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Undergrad Founder's AI Personalizes Learning for 3 Different Learning Styles
Undergrad Founder's AI Personalizes Learning for 3 Different Learning Styles
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- [00:01]
A
What if you can learn anything? And I do mean yes, anything. Not just faster, but deeper, because it was taught exactly the way your brain prefers to learn. Are you a visual learner? A slow processor? Do you need hands on examples? Journey Next doesn't just teach, it adapts to you. In this episode of Lead with AI, I sit down with Afon Sheikh Sarab, the founder of Journey Next, a platform that's redefining how we absorb knowledge by tailoring learning to your style, your pace, and your goals. Get ready to rethink everything you thought you knew you were learning. Let's get into it.
- [00:46]
B
Welcome to lead with AI. I'm Dr. Tamara Nall. In each episode, we will take you behind the scenes with visionary leaders shaping the the future of AI across public and private sectors. Join us as we explore groundbreaking projects and innovations that are transforming industries and making a real impact on people's lives. Let's dive in.
- [01:15]
A
Hi, everyone. How are you? It's Dr. T, your host of the Lead with AI podcast. That podcast that was number one in tech on Apple Podcasts. And today I am so excited to have a founder with us. The founder of Journey Next, Afon Sheikh Sarab. How are you, Afon?
- [01:32]
C
I'm doing great and I'm like, very happy to be here. Very excited to have this conversation right now.
- [01:39]
A
Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you for being here.
- [01:43]
C
You're most welcome.
- [01:45]
A
Awesome. So let's get started. And I call this Start with a spark. So tell us a little bit about you, who you are at your core, core and what drove you, what passion drove you, what need to start Journey Next.
- [01:59]
C
Okay. I myself is a fun. I'm currently at the uni and I'm like final year. And I just love product. I just love the way AI is revolutionizing every single thing. And the main idea that came to me was this all about education. Education has always been a part of us to learn more things, but recently it's been more about, you know, I mug up things, I get great grades, and that's it. I just forget everything that I always learn.
- [02:28]
A
But that's right, right. We learn it for the test.
- [02:32]
C
Yeah. And that's it. Like, we never remember anything. And the education system, what it's actually testing is it's testing our ability to recall things rather than understanding things. Right. So the way we want to build things and we want to make sure that every single child understand things at its core for what they are. Right. So every student, every person who learns has a different way to learn. They have a different pace, they have a different preference, they have a different format learning. Some people love by reading, some people love by listening, and some people love learning by audio and video. Right. So, but the education system, the way it's been trained, it's about this certain ideology of I have this content and everyone should be molded around that particular thing. Right. And with the help of AI Right. We can tailor that content to make sure it's tailored to individual preferences. And actually students understand what it is. It's not about just mug upping things, it's about understanding the core principles behind it and why are things the way they are. And the more curious we are, the more innovations we are able to create. Right. So that's a main goal and that's the main motivation why we thought we have to come up with something that should change the way everything is done.
- [04:03]
A
That's amazing. So it sounds like you were in school and making good grades and you're like, okay, I learned this, I memorized it, and yeah, I get my A's. However, I don't recall it afterwards. I don't remember it. I was in the same boat too. And actually a lot of our classes are quite interesting, but you don't have time to really understand the topic and become an authority because now you're on to the next quiz or the next test, the next essay. And so it sounds like Journey Next saw that as a gap and is trying to fill that. That's amazing.
- [04:40]
C
Yeah, that's, that's our core principle and that's what we want to do. We want to make sure that every, every children actually loves learning. It's not just a chore that we have to do.
- [04:52]
A
Yeah, no, that's amazing. Yeah. So tell us about a jaw dropping moment when where someone experienced Journey Next and then they realized, wow, this changes how I learn. This changes everything for me.
