) fundraising, our efficient unit economics, growing customer base and ever-present demand for English learning solutions, we believe we are well positioned to overcome any potential hurdles and continue to grow and serve to our students.
