How Preply combines AI and human tutors to personalize learning

At a glance:

• Preply uses OpenAI-powered Lesson Insights to generate personalized feedback for every 1:1 language lesson
• 75% of English-language learners and over 70% of tutors actively use the AI features
• AI handles repetitive tasks like lesson planning while human tutors provide motivation and cultural nuance

The AI-human partnership in language learning

Preply, the world's largest online language learning marketplace, connects over 100,000 expert tutors with learners across more than 180 countries. With instruction available in over 90 languages, the platform's mission centers on making high-quality education accessible globally. However, the company recognized that language learning is fundamentally human—it requires conversation, confidence, motivation, and cultural understanding that only people can provide.

While Preply tutors deliver the irreplaceable energy, motivation, and cultural nuance learners need, they also faced repetitive administrative tasks like writing personalized lesson plans and notes. Meanwhile, students often struggled with tracking their progress, which impacted engagement. Preply saw an opportunity to use AI not to replace human instructors, but to strengthen the tutor-learner relationship through automated assistance.

Lesson Insights: turning every session into personalized learning

The result was Lesson Insights, an OpenAI API-powered experience that transforms every lesson into a personalized learning journey. After each 1:1 session, OpenAI analyzes the lesson transcript and generates tailored feedback across grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. This creates actionable guidance for learners while reducing administrative burden on tutors.

Lessons take place in the Preply Classroom, and with learner consent, sessions are recorded and transcribed. Insight generation is scheduled a few minutes before the session ends, so feedback is ready for review. Within minutes, both learner and tutor receive a structured report including:

• Summary of key lesson topics
• Grammar corrections and explanations
• Vocabulary highlights and translations
• Pronunciation feedback
• Recommended next steps

These insights feed directly into Preply's self-learning exercise engine, generating personalized homework that compounds over time. "Students wanted a more tangible view of their growth. Now, with Lesson Insights, we're able to understand exactly what you've been talking about, your goals, the topics you've been covering, your tutor's feedback, and convert that into highly personalized and targeted practice," says Emily Stott, Staff Product Manager at Ppreply.

Internal transformation with AI adoption

Preply introduced ChatGPT Enterprise across its organization, running company-wide enablement sessions for over 600 employees across New York, Kyiv, London, and Barcelona. Weekly active usage quickly grew from 60% to 95%, embedding AI into everyday workflows. The company uses OpenAI APIs throughout its operations, supporting customer service, connecting internal systems, and automating operational processes.

Custom GPTs, like its Brand Voice GPT, are embedded into daily workflows, helping teams maintain consistent tone and messaging. Around 94% of Preply engineers use Codex and AI coding assistants for code generation, PR reviews, debugging, and development acceleration. "It's the topic I'm most excited about," says Dmytro Voloshyn, Co-founder & CTO. "Codex helps us write code with a speed that was previously unseen. With such a powerful tool, engineers can focus more on architecture and solving customers' problems."

Measuring success and user adoption

The results demonstrate strong user adoption and satisfaction. Preply reports that most active learners continue engaging with Lesson Insights more than a year after adoption, with both tutors and students providing positive feedback that boosts overall retention.

Key metrics include:

• 95% ChatGPT weekly active usage among Ppreply employees
• 75% of English-language learners actively use Lesson Insights
• Over 70% of tutors use the feature
• 75% of active learners continue engaging with Lesson Insights more than a year after adoption
• 4.7/5 satisfaction rating from over 300,000 ratings
• 70% product market fit score, significantly above the threshold for strong customer demand

"We know AI-powered tools might have an element of novelty," says Emily Stott. "But if people are coming back and engaging months later, time and time again, that's a very strong signal of value—learners and tutors find value in our solutions."

Real-world impact on teaching and learning

For tutors like Michelle Garcia Ramos, AI has become a practical teaching assistant. Before Lesson Insights, creating personalized homework could take hours. Now, much of that work happens automatically, cutting preparation time by more than half.

"Before I started using Preply's AI feature, I would spend hours and hours prepping for classes and creating homework. But now that time has been cut by more than half," Michelle explains. The benefit extends beyond efficiency—AI provides teaching ideas, highlights learning opportunities, and helps identify student focus areas, resulting in better preparation and faster progress.

Looking ahead: deeper personalization and innovation

For Preply, the future of language learning is increasingly personalized. The company plans to expand Lesson Insights with experiences that create deeper understanding of each learner over time—capturing goals, progress, strengths, challenges, and learning preferences across months of study.

The vision is a continuously adapting learning experience that provides precise guidance, pacing, curriculum recommendations, and feedback. "We're only at the beginning," says Emily Stott. "AI will make language learning dramatically more personalized: every learner will have a clear picture of exactly where they started, where they are now, and what they need to work on next."

AI is also transforming how Preply builds products internally. As agentic development tools become more capable, more employees can participate in building solutions—not just consuming them. This enables faster innovation and broader experimentation for learners and tutors worldwide.

For Dmytro Voloshyn, the opportunity remains clear: combine human teaching strengths with AI as a copilot. "OpenAI as a partner was able to teach us how to use the product in the most efficient way. And who can teach you better than the organization that created the best large language models in the world?"

The future, Preply believes, isn't human or AI—it's human-led, AI-enabled.