- [05:06]
C
Okay, so the first time, like when you come to the platform and the whole ideology of learning, it just, I have this set of content that I have to read and that's it. I have to remember things and let's hope I remember it after some time. But like when people come to the platform, let's say, I want to learn marketing, I can, I can go, I can say, okay, I want to learn marketing. I can say, what's my current expertise? Am I a beginner? Am I expert? I'm like immediate person in it. I can tell it. Then I can select what do I want to learn for? Am I aiming to get a job? Am I just curious about it? Am I want to become expert. And the cool part is everyone can just say the platform. How, how they like to learn. Some people learn it by, you know, breaking down things into the smallest thing possible. Some people learn it like explaining like a child. Some people love to learn, like as if they are expert, like in proper terminologies. Everyone has a different preference of learning then everyone has a different format of learning. Someone can say I love reading. Some can say, oh, I want to learn by audio. Some can say I want like visuals to learn it. So like when they add everything up and just when they click the button of generate, it's like boom. They get this entire piece of content. It's like structured in every single way. It's like a complete course and.
- [06:36]
A
Oh, wow.
- [06:36]
C
Yeah. And the cool part is the al learns with them. It understands what they're trying to say. It understands the method of learning. It understands. And next module is based on that so that it's like a tutor who is continuously learning the ways that you learn and it's content for you.
- [06:57]
A
Wow. Wow. And so break it down for us. Like if we open up the hood, how does the brain work? So I go to the platform, I go to Journey Next platform. Is it asking me a series of questions and what am I uploading? What if I need to learn something that's about a particular topic that is in my class? Or what if it's general? Like, how does it all work? How does the brain and engine work for Journey next?
- [07:24]
C
Yeah, so like if you want to learn something, let's say I want to learn more about AI. And this is cool, some cool stuff I have heard about. I want to really learn it. So you can come to the platform, you can say, do you have a separate section where you can generate the entire course? So you can say, I want to learn AI, I want to become expert at it. I have nothing idea about what AI is. I love to learn, you know, in a way which is very simplified in a way, right? As if you are explaining to a child. Then I can slay. I can select the content preference type. You know, I love by videos. I don't love by like reading things. I want a video to be generated. I want visuals. That's how I learn. And when you.
- [08:12]
A
And those are options that the journey next gives me or am I putting that in? I love it.
- [08:18]
C
Yeah, those are like options that you have to select. Like, so once you give that, you have this course, course of AI, you can go through it. And we have like 12 chapters. Each chapter has three modules. So when you click on the first module, you have this entire chapter which tailored to you. And the great part is if you see the content, you read it and you're like, no, I want, like, I don't learn like this. I. You know, there are some things that I want to change. You can just say the AI, if you have Chatbot, you can say, you know, you know what, make it a little bit easier, make it as if I'm not understanding terminologies, break it down. So the next module that you see, it's tailored to that, and the AI, like, just keeps learning more about you, how you learn, how you understand.
- [09:03]
A
Yeah, got it. And. And you're saying no matter what the training is, they're going to be 12 courses and three and three modules under each.
- [09:14]
C
Three modules, yeah, yeah.
- [09:16]
A
What if I have like a short attention span? I'm like, I can't imagine 12 courses. Can I get it in one? Or it are. Does Journey Next really believe that you need 12, you need this structure to really become an expert on whatever topic?
- [09:31]
C
Yeah. So if, if you are just, you know, quick thing, you go, okay, I just want to learn. Just get a small brief of what AI is. You probably. I think you, you should do ChatGPT. I think that's much easier to just learn from that. Right? Yeah, got it.
- [09:47]
A
He's saying that if you want the quick and easy, if you have a short attention span and you just want a summary that Journey Next is Not for you, ChatGPT is. But if you want to go in depth and really become an authority on a topic, then Journey Next is for you. Is that what you're saying?
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C
Yeah, definitely.
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A
All right, perfect. Okay, good. I wanted to kind of clear that up. So you talked about how amazing Journey Next is. Tell me about a time where, you know, you're the founder, you're developing it, where you, I don't know, you updated some. Some capability in it, you know, some or something like some functionality it, and you saw the results and got chills like, oh, my God, I can't believe it. Did that walk us through that moment? What did that look like? Where were you? What were you working on? Where you knew that Journey Next was solving a real world problem. And we have this wow experience.
- [10:43]
C
Okay. So the first was about how its ability to tailor things to me. Right. So for me itself, like, I love the way Richard Feynman used like the great physicist, how is to learn? And he had this great saying that if you can't break down things where a fire could learn probably don't even understand it in the first place. So the way I thought, like, the way the AI was understanding, the way I learned, the way I, you know, grasp things and some examples that are really loved. So it was just changing the course of the structure to make sure I understood very properly. And one that I really loved was most of the courses that we do, we just end up not doing it. So the stat is, like, 90% of the courses that people enroll, they actually don't complete it completely.
