NTT DATA Business Solutions announced that it was named a 2022 SAP Innovation Awards winner in the category “Partner Paragon – Professional Services” for an AI-based learning application for kids. The award recognizes the “AI Learning Helper”, a digital avatar that helps children become confident readers through play. The learning application is based on a self-developed AI technology. The underlying software technology for this solution, is the “it.human platform” from NTT DATA Business Solutions. It automates and humanizes the learning experience through advanced AI and robotics technology, in the form of a digital avatar that interacts with children in a personalized way and helps them learn to read. The avatar helps children with vocabulary, pronunciation, and story comprehension. In addition, the digital avatar can ask and answer questions and recognize emotions.
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AI Learning Helper is the result of an international collaboration between NTT Business Solutions Denmark, NTT DATA in the UK and NTT DATA in Romania. The result of the cross-site collaboration is a Proof of Concept (PoC), which was submitted for the SAP Innovation Awards. Under the leadership of NTT DATA Business Solutions Denmark, the experts from the UK contributed their expertise in designing and optimising a digital user experience. The NTT DATA experts in Romania contributed their expertise in IoT and speech recognition. With this innovative and unique learning application, NTT DATA Business Solutions was able to successfully assert itself against other strong competitors.
“Artificial intelligence is on everyone’s lips, and we are making applications tangible in real life,” said Norbert Rotter, CEO of NTT DATA Business Solutions AG. “The award underlines our quality claim to open up new application possibilities for customers with our own developments leveraging SAP solutions.”
The AI Learning Helper is also helpful for parents and teachers. This is because the AI software solution tracks the learning progress. In a clear display on a tablet, for example, parents and teachers can find out about progress in learning to read and see in which areas a child has improved. In this way, the learning process can be transparently tracked and specifically supported.
“The possibilities of artificial intelligence fascinate us,” said Thomas Nørmark, Global Head of AI & Robotics at NTT DATA Business Solutions. “That’s why AI plays a central role in our innovation strategy. An exciting and diverse product of our work is the ‘it.human platform’. The award-winning AI Learning Helper is an application with which we can demonstrate very well how AI can support people in learning, for example. Of course, other areas of application are also conceivable. We certainly won’t run out of ideas.”
“The SAP Innovation Awards celebrate our partners who have showcased how SAP products and technologies can be leveraged to create paradigm-shifting solutions that disrupt industries and make a positive impact on the world,” said Claudio Muruzabal, President, Cloud Success Services at SAP. “NTT DATA Business Solutions was one of 25 customers and partners recognized out of nearly 200 applicants. This is an outstanding achievement, and we congratulate them on their unique offering.”
Today, the it.human platform is used in various other applications. For example, digital avatars support and facilitate employees in companies in the hospitality industry (it.human receptionist), in the sports and entertainment industry (it.human sports promoter) or in retail (it.human sales associate).
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In cooperation with the school district of the Danish municipality of Toender and a hospital school in the UK, the AI Learning Helper was successfully implemented. The result exceeded the expectations of the partners involved. With the AI-based home-school solution, teachers have a much better idea of how well each student is doing and in which areas they need the most help. This allows teachers to work more efficiently while giving each student improved education.
“Not only were our practice partners very satisfied with the results of the AI Learning Helper. Through cross-location cooperation and the targeted combination of different competences from NTT DATA, we have jointly succeeded in already generating a certain amount of attention for our digital avatar,” said Per Falck Jensen, Managing Director NTT DATA Business Solutions Denmark. “We are currently in talks with interested parties from the education sector in the UK and the Netherlands. There is a lot of interest in a marketable product. We also see this as confirmation that we are on the right track with our innovation strategy.”