From Textbooks to AI-Driven Education with Packback CPO, Jess Tenuta

Last week, Packback CPO and Co-Founder, Jess Tenuta was featured as a guest on the Edtech Insiders Podcast. Jess joined hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell to talk about the latest developments in the world of EdTech and more specifically, AI and the impact it’s having in the classroom. You can listen to the full episode here.

In the first section of the podcast, Jess talked about Packback’s inception, a story that began with her and our three other co-founders meeting in college, trying to find a way to make textbooks more affordable. Over time that original mission evolved into creating an online platform for students to discuss the material in the textbooks, to then using AI to aid and monitor the online the discussions that were occurring.

As Packback began to incorporate AI-generated feedback loops into online discussions, Jess and the other co-founders began to notice something incredible, students were becoming more engaged and excited by what they were learning. It was then that Packback decided to go all-in on AI and rebrand ourselves into the company we are today. 

Throughout the rest of the podcast, Jess went on to discuss the numerous developments and enhancements Packback has made to our platform, and what it was like to be one of the first EdTech companies to fully adopt the use of AI, well before its widespread popularity.

During the last part of the episode, Jess and the hosts discussed the future of AI in the classroom and how it has the potential to do some incredible things for both students and teachers. They specifically touched on the impact AI will have on academic honesty and how it will make institutions rethink their concepts of plagiarism.

Jess went on to say “I think schools are starting to question where their investment is best spent? Is it best spent in detecting, finding and policing academic honesty, or is it best spent in investing into these new applications that help to pull feedback forward into supporting students’ success through AI and to supporting AI literacy through technology? So, I think there’s a calculus being done right now of do we invest in minimizing the risk? or do we invest in trying to maximize the reward for as many students as possible?”.

To learn more about the impact of AI in education, we encourage you to register for Edtech Insider’s upcoming conferenceEducation in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” on October 26th. Jess will even be speaking during one of the sessions “The Age of Superteachers: AI Tools for Augmenting Educator Impact”. Click here to register for what promises to be an amazing event!



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