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A
No. 90%.
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C
Yeah, 90%. So the thing was, like, how can you make learning enjoyable? It's not like, a tedious task. Like, I have to get the certificate, so I'll just go through it. So we thought of it, and we thought, like, you know what, Doing things with your friends is just one of the most exciting things. So we added this collaborative feature where your friends can come up and they can share notes, you can write notes in the app itself, you can share with your friends. You can see each other's progress via where each one is. So that really, you know, like, made sure the learning process itself is enjoyable. Got it.
- [12:15]
A
That's amazing. So this whole collaboration tool and you singing it actually, like, gave you chills. Like, whoa, this is amazing.
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C
Yeah, exactly.
- [12:24]
A
And, you know, that's amazing. That is awesome. Because I remember when I was in school, particularly working on my chemical engineering degree at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. I survived by a group of us studying together, working together, the homework, concepts, and one in particular, Dr. Lashonda James Corley. She was like a guru of all gurus. I mean, she would actually see a formula being derived or broken out on the. On the board, and she would say, I think there's a mistake there. So she just had this ability to really help explain it. And I was able to do much better because we had a group that were supporting each other. So that. So that's amazing because that really does work. Now let's talk about the ethics. What ethical considerations did you have to consider as your building journey next? And how do you make sure that the human is in the loop? I can imagine there will be some people that will say, I mean, like, are you really an expert if you're using AI to kind of feed everything to you? You know, when there is some validity to going in the lab and doing what you need to do, or conducting surveys, et cetera? So how do you respond to someone that asks, like, can you really be an expert if AI is doing it all for you? And how do you manage the ethical considerations?
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C
Okay. So AI is. This is a tool that can change everything. Like it can, can change every aspect of a life. And it's very important that we build it safely. You know, we have this recent study by HRF, I think it was in April itself, and like 74.2% of every content that's written on the Internet, it's made by AI.
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A
How, how much?
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C
74.2.
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A
Oh, really?
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C
That's a lot. That's a lot. And that's only going to increase over the period of time. Wow. And the thing is, AI hallucinates a lot.
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A
Yeah, it does.
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C
Yeah, it does a lot. Right, so. And it's like very confident in telling lies.
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A
Yeah, right, yeah.
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C
So what happens is if you have this web of lies, the AI is generating lies and you have AI models which are learning from it over the period of time, it's like changing the course of history. It's just rewriting things up. And that's very dangerous. Making sure that AI generated accurate results was like very, very important for us from the start. So we had the systems in place that made sure whatever the AI is generating is actually factual. It's just not making things up. And there are lots of reviewers that go through and review it and pre train the model. So we make sure that nothing is like generated, like, which is false.
- [15:26]
A
Got it. Okay, perfect. Now that's good. Now one question going back. Did you say you just graduated? Are you still a student now?
- [15:32]
C
No, I didn't graduate yet.
- [15:34]
A
Oh my gosh. Yeah, so that's amazing. Like a student. And are you work, Are you in undergrad or masters or undergrad? Oh, wow. I think you're my first undergrad guest, so thanks for being the first.
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C
Yeah, yeah.
- [15:52]
A
Yes. And the reason why I asked that question is I think it's amazing that you're an undergrad and you're thinking about this ethical dilemma, these ethical considerations, and you're putting, and you have put in guardrails that protect the accuracy and the quality and the integrity of, of the results of Journey Next. So that's amazing. Kudos to you for that.
- [16:18]
C
Yeah, thanks a lot.
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A
Yeah, that's good. So talk to me about. You're obviously a visionary. Talk to me about the future. Like, what does the future look like powered by Journey Next.
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C
At the end, what, like what my initial thought was like at the end. What I want is every child loves learning and every child should enjoy learning new concepts. They should understand the concept. It should not be a burden that we have to go through in a life.
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A
Yeah.
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C
Learning is a continuous, like, journey of a life. That's why it's called Journey Next.
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A
Oh. Oh, that's amazing.
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C
Okay.
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A
Yeah.
