Stylus secures UK Government contract for AI-driven tool capable of reading and assessing handwritten work
Stylus says it has been awarded “just under a quarter” of the £1 million the Department for Education (DfE) is investing in the second round of its AI Tools for Education program.
The funding will support the development of a new AI-powered tool capable of reading and assessing handwritten student work. Stylus says the tool will provide better-than-human levels of consistency and accuracy in marking judgments, while allowing for detailed feedback.
Handwritten work will be scanned in bulk for the tool to process, with all students given personalized feedback reports.
“15 years ago, whilst still a classroom teacher, I realised that in order to improve my practice any further I would need to do more marking, not less. This felt like an impossible task on top of an already hard profession. I’ve been working on that problem in one way or another ever since,” says Dominic Bristow, CEO at Stylus.
“For the DfE to recognise the work we’re doing at stylus as having the potential to change this reality for teachers, and provide the holy grail of both more insight and more time to act on it, is incredibly exciting. We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved and can’t wait for schools to see the level of quality we can produce.”
The company is now looking for schools to take part in pilot programmes and trials to suppor the tool’s development.
