Pearson and AWS Announce Collaboration to Unlock AI-Powered Personalized Learning for Millions of People Globally

Rhea-AI Summary

Pearson (PSO) and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced an expanded collaboration to deliver AI-powered learning solutions globally. The partnership aims to enhance learning experiences through cloud and AI tools, addressing the $1.1 trillion annual cost of inefficient career transitions and learning gaps in the U.S. economy.

Building on their 13-year relationship, AWS will serve as Pearson's strategic AI and cloud provider, focusing on improving higher education products. The collaboration includes:

• Increased use of AWS cloud infrastructure and Amazon Bedrock for enhanced learning experiences
• AI-powered lesson generation and assessments
• Expansion of AWS certification delivery through Pearson VUE
• Development of transformative learning solutions in clinical assessments, enterprise learning, and English Language Learning

The partnership leverages AWS's global scale and AI capabilities to create personalized, accessible learning experiences, supporting Pearson's commitment to accelerate AI integration across its products and strengthen its enterprise learning market presence.

Positive

• Strategic partnership with tech leader AWS enhances competitive position
• Access to advanced AI and cloud infrastructure for product scaling
• Expansion of certification delivery business through Pearson VUE
• Potential for increased market share in enterprise learning sector

Negative

• None.

Insights

Technology Strategist

Pearson's expanded partnership with AWS marks a significant strategic advancement in their AI-powered education initiative. Building on their 13-year relationship, this collaboration directly addresses the $1.1 trillion annual economic cost of inefficient career transitions and learning gaps identified in Pearson's research.

The partnership has several concrete components that strengthen Pearson's market position: enhanced cloud infrastructure for higher education products, implementation of Amazon Bedrock for AI-driven personalization, expanded certification capabilities through Pearson VUE, and joint innovation in clinical assessments and English Language Learning.

For Pearson shareholders, this represents a substantial technology infrastructure commitment that aligns with the company's previously announced strategy to integrate AI across its product portfolio. The focus on personalized learning experiences positions Pearson to potentially increase engagement and retention metrics across its educational platforms. By leveraging AWS's established AI capabilities rather than building proprietary systems, Pearson can accelerate time-to-market while controlling development costs.

The partnership's emphasis on enterprise learning solutions is particularly noteworthy as it targets high-margin corporate training opportunities where Pearson can leverage its educational content expertise alongside AWS's technical infrastructure.

Education Market Analyst

This expanded AWS partnership places Pearson at the forefront of AI implementation in educational technology, particularly in their core higher education segment. The collaboration addresses key competitive challenges in the rapidly evolving edtech market.

The strategic timing cannot be overlooked – as educational institutions increasingly adopt AI-powered learning tools, Pearson is positioning itself as a platform provider rather than just a content creator. The commitment to expand Pearson VUE's role in delivering AWS certifications creates an important multiplier effect: as cloud adoption accelerates, demand for certified professionals increases, driving more test-takers to Pearson's certification business.

The mention of personalized learning, real-time insights, and increased accessibility aligns perfectly with current institutional buyer priorities. College administrators facing retention challenges and outcome pressures are increasingly seeking data-driven solutions to improve student success metrics. Pearson's investment in these capabilities through AWS demonstrates a clear understanding of market demand.

For investors, this partnership represents Pearson's continued transformation from traditional textbook publisher to technology-enabled learning company – a important strategic shift for long-term relevance in education markets. While financial terms aren't disclosed, the comprehensive nature of this collaboration suggests a significant operational commitment from both organizations.

• Collaboration will enhance learning for millions of people through cloud and AI tools that personalize education and offer real-time insights
• Pearson to expand its use of AWS cloud infrastructure and AI capabilities with Amazon Bedrock to further optimize and scale its learning products and services, especially in higher education
• Amazon and AWS to extend collaboration with Pearson VUE to scale cloud training and credentialing to help organizations boost productivity and innovate faster

LONDON, Feb. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Pearson (FTSE: PSON.L), the world's lifelong learning company, and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), today announced the expansion of their long-standing collaboration to accelerate the delivery of AI-powered learning for millions of people around the world and enhance the learner experience for Pearson's products and services. 

"This partnership brings together two respected and leading companies in the fields of technology and learning."

