Novakid Launches NovaPals for AI-Powered, Conversation-Based Language Learning | GSVtv Podcast

Summary

Podcast Summary: ASU+GSV Summit – Novakid Launches NovaPals for AI-Powered, Conversation-Based Language Learning | GSVtv Podcast

Date: July 23, 2026
Host: Alex (ASU+GSV)
Guests: Max Azerov (CEO & Co-founder, Novakid), Chris Kelmsley (Product Lead, Nova Pals)

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Episode Overview

This episode, recorded live at ASU+GSV Summit 2026, spotlights the launch of Nova Pals—an AI-powered, conversation-centric language learning app by Novakid. Host Alex welcomes Max Azerov and Chris Kelmsley, who discuss the evolution of Novakid, the gaps in language learning, and how Nova Pals aims to create engaging, gamified, and effective English practice for teens worldwide.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Growth of Novakid

• Personal Motivation: Max Azerov reveals how his own experience with rote, impractical English teaching in Eastern Europe inspired him to found Novakid.

  “We were studying English as a sort of like theoretical, abstract entity, not, not like a living language that it is. ... This was the kind of the insight and the frustration that led to Novakid.” (Max Azerov, 01:28)

• Novakid Today: Now active in over 50 countries, with hundreds of thousands of students, Novakid combines AI-led learning, reinforcement, and live teacher interaction.

  • Students experience a hybrid model: AI training with reinforcement, group practice with live teachers, and one-on-one learning.

2. Introduction to Nova Pals

• Design for Teens: Nova Pals repackages Novakid’s curriculum and tech into a game-inspired, AI-first practice app catering to often underserved teens, focusing on interests like music, art, and gaming.

  “It’s based around a kind of core loop of talking to these engaging, teen-focused characters... so it’s super fast, super fun.” (Chris Kelmsley, 04:01)

• Gamification from the Ground Up: Unlike many “bolt-on” gamified apps, Nova Pals is built to feel genuinely fun and native for teens, not “homework in disguise.”

  “It doesn’t look like the normal ed tech... We know this market are suspicious of stuff that adults have designed where they don't think it's for them.” (Chris Kelmsley, 05:19)

3. Addressing the “Practice Gap” in Language Learning

• The Teen Language Gap: Max and Chris highlight that, worldwide, teens receive inadequate speaking practice, leading to confidence and skill gaps.

  “Worldwide, there is an English learning gap... lack of fluent tutors, lack of practice opportunity.” (Max Azerov, 06:11)

• Practice Over Theory: Nova Pals offers pressure-free, on-demand conversations with AI characters—no tests, no required parent intervention.

4. AI vs. Human Instruction: Finding the Right Balance

• AI Enables More Speaking: Early experiments showed kids engaged more and spoke nearly twice as much with AI characters versus live teachers, though sessions were shorter.

  “The speaking time compared to the overall session time was actually much higher in AI versus the live teacher.” (Max Azerov, 10:07)

• Spectrum of Learning Needs: Pure AI is ideal for casual learners, while ambitious learners still benefit from human teacher interaction.

  “We’re both designing both products, both AI first and hybrid products as well.” (Chris Kelmsley & Max Azerov, 10:51-10:53)

• AI for Practice, Humans for Teaching: Chris states,

  “We still think of humans predominantly doing the teaching, AI doing the practice.” (Chris Kelmsley, 11:40)

• Safety and Relationship Boundaries: It's important to design AI that feels “magical” and emotionally engaging, but with clear guardrails:

  “We've got guardrails in there to keep you super safe... It can't replace a teacher, it doesn't have that emotional intelligence and we don't want it to.” (Chris Kelmsley, 12:23-12:24)

5. Real-World Feedback & Early Results

• Data-Driven Iteration: Nova Pals' design is driven by analytics and feedback from 15,000+ early users in test markets.
• Emotional Engagement: The AI “Pandy” character fostered surprisingly deep emotional ties, illustrating the potential for practice tools that are personal and fun.
  • 60% of beginners actively use Pandy, with 10% practicing five times a week. (13:59)

6. Measuring Learning & Proficiency

• Using the CEFR Framework: Performance is tracked using the widely adopted European proficiency scale, CEFR, for transparent, standardized assessment.

