How Preply Combines Artificial Intelligence and Human Tutors to Personalize Language Learning

The global language learning market is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. At the heart of this revolution is Preply, the world’s largest online platform for language learning, which has just taken a significant step by integrating OpenAI technology into its teaching experience. The result is Lesson Insights, a tool that promises to reinvent the way students and teachers perceive progress after each lesson.

---

What is Preply and How Big is It

Founded with the mission of making high-quality language education accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world, Preply connects over 100,000 specialized tutors with students in more than 180 countries. The platform offers personalized instruction in over 90 languages, operating on a one-on-one (1:1) lesson model, which ensures a highly focused teaching experience tailored to each student's needs.

Learning a language, however, is a deeply human activity. It involves conversation, trust-building, motivation, and cultural understanding—elements that a human tutor provides in an irreplaceable way. But it also involves a series of repetitive administrative tasks that consume teachers' precious time.

---

The Problem AI Came to Solve

Before Lesson Insights, Preply tutors faced a common challenge shared by educators around the world: after each lesson, they had to manually write personalized plans, notes, and feedback for each student. This administrative burden, while essential for learning, detracted from what truly matters—human connection and teaching itself.

On the student side, the lack of clear and structured feedback on progress often reduced engagement and motivation to continue studying.

Preply identified a strategic opportunity in this scenario: using AI not to replace the human tutor, but to enhance the relationship between teacher and student.

---

How Lesson Insights Works

Lesson Insights is powered by the OpenAI API and is designed to seamlessly integrate into the natural flow of a lesson. Here’s how the process works in practice:

1. The lesson takes place as normal in Preply's virtual classroom (Preply Classroom), with interaction between tutor and student.
2. With the student’s consent, the session is automatically recorded and transcribed.
3. A few minutes before the end of the lesson, the system starts generating insights, so the feedback is available as soon as the session ends.
4. At the end of the lesson, both the student and the tutor have immediate access to a detailed, personalized report.

The report generated by the AI covers three fundamental dimensions of language learning:

• Grammar — identification of recurring errors and correction suggestions
• Vocabulary — new words used, detected gaps, and recommended exercises
• Pronunciation — analysis of speech patterns and guidance for improvement

The result is a richer learning cycle, where the student receives practical and actionable guidance, the tutor saves time on administrative tasks, and both gain a much clearer view of progress over time.

---

Why Preply Chose OpenAI

The choice of technology partner was not by chance. According to Dmytro Voloshyn, Preply evaluated multiple AI models for specific language learning tasks before making its decision. OpenAI stood out not only for the quality of its results but also for its speed, reliability, and readiness for global production scale.

"We decided to partner with OpenAI because it provides us with cutting-edge models that solve problems for our clients. It's now at the center of our ecosystem and how we operate as a company," stated the CTO.

---

AI Also Transforming the Company’s Internal Culture

The adoption of AI at Preply has not been limited to the user-facing product. The company implemented ChatGPT Enterprise throughout the organization, conducting training sessions for over 600 employees across offices in New York, Kyiv, London, and Barcelona.

The numbers speak for themselves:

• Active weekly use of the tool jumped from 60% to 95% of employees
• Product, marketing, customer service, and engineering teams began incorporating AI into their daily workflows
• The company accelerated internal processes and gained productivity in various areas

This approach demonstrates that Preply does not view AI as a one-off solution but as a strategic pillar of its operation, both in the final product and internal processes.

---

What This Means for the Future of Language Education

Preply's initiative represents a growing trend in the EdTech sector: a balanced combination of technology and humanity. Instead of trying to replace teachers with algorithms—an approach that has generated justified resistance—the platform bets on AI as an amplifier of human talent.

This model has important implications for the sector:

• Democratization of access to quality feedback, regardless of the tutor's technical level
• Reduction of teacher burnout by eliminating repetitive, low-value pedagogical tasks
• Greater student retention, thanks to increased engagement provided by clear, personalized feedback
• Scalable pedagogy, allowing the quality of teaching to grow along with the user base

---

Conclusion

Preply is writing a new chapter in the history of language education. With Lesson Insights, the platform shows that artificial intelligence and human intelligence do not need to compete—they can, and should, work together. By automating what is repetitive and enhancing what is human, the company has found a powerful formula to provide personalized learning on a truly global scale.

For the over 100,000 tutors and millions of students using the platform, the message is clear: the future of language learning is smarter, faster, and more human than ever.