Written by Charlotte Johnson
Sidhant Bendre, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Quizard AI, is committed to creating more equitable outcomes in education. As the technical lead on Unstuck AI—a platform which attracted over 900,000 users within two months of launch and now generates 1.85 million visits monthly—Sidhant draws from his own academic journey to build more accessible, innovative learning experiences.
Sid, your work with Quizard AI, and more recently Unstuck AI, has seen remarkable traction. As a leader in the edtech space, how do you see technology and education evolving together?
Thank you. Honestly, we’re standing on the shoulders of giants like OpenAI and Anthropic. While they are innovating on the model frontier, we are tasked with the challenge of harnessing the technology to create practical solutions that meaningfully improve people’s lives. Quizard AI is working between these two pillars to make high-quality education accessible to everyone.
As someone who’s experienced a wide range of academic systems, it’s always made sense to focus on creating tools that deliver a more universal learning experience. Technology and education aren’t evolving together simply because they need to. We’re demanding more from education, and tech is responding to those demands.
It feels like the pandemic pulled the rug out from under our educational systems, especially with the rushed adoption of remote learning tools. We’ve made progress since then, but the digital divide remains a serious challenge. As technologists, we have a responsibility to tackle it head-on.
Students are adopting AI quickly, but institutions seem more hesitant. How do you think they should approach these challenges?
We understand, we definitely share some of their concerns. When we designed Unstuck AI, our main goal was to make sure we built a tool that empowered students to take control of their education using AI, but didn’t give them ‘shortcuts’ around true learning. Our platform gives students a tool to search through and make sense of their materials, making it easier for them to access the relevant information they need, as they do their work. We want to eliminate the wasted friction in learning that comes from searching for information and encourage people to spend their energy working through the concepts. The goal is to encourage deeper interactions with their study materials and make studying and working a more delightful process.
Institutions can meet us halfway by focusing on AI literacy. Instead of banning AI outright, they should teach students how to use these tools responsibly and revamp their curriculum and course content to stay up to date with technological advances and prepare students for a world where AI tools are increasingly commonplace in academic and professional settings. Turning AI into a resource, rather than a taboo, will go a long way towards promoting a better relationship with the technology.
We’d also like to see more collaboration. Universities and startups like ours should work together to figure out how AI fits into education. Without institutional support, these tools risk being implemented in ways that don’t align with academic goals. We want to bridge that gap.
On a more positive note, can you elaborate on how AI is personalizing education for students?
Personalization is one of AI’s biggest strengths, and tailored learning pathways can make education much more engaging for students. They click together. We’ve worked hard to make the user experience on our platforms immediate and intuitive.
AI can very organically adapt its responses based on how students interact with their materials. If they need deeper explanations or more practice problems, it’s just a matter of asking. Without AI, building something this dynamic would’ve required an enormous team to code endless decision trees and edge cases.
And, in the same vein, we believe AI has the potential to help educators. It can enable more dynamic, continuous assessment models that emphasize long-term learning over short-term recall. Imagine tracking a student’s progress throughout the semester, and being able to understand, at any point, where they’re excelling and where they still need additional help. We see this kind of feedback loop as the future of education.
What barriers do you see to AI adoption in education, and how can they be overcome?
The big three are infrastructure, policy, and awareness. There’s precedence. Every major academic innovation has had to face these hurdles.
Many institutions lack the infrastructure to support AI effectively. Most universities—and especially high schools—don’t have experts on staff, and there’s usually no budget for research or tailoring AI to their curriculums. This leaves space for misinformation about what AI can or can’t do.
Consequently, policy remains a sticking point. Academia still stigmatizes rather than exploring its potential. This limits how institutions envision its role in education and hinders adoption.
And finally, there’s a gap in awareness. Many educators see AI as a threat to their roles, and often because they’re unaware of how AI can complement and enhance their teaching.
As I’ve mentioned, I think the solution to all of these is collaboration. Universities need to invest in the groundwork, startups must continue innovating with partnerships in mind, and educators should receive training to feel confident about incorporating AI into their classrooms. We want to support these efforts and be part of the conversation as it evolves.
It seems like there’s still a long way to go. Where do you see AI and technology in education heading?
For me, the ultimate goal is global accessibility. The digital divide is something I care deeply about. Having grown up in Nigeria and studied in both India and the U.S., I’ve seen the strengths and shortcomings of different educational systems. I want to continue to focus on delivering high-quality educational resources to students in underserved communities.
And it might look like a long road ahead, but we’re making steady progress. Not knowing what’s next just means we’re paving the way forward.
Quizard AI is available on iOS, Android, and as a Chrome extension. Unstuck AI can be accessed on iOS and through its web platform.