  “We’re taking advantage of that to...score how kids perform and also give feedback to the parent... AI is actually extremely helpful on the assessment side.” (Max Azerov, 14:40)

7. The Impact and Limitations of AI in Language Learning

• Accessibility and Frequency: AI enables “on-demand” practice, removing scheduling and availability barriers of live tutors.

  “From the accessibility point of view, this is a real big changer. That means that the frequency of practice suddenly becomes a truly daily habit.” (Max Azerov, 18:01)

• Character Design is Key: Engaging, strong, “moody” AI characters increase engagement, especially for older kids and teens.

  “Strong characters are more engaging than boring characters... kids... want to see some real emotion.” (Chris Kelmsley & Max Azerov, 19:54, 20:18)

• AI as a Tool, Not a Threat: The team sees AI as a “technological tailwind,” improving not just learning but all dimensions of their business: marketing, sales, customer support, and content creation.

  “Our investors are super happy. We have been accelerating our revenue growth for three years in a row, and we expect to do it again this year. And in a large part thanks to AI.” (Max Azerov, 21:13)

• AI Accelerates Product Development: Chris highlights that AI speeds up product experimentation, marketing, and content generation.

  “It's the most exciting, fun tool... I can do it in about two hours since it was launched. Like, this job, I think has never been more fun.” (Chris Kelmsley, 22:17-22:40)

8. Vision for Nova Pals and Relationship-Based AI

• Future of Learning Companions: The goal is not to pretend AI pals are real friends, but to create emotionally resonant, supportive, narratively-driven companions—similar to the relationship kids have with Tamagotchis or favorite fictional characters.

  “At the moment we're talking about a narrative of a new character where they start being quite sad in any shell. And over five lessons you bring them out of their shell and you've found something that makes them happy...” (Chris Kelmsley, 24:30)

  “I think there's storytelling or narratives... that kind of hit the same kind of things as watching Pixar for, like a good piece of fiction.” (Chris Kelmsley, 24:58)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Product Vision:

  “We're just trying to aim it at a market where kids want to practice... they are underserved at the moment.” (Chris Kelmsley, 04:01)

• On Teen Learners:

  “Having this really cool character, very quirky characters, it really does help to kind of, you know, break the ice and get the conversation flowing.” (Max Azerov, 06:55)

• On Displacing Duolingo:

  “We definitely want to make a better product that is specifically designed for young learners… by essentially using this AI-first design.” (Max Azerov, 07:30)

• On AI’s Role:

  “Nobody thinks it's going to replace teachers outright. That's just not possible. But it can do certain things really well.” (Interviewer, 10:57)

• On AI Characters:

  “The main thing it taught us is that it actually works, and it works to a degree. And this is actually what gave us the confidence to go all in on this AI first product.” (Max Azerov, 13:09)

• On Tech Transformation:

  “One thing that is great about AI is on-demand access... This is a real big changer.” (Max Azerov, 18:01)

• On the Joy of Building with AI:

  “This job, I think, has never been more fun than this.” (Chris Kelmsley, 22:43)

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Timestamps for Key Sections

• Novakid Background & Mission: 01:28–03:43
• Nova Pals Concept & Design: 04:01–05:51
• Gamification Strategy: 05:19–07:30
• Targeting the Teenage “Practice Gap”: 06:11–06:55
• Competing with Duolingo & AI-First UX: 07:10–08:08
• Data-Driven Product Iteration: 08:27–09:10
• AI's Impact on Engagement & Practice: 10:07–10:57
• Striking the Human/AI Balance: 11:40–12:35
• Early User Data & Emotional Connection: 12:43–13:59
• Assessment & CEFR Adoption: 14:34–16:05
• AI’s Language Learning Transformation: 16:58–18:01
• Role of Character Design: 19:39–20:18
• AI’s Broader Impact on EdTech: 21:13–22:45
• Vision for Relationship-Based AI in Language Learning: 24:03–24:58

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Conclusion

This episode provides a thorough, lively look at how Nova Pals seeks to remake language practice for teens by combining AI, gaming design, and emotional connection. Max and Chris candidly share their product journey, design choices, and visions for education’s AI-powered future, while emphasizing the enduring role of real human teachers at the heart of language learning.

Transcript

[Alex]

Foreign. We are here at ASU GSV Summit 2026 with a really exciting product announcement from NovaKid. We're here with Max Azerov, CEO and co founder of NovaKit and Chris Kelmsley, who is a product lead for Nova Pals, which we're just releasing today.

