Partnership will begin at GEMS School of Research & Innovation in Dubai, where students and teachers will help test AI agents and digital personas designed to support learning and professional development.
GEMS Education has partnered with Napster to develop and test Artificial Intelligence agents and digital personas for use across its schools, with the first phase taking place at GEMS School of Research & Innovation (SRI) in Dubai.
The initiative will explore how AI can support areas including guided practice, formative feedback, communication and presentation development, reflection and goal setting, personalised skills development and professional learning for educators.
SRI’s GEMS Global Education AI Hub and GEMS Intelligence 360 platform will provide an environment where teachers, students and partners can co-design, test and evaluate the technologies.
The organisations will initially develop proof-of-concept projects and demonstrations covering areas including digitalisation of instructors, gamified learning, AI-assisted content creation and classroom simulations.
Napster will provide design, development and product management resources based on its Napster Learn AI-powered learning system. GEMS and Napster are targeting a working solution before the end of 2026, with the longer-term aim of deploying successful applications across GEMS schools in the Middle East and other markets.
One planned application involves creating digital twins based on teachers’ own subject knowledge, giving students access to approved educational material and teacher-informed expertise outside school hours and in multiple languages.
The partners said the technology is intended to extend the reach of teachers rather than replace them. Guardrails, safety protocols and human oversight will be incorporated into the development and evaluation process, with teachers and other staff able to intervene when necessary.
Usage and engagement will also be assessed to determine whether individual applications provide educational value and contribute to learning outcomes.
“AI should strengthen the human relationships at the heart of education, not diminish them,” said Jay Varkey, Deputy CEO of GEMS Education. “By combining our educational expertise and reach with Napster’s agent and digital personas capabilities, we aim to build a responsible model that supports the UAE’s ambition and can help set a positive global benchmark for K-12 education.”
“Our focus is to establish where AI agents and digital personas genuinely improve learning, feedback, confidence and personal development,” said Baz Nijjar, Senior Vice President, Innovation, AI & Futurism and Managing Director, Intelligence 360 at GEMS Education. “SRI and the GEMS Global Education AI Hub allow us to co-design and evaluate these capabilities with teachers and students, with safeguarding, age-appropriateness and human oversight built in from the outset.”
The partnership comes as the UAE expands the role of Artificial Intelligence within education, including plans for an AI curriculum and training for educators in areas such as teaching, assessment, curriculum analysis and lesson planning.
Napster has also recently announced an EdTech and Embodied-AI Center of Excellence with Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University and Nourah Cloud in Riyadh, as it expands its education activities in the Middle East.
