Starter kit: How to create an AI teacher

Unlock the power of lifelike, customizable AI teachers with Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface—bringing engaging, human-like education to every learner, anytime.

Picture logging into your favorite learning platform and meeting Emma Wilson, a friendly AI history teacher who remembers your interests, adapts her lessons to your pace, and answers your questions in real time. With Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface (CVI), this experience is now possible. CVI blends advanced AI personas with hyper-realistic digital replicas, so every interaction feels like you’re talking to a real teacher—complete with facial expressions, natural conversation, and personalized feedback.

Whether you need late-night homework help or want to scale personalized instruction, AI teachers powered by Tavus are changing how everyone learns.

What is an AI teacher, really?

An AI teacher is much more than a chatbot or a robotic voice. It’s a digital persona designed to teach, guide, and support learners in a way that feels personal and engaging. Powered by advanced AI, these teachers can explain concepts, lead lessons, answer questions, and adapt to each student’s unique style.

Tavus CVI takes this a step further by pairing each persona with a lifelike digital replica. This makes every interaction feel like you’re learning from a real person, not just a screen.

AI teacher vs. AI tutor vs. AI assistant

Think of the AI teacher as the main classroom guide, leading lessons and checking your understanding. An AI tutor gives you one-on-one support for tricky topics, while an AI assistant helps manage schedules, reminders, and administrative tasks.

The AI teacher is the central figure in the learning experience, while tutors and assistants play important supporting roles.

Where can you use an AI teacher?

AI teachers can support lesson planning by suggesting activities and resources for any topic. They personalize learning by adapting lessons to each student’s pace and interests. For language learning, they provide patient, judgment-free practice. They also offer instant feedback with immediate tips and corrections, and assist teachers with grading, scheduling, and communication.

By supporting students, teachers, and parents, AI teachers make learning more accessible and efficient for everyone involved.

Why do AI teachers matter?

AI teachers lighten the teacher workload by automating routine tasks, allowing educators to focus on students. They deliver interactive, tailored lessons that keep students engaged, and provide personalized feedback for faster improvement. Most importantly, they help level the playing field by offering quality instruction to all learners.

AI teachers are here to enhance—not replace—real educators, making sure everyone can reach their full potential.

If you’re curious about real-world impact, explore how AI for Educators is already making a difference in classrooms worldwide.

How do AI teachers work? (No tech degree needed)

Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface helps AI teachers feel natural and responsive by combining several advanced technologies. Large language models (LLMs) understand and generate human-like conversation, while conversational AI maintains engaging, two-way dialogue. Adaptive learning technology adjusts teaching style based on each learner’s needs.

With CVI, the AI teacher’s persona comes to life through a digital replica, making every lesson feel like a real conversation. The Tavus pipeline includes perception, which detects engagement, attention, and environment using the raven-0 model. Speech-to-text (STT) accurately transcribes spoken input with smart turn detection, while the large language model crafts thoughtful, context-aware responses. Text-to-speech (TTS) delivers spoken feedback in a natural, human-like voice.

This combination of technologies means AI teachers are always available, highly personalized, and scalable for any learning environment.

AI teachers excel at providing personalized support, but they work best when teamed up with real educators who can guide focus, handle sensitive topics, and use AI insights to support students.

If you’re ready to see the impact, start integrating AI teachers into your learning environment and experience the benefits of human-AI collaboration.

Designing your perfect AI teacher persona

The persona is the heart of your AI teacher—defining personality, expertise, and teaching style. With Tavus, you can create personas that are as unique as your students.

What’s a persona, anyway?

A persona is like a character in a story. It includes tone—whether friendly, formal, funny, or serious—expertise in a subject like math, history, or language, cultural context such as local slang or a global perspective, and subject focus, whether science, art, or social studies.

Designing your AI teacher is similar to creating your ideal teacher in a video game. You choose their style, strengths, and even how they speak.

Why persona matters

Relatable personas keep students engaged and interested. An approachable AI teacher encourages questions and participation, building trust. Schools can match AI teachers to their values and communities, ensuring a good cultural fit.

With Tavus, you can customize for grade level, subject, language, tone, and local culture. For example, a Tavus-powered AI history teacher might focus on storytelling and critical thinking, making US history come alive for students.