[Interviewer]

Let me first tell you a little

[Alex]

bit about them and then we'll jump into the questions. Max Azeroff, experienced entrepreneur and one of the two brilliant minds behind Novakid, an award winning online English school for young learners. Max has a passion for technology and innovation reflected in his impressive list of startups and NovaKid's success as well as his ongoing commitment to professional development and business transformation. Chris Kemsley is a product leader building AI first apps at NovaKid. He specializes in OTA 1, 0 to 1 digital products with a track record in educational platforms and generative AI for language learning. Today, Chris leads Nova Pals, an AI English language learning app launching at ASU GSV 2026. Nova Pals helps kids go beyond classroom English with AI companions they can practice speaking with anytime. No tests, no pressure, no parent supervision required.

[Interviewer]

Welcome to the podcast.

[Max Azerov]

Thank you, Alex. Nice to be here.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So before we get into Nova Pals, I know that's the big news of the day, let's talk about Novakid itself. Tell us about the origins of Novakid and how it's grown quite big.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah. So definitely goes from the personal frustration to a large degree. I grew up in Eastern Europe and I was learning English in public school and definitely had this firsthand experience where, you know, the teachers that we had were not really all that fluent in English to begin with. So we did not get a lot of practice, to be honest with you, we get zero practice. So we were studying English as a sort of like theoretical, abstract entity, not, not like a living language that it is. And this was the kind of the insight and the frustration that led to novakit as a way to give kids simple access to fluent tutors, fluent teachers who could help them practice the language as well as practice with peers from other countries.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And you are now in over 50 countries, hundreds of thousands of students, and

[Alex]

you're using AI led learning and practice

[Interviewer]

with reinforcement and one on one live teacher classes. Tell us what the experience is like for a student, Novakid today and then we'll look into what the future of Novakid looks like.

[Max Azerov]

Sure. So historically we started from one on one classes with live teachers and this was a hit product for us for a long time. But we're stepping into the New era, believe it or not. And yeah, definitely the experience changes and we adding a lot of AI components into the product. AI tutor has been an important part of that, but this is not the only part. So we also have LLM generated content that students students are experiencing and improving their test, their training, training experience within the product. We introducing a hybrid approach where you have AI and you have group practice experiences with live teachers. So basically you kind of practice, you train with AI and then you bring this to a group in order to actually practice with living human beings, which we find students enjoy but also parents appreciate a lot. So those are kind of the main ways that you experience AI group experiences and one on one learning within Novakit.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that's very exciting. And you have tons of practice. It's beyond so different than traditional language learning where it's very theoretical. It's all about practice.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah, absolutely. We're really very practice heavy.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And now we are launching Nova Pals. So Chris, tell us about Nova Pals. You're the product lead for Gamified Education. Give us the overview.

[Chris Kelmsley]

So what we're doing is we're taking kind of seven, eight years of Novakit's deep learning expertise and curriculum design. We're repackaging it as a practice app for Tease. Yeah, it's got gamified features in it from zero. We're not kind of bolting on streaks to existing product, just trying to make it exciting. And it's based around a kind of core loop of talking to these engaging, team focused characters that like stuff that kids tell us they like music, art, gaming and playing fun games toward quads. So it's super fast, super fun. And we're just trying to aim it at a market where kids want to practice in there. They don't necessarily pay for a main one to one tutoring product, but they're learning English in school and they're of deserved at the moment to have a load of practice that repetitive.

[Interviewer]

And you mentioned the core loop of the game is about conversing with AI characters. Tell us what that actually looks like in practice. What is the student doing on their phone in a daily basis.

[Chris Kelmsley]

So we're taking our kind of design cues more from gaming ads. We know where teens spend their time.

[Max Azerov]

Right.

[Chris Kelmsley]

It's Fortnite, it's Brawl Stars. That kind of look we're designing from that principle first, right? Yes. So it doesn't look like the normal ed tech pack. It doesn't look like normal EdTech school textbook characters.

[Max Azerov]

Right.

[Chris Kelmsley]

We know this market are suspicious of Stuff that adults have designed where they don't think it's for them. So we've taken great care to try and do that. As a first principle, right, you're having these small chats. You have goals you'd have to achieve throughout the chat. There's kind of a discrete assessment tool so that we know you hit those goals and you use that to win points, customize your character, unlock blue devils, all the stuff you're not expecting.