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C
So it's, it's, it's like a continuous journey. We have to learn continuously. So it should not be a burden that we should go through. It should be a journey that, that we really love. And my goal and what I see in the future, I think with the help of AI, like, a lot of people around the world don't speak English, but a lot of content is written in English. But that's what great about AI, that you can tailor those millions and billions of people with the help of AI so every person, no matter where they are, can learn things around the world. That's. That's what I'm aiming for.
- [17:42]
A
Wow. Wow. Global learning powered by Journey Next. I love that. I love that. And that's one thing that I really love about AI, you know, to, to your point, is that it kind of levels the playing field. You think of you, you think of many, you know, places as being like, lead in technology, leading in the leader in innovation, but there are so many different young people that are brilliant. They don't have the resources, they didn't have the ability to kind of get their talent out there and their innovation out there. But with AI, that kind of levels the playing field. So you can have somebody in some remote location that's going head to head with, you know, someone here. So that's one thing that I love about AI and I, I'm thrilled that Journey Next is a part of that.
- [18:30]
C
Yeah. Thank you very much. That's, I think, what excites me more than anything else.
- [18:36]
A
Awesome. So talk to us about what we can do. Our listeners are very eager. They love trying out new products and seeing how their lives can be helped and wowed. What can we do this week to explore, build and try Journey Next?
- [18:54]
C
Okay, what I would recommend is I want to take a topic that you thought is, this is something I have to learn, but it's very troublesome. I will learn it someday. You know, I want to go through it. Go and check the platform and see. Would you like it? Check it out. I think you're gonna love it the way it is and the way it tailors things to you and.
- [19:19]
A
Right. Yeah. So you heard it here. So let there. If there is a topic that you've always wanted to learn about, go to Journey Next and tell us that that website.
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C
JourneyNext app.
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A
Perfect. So JourneyNext app and try it out. Put in some topic. I think I'm curious about, I want to learn more about being, being fluent in Chinese and Spanish. So I'm gonna figure that out. In school I actually took Spanish, French and Chinese, but I'm only fluent in English because when you have like a chemical engineering test, something has to give. But so I'm gonna use Journey next for that. So that's good. So go to the platform and just try it out and become an expert in the learning format that works best for you. And that's appreciated there. So that's amazing. Afon. So now I have a section that I call from one genius to another. So my last guest has a question for you. And that question is what have you learned most about yourself as a person and a leader on this entrepreneurial journey?
- [20:25]
C
Okay, that's a great question, by the way. So what I've learned personally is the, the thinking that luck is something that you have to create. We all feel that, you know, someone is successful, he might be so lucky, but is the thing right? Luck is not like some random thing that's going to happen to you. You have to fill lots and lots of time. And the more you fail, the probability of you being lucky increases. So being lucky is just nothing. But you have to fail a lot of times. And I didn't understood it before, but now I like completely get it, like failing it just part of the journey of, you know, becoming successful. And you have to understand that you have to fail in order to become successful. You just can't build something and let's hope, hope, you know, I'm going to successful one day. It's the journey that you have to go through it.
- [21:21]
A
Right? Right. Oh, I love that. I love that because I mean, I got chills when I heard that because I do have, you know, I'm a part of conversations and people are like, oh well, that person, you know, they're lucky or their person, they came from money so they had an opportunity. But you're right, like it isn't about luck. You just got to keep going at it. You got to believe in it and pivot when you want to. You know, that's one thing I love that. I really, really love that. Thank you for sharing that.
- [21:46]
C
Yeah, most welcome. And I think professionally what I learned, I think becoming an entrepreneur is the ability to inspire. You can't build something like you don't really want it to become right if you, if you're like half hearted about something that you know, you just can't do that. And as becoming a leader, it's important that you inspire other people to. And you just can't build everything on your own. You have to find a group of people that is like equally excited, like what you are excited about. And you have to like bring everyone together on that, you know, and we have to make sure everyone aligned to that one mission, that one thing that you want it to be true.
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A
I like that. So you have your tri. Call that a tribe. So you have your tribe. Are they there at school, are they back home? Like how did you form your tribe?
