Obrizum Group, the enterprise learning technology company that has developed one of the world’s most advanced AI-driven teaching platforms, has announced today its partnership with technology business Capita, as it targets a major overhaul of the corporate learning and development market in 2021.
Obrizum’s online platform works by presenting information for employees to read, digest and answer questions on but, unlike traditional digital training courses which follow a predetermined path, the lesson continually changes and adapts depending on how well the employee understands the content. The platform is able to operate in much the same way as an expert human tutor, by quickly establishing what the learner understands well and not so well, and then creating a tailored training programme that is personal to that individual, in real time. The platform’s unique, patent-pending technology is able to accurately establish an employee’s true understanding on potentially any subject by constantly measuring and interpreting an array of variables, including time and attention spent on a page, and the accuracy and confidence they have in answering questions.
These highly personalised courses result in more engaged participants because they can distinguish between an industry expert, a complete novice and everyone in between. That means participants enjoy a more effective and efficient learning experience where they only learn what they need, which in turn reduces company costs on teaching time and the speed to competency for new employees.
Companies will be able to build teaching courses of all different types with the technology – from detailed professional development to annual compliance, with multiple applications in all industries. Importantly, generic ’mouse clicking’ training exercises – which are common in many businesses – should be replaced by genuine knowledge-transfer. And due to Obrizum’s ability to verify and cross-check true understanding, companies will now be able to build training programmes which are more difficult to ’game’, which is ideal where competence or compliance training needs to be undertaken with the greatest care.
Crucially for companies that are building and running teaching courses, Obrizum’s AI also automatically breaks down learning material into the key components without the need for human intervention. In practice that means a course organiser can upload hundreds of pages of learning content, and the AI will sift through it, establish the pertinent subjects and then reorganise them into succinct learning modules. This helps save course organisers considerable time in designing and then building training courses. The AI can even analyse and sort information which isn’t text based such as video, audio, PowerPoint, PDF files, diagrams, images and even virtual reality.
Capita’s partnership with Obrizum, through its corporate development arm Capita Scaling Partner (CSP), will allow Obrizum to grow rapidly and target a wide range of new clients. Obrizum will also benefit from a dedicated business development team through the deal with Capita, to enable it to scale rapidly and secure long-term, sustainable growth and profitability. In return, CSP will take a minority stake in the company.
Obrizum will also be able to draw upon Capita’s two decades of expertise and innovation in the digital learning sector, as well its deep understanding of this market. While Capita – which already offers simple adaptive learning courses for businesses – will be able to use Obrizum’s AI and data science capabilities to build more sophisticated courses that deliver highly personalised teaching, advanced analytics and greater cost savings to companies.
Obrizum’s platform – which was developed by three PhDs who met whilst working and studying at the University of Cambridge – has been in development for four years. It already has some large blue-chip clients in multiple sectors and is well set up for significant growth in a market which is ripe for disruption. The global e-learning market is a huge one which is set to grow significantly as e-learning becomes more widespread with more people working from home and companies beginning to invest in training again following a year of extremely tight budgets. By 2025 the enterprise segment that Obrizum is focused on is projected to surpass $377bn (£272bn)(1).
Costi Karayannis, Head of Capita Learning said: “We’re really excited to be signing this partnership deal today. We’ve not seen any other company develop a teaching platform that adapts their lessons so intelligently to each individual, or a platform with so much potential – so we jumped at the chance to invest in Obrizum. We’re confident that Obrizum’s AI platform will also improve our own learning solutions, which will help us deliver better service and better value for our clients.”
Dr Chibeza Agley CEO of Obrizum said: “We conceived of Obrizum based on trends that we felt would be the main drivers of change in the digital learning markets. The amount of information that we are all expected to know and understand is increasing exponentially, and that information is often subject to rapid and substantial change. It was therefore clear to us that conventional catalogue-based delivery methods needed to be completely reimagined. We were able to look at the problem, scientifically, and with fresh eyes to develop a solution designed for a future which we were very confident was fast approaching.
“Capita’s interests and ambitions aligned so closely with our own that the partnership made great business sense. The Capita Scaling Partner team are genuinely disrupting the corporate venturing model and we are excited to be working with them to totally transform our industry.”
Professor Hugh Montgomery, Chairman of the Board of Obrizum said: “This partnership with Capita comes at an important time for our company. As the world dramatically increases its reliance on remote working and learning, companies need to find more agile ways of staff training, re-training and upskilling. Obrizum is the natural solution for the world we now find ourselves in.
“However, technologies like Obrizum are not created overnight; we are incredibly grateful to our strong and supportive global investors who have enabled us to continue our commitment to cutting-edge technological innovation in digital learning. We look forward to working with the team at Capita Scaling Partner to accelerate our growth both at home and aboard, but most importantly to bring new value to the businesses and individuals we serve.”