[Interviewer]

Max, you've mentioned that you're really focused on underserved learners. There's certain ages of learners from language that are really underserved and there's a sort of age gap where they get it at a young age and then revisit language learning older. But as a teenager, especially when they really, really need to understand a new language, they are not always motivated. How are you thinking about that and how have you taken the data from your existing Novokid, many years of teaching a Novokid and instilled it into this new product?

[Max Azerov]

Yeah. So definitely, I would say for U.S. audience, it's a, the easy way to explain it is, it's very similar to math learning gap in the US I would say worldwide, there is an English learning gap that exists and for already mentioned reasons, the lack of fluent tutors, the lack of practice opportunity and so on. So this was the initial insight and definitely when you get exposed to a foreign language from like between ages 6 and 7, it definitely helps a lot to build up the confidence early on. And especially for teens, it becomes a difficult, you know, as you get older it becomes more difficult to kind of break through this barrier. And we find that, you know, the earlier you start, the better.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Max Azerov]

So obviously for teens it gets, you know, we get a bit of a higher barrier to overcome. But you know, having this really cool character, very quirky characters, it really does help to kind of, you know, break the ice and get the conversation flowing.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, you mentioned sort of Brawl Stars and some really entertainment based apps as inspirations for this. Fortnite, you haven't mentioned Duolingo, but I know that Duolingo is on your mind as you think about gamified learning. And how are you going to take on the behemoth of Duolingo for gamified learning and displace them?

[Max Azerov]

Well, I don't know if you displaced them, but we definitely want to make a better product that is specific, specifically designed for young learners.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Max Azerov]

And we believe that, you know, by essentially using this AI first design compared to Duolingo where you still have this more of like a click type of practice as a first and then AI sort of comes the second. So we think that this audience will actually be more receptive towards this and this is the bet. I mean, hopefully we get it right. Hopefully it will, you know, if the teams like it, if the young learners like it, then it's just going to happen naturally.

[Interviewer]

That's right, yeah. And when you think about that core loop and moving beyond the sort of click to more of a conversational super hyper motivational design as the product lead, how do you test it with kids? How are you thinking about getting feedback from your first audience and iterating into something that's going to be really change the market?

[Chris Kelmsley]

Yeah, I mean we've obviously got a lot of analytics in yam, so we tend to learn by just launching it. Like you know, we are officially launching today, but we've got 15k plus users, we're in a couple of test markets so we've been having early data for about a month and a half, two months now. Yeah, so we're mostly learning that way. But they're putting it in kids hands. Everyone here that the kids just put it in their kids hands.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Chris Kelmsley]

Almost seeing what they want to do while they don't.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah, they just use those as guinea pigs. That's our kids as guinea pigs. That's what happens.

[Interviewer]

And you've gotten feedback from many learners in your existing network. I mean you're in 50 countries, you have so many hundred thousands of kids. I'm curious what lessons you've learned from the core Novakit product that are being instilled into Nova pals.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah, we actually started experimenting with AI a little bit like last year I think and one of the first experiments was this cute little panda that just suddenly appeared in Novakit experience. And what I learned, what surprised us is that kids actually really love to speak to the characters. They really make emotional connection, they make plans for the next lesson like hey Pandy, what are we going to talk about? Are we going to go football like next time? So it was really surprising that it was going relatively deep. But you know, on the other hand, maybe not so surprising, you know, you know, my kid would probably prefer speaking to a Pandy than to a middle aged guy. So I guess in hindsight maybe that's so surprising. And yeah, another thing was surprising is that the speaking time compared to the overall session time was actually much higher in AI versus the live teacher.

[Interviewer]

That's interesting.

[Max Azerov]

So almost twice, twice as high. But you know, on the flip side, the actual sessions are quite a bit shorter with AI. So if you, you know, this is the nuance. Right. The speaking time is pretty high. But if you want high task at hand, then live teachers are actually better at kind of keeping teach, keeping kids motivated and kind of staying sticking to the nitty gritty of things. So that led us to believe that, you know, ultimately there's probably going to be like a spectrum of learners. So more of like casual learners will probably be okay with AI only learning experience, but somebody who has a bit of a more ambition to it would still want to have some human component.