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C
Yeah, I think mainly I think that they are my friends. And the great thing about is like if you are really passionate about something you will eventually meet people and you actually attract people who have like same ideology, same mentality about it. Right. And I think it's all about being excited about particular things. I think with this whole event of AI a lot of people are pessimistic like AI is going to take a job. AI is going to change everything. There's going to be nothing left after AI. But pessimism has never leaved innovation. Being pessimistic will never leave you anywhere in life. And being optimistic about the future and being, having that gut feeling, you know, I'm going to change the future. I'm going to mold the future into the vision that I have is like super important.
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A
Yeah, no, that's amazing. That's amazing. So now we're going to move into our section called bonus rapid Fire. So I'm going to quickly give you four questions and you're going to respond and I'll go now. Most over ready tech trend I think.
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C
Is cryptocurrency, crypto, not bitcoin, not the blockchain itself. That's great. But I think the meme coins anyway.
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A
You know it's so interesting because it was like really popular and so viral. Then it died down and now it's popping back up again. So you know there's so many people that have fomo they're like should I, should I not? But yeah, okay. Crypto, I like that most under hyped AI breakthrough.
- [24:23]
C
I think the advent of you know, currently the AI agents. Right. Even I think the terminology is I think misused a lot. I think with AI a lot of companies are misusing term AI even though they don't have it. It's just like powered by AI. But I think if you, I think if the agents and agentic application then right. I think it has great use case.
- [24:50]
A
Okay, great. I love that answer. So one book everyone should read in general or about the future.
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C
I think, I think there are lots of book, okay, there are lots of book that you should go and read, but I think the one book that I think everyone should read, it's, it's called A Million Miles and Thousand Years by Donald Miller. Oh yeah, yeah. It's about the journey of, you know, self discovering yourself. And it's that think of life. If, if your life was a movie at the end, would you even watch it? Is it worth watching? And the great thing about being a character, being a hero is you have to go with the struggles, the pain, the struggles that what makes them more exciting in the first place. So understanding that the pain and it's not physical pain, but you have to go through a lot in life, right. And that's the part of being a great character is doing things what's right, not what. Easy all the time.
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A
Wow, I love that. And then what about the boldest AI prediction you believe?
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C
I believe, I think over the period of years I think the AI we believe AGI, I think AGI has a bit of time till now it's bit far away but we don't have to worry like everything is going to take by AI. But I believe it will be an integral part of it. Whatever we do will have some elements of AI in it and we should all learn to how to use them. Those are very powerful tools that can help us understand about ourselves, understand about the environment, help us be more productive in life. And understanding them, using them I think is very important. I think that's going to be a major part of the future where everyone are using them in order to do things. And I think in terms of if I see education, I think over the period of years, I think teachers, rather than AI replacing teachers, I think it will free up teachers to make sure teachers do best in what they do. And that is they guide you, they correct you and they inspire you for the future.
- [27:15]
A
I love that, I love that. That is the bold prediction for the future. Well, Ifan, I thank you so much for your time. I really enjoy this I've been tired advice. I've gotten chills. All the good feels about Journey Next and the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful efforts you're doing to change learning for the world. That's amazing. So how do our guests get in touch with you? Learn more about Journey Next, what are your socials? Tell us.
- [27:46]
C
Okay, you can go up my website or you can ping me your email. I'm very active on email. You can email me, you can like ping me on LinkedIn or you can like ping me on Twitter or something, whatever like you feel comfortable upon. But yeah, I think if you want to learn more about Journey next time, whatever we do, I think I will gonna have some series upon it to explain you more. So stay tuned for that. Let's see.
- [28:12]
A
Awesome. And the website again is afonshikhshurab.com okay, perfect.
- [28:18]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [28:18]
A
Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Like he said connect with him on all the social media platforms, LinkedIn. He even said email him. His name is below so you can easily search for him in LinkedIn. So thank you so much. Look, stay in touch. We at Lead with AI want to know about your journey as you move towards graduation. Continue with Journey Next and all the great other ventures that you're working on. Thank you so much for your time.
- [28:46]
C
You're most welcome to have me. I'm like super excited and it was like great time having conversation with you.
- [28:52]
A
Yes, absolutely. All right everyone, till next time, bye.
- [28:56]
B
Thanks for tuning in to Lead with AI. I'll see you next time as we continue exploring the cutting edge innovations shaping AI across the public and private sectors. Until then, keep Leading with AI.