Two AI-ALOE research teams are featured in Georgia Tech’s inaugural Academic AI Playbook, placing their work among 67 faculty-authored articles selected from across the Institute to showcase innovative uses of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning. The featured articles examine Ivy, an AI coach designed to support procedural learning, and SAMI, a social AI agent created to strengthen student engagement and community in online courses. Their inclusion highlights AI-ALOE’s contributions to addressing two of the most significant challenges in online education: helping learners develop complex skills and fostering meaningful connections in virtual classrooms.
Released as part of Georgia Tech’s new Academic AI Strategy, the 2026 Academic AI Playbook brings together faculty perspectives and classroom-based lessons on the evolving role of AI in education. The publication was developed to capture how instructors are incorporating AI into their teaching, helping students understand AI’s impact on their disciplines and adapting learning experiences for an increasingly AI-enabled future. The collection includes contributions from every Georgia Tech college and features 20 lessons drawn from faculty experience.
The inclusion of two AI-ALOE-led projects in a volume representing the breadth of Georgia Tech’s academic community underscores the institute’s growing influence on the future of AI in education.
Exploring New Approaches to AI-Supported Learning
“Beyond the Chatbot: Deploying Ivy, a Knowledge-Based AI Coach, in a Georgia Tech Online AI Course” was authored by Rahul Dass, Shubham Puri, Arpit Khandelwal, Xiao Jin, Ankita Kundra, John Hall and Ashok Goel.
Their work examines Ivy, a neurosymbolic AI coach designed to help learners understand the reasoning behind complex procedural skills. Unlike general-purpose AI assistants that generate responses from broad patterns in data, Ivy grounds its explanations in structured models of the skills being taught, enabling learners to explore not only what to do, but why a particular approach works.
The article documents Ivy’s first full-scale deployment in Georgia Tech’s online Knowledge-Based AI course and shares lessons about building and scaling AI systems designed specifically for learning. The researchers describe how advances in AI-enabled knowledge modeling made it possible to expand Ivy from a limited pilot to full-course coverage, giving students access to support directly alongside course videos as they engaged with instructional content.
By sharing the lessons learned from Ivy’s deployment, the authors contribute practical insights for instructors interested in developing AI systems that support deeper learning, procedural understanding and critical engagement with course concepts.
Addressing Social Isolation in Online Learning
“SAMI: A Social AI Agent that Increases Social Engagement in Online Classrooms” was authored by Andrew Sayyoukohn Browne, Rohan Limaye, Vidushi Mathur and Ashok K. Goel.
While many educational AI tools focus on academic support, SAMI addresses a longstanding challenge in online education: social isolation. Using large language models, a knowledge graph and a matchmaking algorithm, the system analyzes student introductions and identifies classmates with shared interests, locations, professional backgrounds and academic goals. SAMI then recommends potential peer connections, helping students discover opportunities for engagement in large, geographically distributed learning environments while leaving them in control of whether and how to connect.
The article reports on SAMI’s deployment in Georgia Tech online courses and shares lessons learned from using AI to support community-building at scale. It also highlights the development of instructor-facing tools that help educators better understand and engage with the social dynamics of their online classrooms.
Showcasing AI-ALOE’s Impact on the Future of Education
While Ivy explores how AI can support deeper understanding of complex skills, SAMI investigates how AI can help learners build the social connections often missing from online education.
Together, the projects reflect a common theme across AI-ALOE research: developing AI systems that address real challenges faced by learners and educators. Their inclusion in the playbook highlights the work of the researchers behind these innovations and demonstrates how AI-ALOE is contributing practical, research-based approaches to the future of teaching and learning.