[Chris Kelmsley]

This is why we're both designing both

[Max Azerov]

products, both AI first and hybrid products as well. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

I think you're homing in on an incredibly important aspect of this sort of AI in education moment, which is that we believe that AI can do education really well in certain circumstances, in certain ways. Nobody thinks it's going to replace teachers outright. That's just not possible. But it can do certain things really well. And the idea that you're getting more speaking time but less focused speaking time on the exact task at hand, that makes sense. I think it resonates with what we think about when students use AI. They can sort of take it in any direction and it'll follow them, but that's a little different than what a human tutor will do. Some combination is going to be really interesting. How do you think about the combination of human tutoring or human teaching and AI teaching to get sort of the best possible outcomes?

[Chris Kelmsley]

Well, we still think of Huey just predominantly doing the teaching, AI doing the practice.

[Interviewer]

I see.

[Chris Kelmsley]

We've tried both doing both. It's not a great use of teachers time. Having them doing repetitive drilling over and over and over again on a video versus picking up a fun app that makes bleeps and blues. You're having fun and doing the app work there, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Chris Kelmsley]

I guess the interesting thing building the other way around is we're trying to create these characters that are super engaging and fun and, you know, we're calling them Nova Pals.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Chris Kelmsley]

But we don't want to take that too far. Right. Like, we wanted to know your name and your hobbies and like what you did last time and what you'll be doing next time. But we don't want to remember, like your full name and your address and your bank details.

[Max Azerov]

Of course.

[Chris Kelmsley]

It's this, like, we've got guardrails in there to keep you super safe. Right. It can't place a teacher. It doesn't have that emotionally intelligence and we don't want it to if it's not right.

[Interviewer]

Trying to do right. So this Pandy character that you're in, tell us about how you came up with it. And as you've been testing it, you're

[Alex]

seeing some really intriguing numbers.

[Chris Kelmsley]

Right.

[Alex]

With over 60% of beginners on the platform actively using it, over 15,000 active

[Interviewer]

learners, as you said. What did building and teaching this Pandy character really teach you about the design of the app and about, as you say, keeping those guardrails, but also keep building a meaningful relationship so that you could say, I'm so excited to talk to you next week, Randy. Like, there's an interesting balance to strike there. I'm curious how you're thinking about it.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah, I think the main thing it taught us is that it actually works, and it works to a degree. And this is actually what gave us the confidence to go all in on this AI first product, which Chris is leading.

[Chris Kelmsley]

Sure. Yeah. I think with, with that one again, we shipped it super early. We started gathering data, we started it on younger lovers. So like our new products for teens, it made sense for the first one to keep it super simpler. Their language is super simpler. The Quirky has an easy task to design an AI for. But yeah, we saw pretty early that a large percentage of our users took advantage of it as a practice tool, I think. Yeah, whatever that number is. 60 something percent of those, 50% of them use it twice a week at least, really for between two and four minutes.

[Alex]

Wow.

[Chris Kelmsley]

Around 10% of your users use it five times a week. So you're probably kind of daily now here. But they'll go and do that lesson with the tutor, five days with the panda, back to their real tutor.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah. And those usage numbers are really powerful. How are you thinking about measuring, you know, measuring deeper learning over time? That's always the million dollar question with anything in ed tech. How are you thinking about where it's going to go and are you going to use external assessments or anything else to make sure that students are really absorbing that language? This is something other language apps have been accused of not paying enough attention to.

[Max Azerov]

Oh, we definitely are taking advantage of some of the, you know, standing on the shoulders of the giants, so to speak.

[Alex]

Yes.

[Max Azerov]

Right. So there is this Sephir framework that is commonly used in Europe that basically, you know, the level of proficiency in language, not just English, any language and spoken written language. And we're taking advantage of that to basically score how kids perform and also give feedback to the parent. That where does your kid stand in terms of the Sephora proficiency? AI is actually extremely helpful on the assessment side of things because it really does help to score. Not just the. We can literally score just the videos of the tutoring sessions and have a really good idea, really precisely zoom in on the. On their proficiency level.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And for those who may not know the Sephir platform or the framework, I know it's sort of central to the curriculum you've designed. Tell us a little bit more about it, just so that anybody who's not familiar with it can sort of understand this underlying framework and how you're using it to really boost the curriculum right off the bat.