As AI transforms education and the world of work, improving people's ability to learn is vital for an adaptive workforce primed for continual upskilling, career pivots, and personal career fulfillment. Recent Pearson research finds that inefficient career transitions and learning gaps are costing the U.S. economy $1.1 trillion annually. Through this collaboration, AWS, the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, and Pearson will advance the adoption of technology-driven education, with the objective of making learning more effective, efficient, and accessible.

Building on their 13-year collaboration, AWS will continue to serve as a Pearson strategic AI and cloud provider, advancing infrastructure and AI capabilities designed to enable Pearson to enhance and scale its products and services, especially in its higher education footprint.  AWS will support Pearson's initiatives to elevate the learner and educator experience across its portfolio with personalized learning, real-time insights, and increased accessibility.

Pearson and AWS will collaborate in several ways:

• Many of Pearson's higher education products, used by student across international and U.S. higher education institutions, are built on AWS. Pearson will increase its use of AWS's highly performant cloud infrastructure and Amazon Bedrock to improve the learning experience across higher education, virtual schools, and English-language learning products. By using Amazon Bedrock with Pearson expertise and data sets, this collaboration aims to enhance and expand Pearson's courseware and content experience; provide educators with AI-powered lesson generation, assessments and insights; and enable faster, more visually rich content generation.
   
• AWS and Amazon will extend their collaboration with Pearson to support workforce skilling efforts. Currently, Amazon and AWS benefit from GEDWorks, an employer-sponsored program that helps individuals earn their GED credential, and Credly by Pearson, the company's digital credential platform.
   
• AWS will continue its collaboration with Pearson VUE, which delivers AWS certifications for hundreds of thousands of cloud technology professionals annually.
   
• AWS and Amazon will continue to expand their enterprise learning relationship with Pearson over the life of the agreement.
   
• AWS and Pearson will jointly innovate on additional transformative learning solutions, with the goal of enhancing experiences and outcomes for learners in the areas of clinical and professional assessments, enterprise learning, and English Language Learning.

Pearson CEO Omar Abbosh said, "As technology transforms the way we learn, improving people's ability to learn is vital for an adaptive workforce. With the help of AWS, Pearson will be able to get there faster, scale personalized learning, and create more access to AI tools for learners and educators. This partnership brings together two respected and leading companies in the fields of technology and learning. Together, we can reach many more learners and provide them with the tools they need to succeed and realise the life they imagine for themselves."

"We're excited to expand our long-standing collaboration with Pearson to unlock the power of cloud and AI for learners around the world," said Matt Garman, CEO at AWS. "Together with Pearson, we will leverage the global scale and AI capabilities of AWS to enable innovative new learning experiences that are personalized and accessible for all."

This collaboration is yet another step towards fulfilling Pearson's commitment to accelerate the use of AI across its products and sharpen its focus on serving the enterprise learning market. Together, AWS and Pearson will help empower people and organizations to develop future-ready skills and unlock potential in a rapidly evolving world.

About Pearson
At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. That's why our c. 18,000 Pearson employees are committed to creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. We are the world's lifelong learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, qualifications, and data. For us, learning isn't just what we do. It's who we are. Visit us at pearsonplc.com.

About Amazon Web Services
Since 2006, Amazon Web Services has been the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any workload, and it now has more than 240 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, media, and application development, deployment, and management from 114 Availability Zones within 36 geographic regions, with announced plans for 12 more Availability Zones and four more AWS Regions in New Zealand, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the AWS European Sovereign Cloud. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth's Best Employer, and Earth's Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.

Pearson Global Media Relations
Dan.Nelson@Pearson.com – US
Laura.Ewart@Pearson.com – UK

AWS Media Relations
Amazon.com, Inc.
Media Hotline
Amazon-pr@amazon.com

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SOURCE Pearson

FAQ

What is the financial impact of learning gaps that Pearson and AWS aim to address?

The collaboration addresses $1.1 trillion in annual economic costs in the U.S. due to inefficient career transitions and learning gaps.

How will Pearson (PSO) use Amazon Bedrock in its educational offerings?

Pearson will use Amazon Bedrock to enhance courseware, enable AI-powered lesson generation, create assessments, and facilitate faster content generation.

What specific education sectors will benefit from the Pearson-AWS collaboration?

The collaboration will benefit higher education, virtual schools, English-language learning, clinical assessments, and enterprise learning sectors.

How long has the partnership between Pearson (PSO) and AWS existed?

Pearson and AWS have maintained a collaboration for 13 years prior to this expanded partnership announcement.