If you have been following AI in recent years, you may come across the name Andrew Ng. Founder Google Brain (now part of Google DeepMind) is one of the most influential figures in applying AI and promoting AI literacy. In addition to teaching computer science at Stanford University, NG has also built educational platforms such as Coursera and Deeplearning.AI to help professionals apply AI in the industry. His latest move is Kira Learning, a startup that aims to transform K-12 education in the United States through AI agents. Supported by the NG AI Fund, Kira sees him as an investor and chairman.
“Today's teachers are overloaded with repetitive tasks. AI agents can change that and free up time to provide more personalized help for students,” Ng said in a statement.
Kira was co-founded by NG's longtime collaborators Andrea Pasinetti and Jagriti Agrawal. The platform embeds AI directly into lesson plans, guidance, ratings and reports. Teachers can instantly generate lesson plans consistent with the standards, monitor student progress in real time, and obtain automatic intervention strategies when students fall behind.
Students will, in turn, receive on-demand tutoring tailored to the learning style. AI agents adapt to each student’s pace and mastery level, while ratings are automated with instant feedback, which gives educators time to focus on teaching.
“Kira’s AI tutors work with teachers as smart co-educators to adapt to each student’s learning style and emotional state in real time,” Kira CEO Pasinetti told Observer. “It creates personalized practical problems that allow teachers to provide effective guidance even if they may not have deep expertise in the first place.”
Administrators have access to real-time analytics throughout the classroom and school district, including data on participation, outcomes, and teaching quality. These insights support course improvements and smarter resource allocation.
The platform currently supports STEM, Humanities, Career and Technical Education (CTE), and can process text, video, audio and images. It can provide immediate feedback on everything from prose to scientific experiments.
CEO Andrea Pasinetti said the main difference in Kira is its architecture. Although most learning platforms are thought out in AI only after the fact, Kira is built specifically to integrate generated AI agents from scratch. Schools can embed it as a complete learning management system (LMS) or embed their agents into existing platforms, allowing regions to be customized based on their current infrastructure.
Pasinetti noted that traditional LMS providers have stalled under private equity ownership, rather than innovation rather than profit. By contrast, Kira offers a simplified, all-in-one AI solution that works in the reality that schools already operate.
This flexible approach drives early traction. The platform has been deployed in U.S. school districts, including a statewide initiative in Tennessee and has begun expanding internationally.
“Tennessee’s statewide adoption rate emphasizes the importance of adaptability to resources in a variety of regions, varying levels of technological maturity and different student needs,Pacinetti said. “We ensure data can be passed by directly linking insights to specific, recommended interventions while maintaining strict privacy and always prioritizing transparency.”
Kira’s mission reflects the core philosophy of NG: AI should enhance rather than replace human professionals – all should have access to personalized, high-quality education.
NG has written more than 200 research papers in machine learning, robotics and related AI disciplines. As founder and CEO of Landing AI, he focuses on building practical tools for manufacturing and industrial automation.
Through the AI Fund, NG supports more than 40 AI-driven startups in healthcare, media and finance. Famous investments include JIVI, an India-based platform that helps doctors perform diagnostics, treatment plans and administrative tasks; Podcastle, which simplifies podcast production with AI; and Octagonal AI, which is a research tool for AI-driven investment analysis.