[Max Azerov]

It's basically requirements, a set of requirements that shows you, you know what level of the language you are. Right. And you start from a 1, then you go to a 2 and progress all the way to C. C2, I think, is the, like fully proficient. So just basically a way to measure yourself against the language proficiency that is commonly used across Europe and much wider than that.

[Interviewer]

Right. So by using that framework, you can actually see students making their progress and amendments.

[Max Azerov]

Absolutely. And we don't have to be kind of tied into proprietary systems that are, you know, offered by some of the companies in the market. So this seems to be a very good, kind of more open source, if you will, way to approach it.

[Interviewer]

That makes sense. So this is a question for both of you.

[Alex]

You've mentioned that novocode took a calculated

[Interviewer]

risk to lead with AI. Right. You said you're being AI native, you're really leaning into it.

[Alex]

But that AI is not about replacing teachers, but about unlocking what matters most

[Interviewer]

in language learning, which is practice. That's where you started the whole conversation in class. People just don't get enough practice.

[Alex]

With everything you've built and seen, what can a language learner do today that

[Interviewer]

wasn't even possible three years ago? Because I feel like AI is really transforming the language space. I know you're on a panel about exactly that at the summit here. A question for both of you. But let's start with you, Chris.

[Chris Kelmsley]

Sure, yeah. I mean. Yeah. What's that? Three years ago? So we just all learned about LLM chat.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Chris Kelmsley]

So none of this was possible as the answer somebody really briefly. Yeah, I guess we've seen certainly in the first stage of that, it being applied to every application. Right. And some of them very successfully, some of them much less successfully. And you don't hear so much about them now. We think language practice is a uniquely good way of using this as A tool. Do we think it can do everything? No. So we still think we need teachers for all, but there's so much scope where we can go with the bits it is good at.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So what types of functionality are you most excited about that it can do? I know it can follow a student into their interests, you can build relationships, you can assess. But I'd love to hear you just because I agree with both of you. I think language is a uniquely. It's a really, really excellent use case for AI because of the practice, because of the frameworks. And I'm curious how you've seen that play out over the last three years because you've. Novokid's been a leader in the space for quite a while.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah. Actually when we just were starting the company, my initial thought was to leverage technology and really deliver this practice in a scalable way. And unfortunately after some kind of prodding around what I realized that there is no technology that is good in it. That wasn't when we started that. So the speech recognition was not there to understand somebody who's not. It could barely understand people who properly spoke the language, but people who just learning the language. There was just no way this was possible. There wasn't any intelligence. So even if you do understand what was said, there wasn't really a good way to build the intelligent bot into that. So now obviously all of that has changed and I think from the consumer point of view, the main thing that has been enabled is basically on demand access. So one thing that is great about AI is on demand access. One thing that is kind of sucks about life teachers with all the good things about them is that they are not as accessible. So you need to pre schedule ahead of time. Sometimes they get sick, you know, sometimes they have different moods, etc. But so from the accessibility point of view, this is a real big changer. That means that the frequency of practice suddenly becomes a truly daily habit versus something that just you do like twice a week and even sometimes not that because as I said, teachers are life humans. They do get sick sometimes and so on.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, Technology is always on, always accessible and it doesn't get into a bad mood and refuse to teach you any new.

[Max Azerov]

Sometimes it does. Some of our characters get in a pretty bad mood sometimes.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Chris Kelmsley]

No.

[Interviewer]

I want to hear more about that. How do they.

[Chris Kelmsley]

I mean we haven't tested it. Usually our hunches that strong characters are more engaging than boring characters.

[Max Azerov]

Interesting.

[Chris Kelmsley]

And what we've seen a lot of in the last couple years are white boring Niches.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So we're leveraging a little bit more so VIN personalities. Yeah, there he is.

[Chris Kelmsley]

We found it fun internally in test flu, so we started shipping it and we've already seen kind of our more engaging characters having better rotation that that.

[Interviewer]

You know, I wouldn't have thought about it that way, but that resonates. And the strong characters probably are also moodier characters maybe.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah, they're moodier. Obviously, you know, we have to kind of walk the line to make sure they don't overly moody. But you know, definitely, especially for kids who are older, like teenagers, they. They definitely. They want to see some real emotion. They want to see some real attraction, not just some kind of your vanilla, you know, speech. So they want some.

[Interviewer]

That makes sense.

[Max Azerov]

They want some emotions.

[Alex]

I like that.

[Interviewer]

A lot of companies in EdTech see AI actually as a sort of existential threat for some of the reasons that you're mentioning there. It's. It takes some of the traditional versions of ed tech where, you know, drill and kill or lots of questions or, you know, and turns it on its head. Makes things very customizable, very accessible, but also, you know, just sort of moves attention quite away from the educational use case in some cases. How do you see AI changing the edtech field for the better? Obviously you're doing it in your products, but how else?

[Max Azerov]

Well, we definitely. So the way I'm trying to make sure my team sees it and the overall company sees it is we look at AI as a technological tailwind for another kid. And to be honest with you, for education at large, for us specifically, there's just so many things that we do better. And this actually reflects the numbers. Our investors are super happy. We have been accelerating our revenue growth for three years in a row, and we expect to do it again this year. And in a large part thanks to AI, things like marketing, things like sales, things like customer support, all of this. Things like marketing, sales, customer support, all of this gets so much more efficient with AI in it. And this really helps a lot. And I'm hoping that not just NetworkIT, but like all tech companies really find a way to leverage that, stop looking at AI as a foe and really embrace it and use it as a growth lever.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that's great. Anything to add to those, Chris?

[Chris Kelmsley]

From a product perspective, it's the most exciting, fun tool that's out of the marines, like as a thing to build features on. It's a theme that assists with my job every single day. Similarly, you know, trying acquisition experiments using AI generated adverts.

[Max Azerov]

And AI JRS complex.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Chris Kelmsley]

That I can launch myself onto a landing page. I build myself.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Chris Kelmsley]

With video adverts. I build myself.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah.

[Chris Kelmsley]

I can do it in about two hours since it was launched. Like, this job, I think has never been more fun than this.

[Max Azerov]

Yeah. Guys, we're such exciting time. I remember first time I actually fired off ChatGPT 3.5.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Max Azerov]

And I don't remember what I asked and when it came back to me, I was like, this cannot be real.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Max Azerov]

So, yeah, this is totally, absolutely out of this world experience. So guys. Yeah. Exciting times.

[Interviewer]

Right. And I noticed that some of the things you're recommending are not education specific. It's any company can get marketing and sales and customer success and AB testing or product experimentation. Marketing, testing, acquisition. So that it is. It's really exciting for edtech. But you also mentioned like content creation through LLMs.

[Max Azerov]

Absolutely. Yeah. Content is a big lever for sure for us.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And I mean, that's not a bad thing that this is. It's sort of lifting the entire business and software field. So just as we close out, you know, Nova Pals is about pals. Right. It's about creating relationships, sort of pseudo relationships. It makes me think of all the different types of relationships we've had with fictional characters. Relationships with like Tamagotchis in the past. I mean, there's so many different ways we've sort of related to fictional characters within toys, within learning. When you sort of think about your most exciting vision of where Nova Pals goes, what is the relationship between a kid and their Nova power? What would be the dream vision for that?

[Chris Kelmsley]

And sure. And again, we've got to be careful. Like this is more on the Tamagotchi perspective that it's pretending to be your best friend to. It's a fun thing that you use for entertainment. Not like a bad thing that good cause harm. Right, Right. Like, I don't want to dwell on this too much, but like we have to be conscious, of course, as builders. But doesn't mean it can't be emotional or it feel in a way more magical than just a robot.

[Max Azerov]

Right.

[Chris Kelmsley]

At the moment we're talking about a narrative of a new character where they start being white sad in any shell. And over five lessons you bring them out of their shell and you've found something that makes them happen that's really interesting and we think we can build that. That's a super exciting thing. So that's kind of where I'm interested in. I think there's storytelling or narratives we could do that. Kind of hit the same kind of things as watching Pixar 4. Like a good piece of fiction.

[Interviewer]

That's kind of where I'm I love that. Really interesting. So congratulations on launching Nova Pals at the ACGSV Summit. We can't wait to see what's going to happen with it. I'm very bullish on relationship based AI, especially for language learning. So I think you guys are doing something incredibly important. Thanks to Max Azrobe and Chris Hemsley from novakhid.