AI teachers can also differentiate instruction—slowing down for students who need extra help, offering challenges to advanced learners, and supporting those with special needs.

The more you personalize your AI teacher’s persona, the more students will feel like they’re learning from a real, caring person. Try experimenting with different persona configurations to discover what works best for your audience.

Step-by-step: Creating your AI teacher persona

Building your AI teacher persona with Tavus is straightforward and highly customizable. Here’s how you can get started:

Define your persona identity

Decide on the core attributes of your AI teacher. For instance, you might create Emma Wilson, a 28-year-old US history teacher who is calm, personable, and passionate about making history engaging and relevant.

A sample configuration might look like this:

Configure the conversational pipeline

Enable the full Tavus conversational pipeline for the most lifelike experience. Use the raven-0 model to observe student engagement and environment, set speech-to-text to tavus-advanced for accurate, real-time transcription, and ensure smart turn detection for seamless conversation flow. The large language model and text-to-speech features power natural, spoken responses.

For example, Emma Wilson’s persona is set up to notice if a student is distracted and gently redirect attention with a focused historical question.

Set system prompts and boundaries

Give your AI teacher clear instructions to stay on topic. For example, Emma only discusses US history and redirects if asked about unrelated topics. If a student asks about movies, Emma responds, "I'm your US history teacher, Emma Wilson, and I'm here specifically to help you learn about American history. Let's focus on that instead. What historical period or event would you like to explore?"

Create and join a conversation

Use the Tavus API to create a conversation with your persona. Replace <api_key> with your actual API key from the Developer Portal.

Once you’ve created the conversation, join it using the provided conversation URL.

Iterate and personalize

Experiment with different persona attributes, prompts, and pipeline settings to match your educational goals. Try creating personas for various subjects, grade levels, or teaching styles.

By following these steps, you can build AI teachers that are engaging, effective, and tailored to your learners’ needs. Start building your first persona today and see how lifelike, conversational AI can transform your classroom.

Exploring what's possible: What can AI teachers do?

AI teachers are much more than digital talking heads—they’re powerful tools for transforming learning in real and practical ways.

Helping teachers and students

AI teachers can suggest lesson plans, create quizzes, give instant feedback, and track student progress. With Tavus’s CVI, these interactions feel as real as a face-to-face conversation, making learning more engaging and effective.

Empowering students and families

Students get on-demand homework help, personalized practice, and encouragement, while parents stay informed and involved. AI teachers help bridge learning gaps, ensuring no one falls behind.

Transforming schools and beyond

Schools and districts can use AI teachers for professional development, sharing resources, analyzing learning data, and expanding access to quality education—even in remote areas.

If you want to see these ideas in action, check out how AI for Educators is using these tools to create more inclusive, effective learning environments.

Start integrating AI teachers into your school or home to unlock new possibilities for teaching and learning.

Challenges and the road ahead

While AI teachers bring exciting opportunities, it’s important to use them thoughtfully and responsibly.

Things to keep in mind

Ongoing training is essential—teachers and students need to learn how to use AI tools wisely. Digital literacy helps everyone know when to trust AI and when to double-check. And remember, AI can’t replace real relationships or creativity.

Always have a real teacher or adult oversee AI-powered learning, especially for sensitive topics.

Responsible AI in the classroom

Protect student privacy, ensure fairness, and be transparent about when AI is being used. Treat your AI teacher as a helpful tool, not a replacement for real people.

Looking ahead: The future of AI teachers

AI teachers will soon use video, images, and voice for rich, interactive lessons, working seamlessly across classroom and home. Tavus already enables lifelike digital teachers (replicas) that look and sound real, making learning feel natural and engaging.

Stay curious and keep refining your AI teacher personas as technology evolves. Your feedback will help shape the next generation of education.

Your next steps: Start your AI teacher journey

AI teachers are opening new worlds of learning. With Tavus’s Conversational Video Interface, you can create lifelike, engaging AI teachers that inspire and empower every learner.

Imagine your ideal AI teacher persona, identify where AI can help in your classroom or home, and start building with Tavus. Explore how AI for Educators can support your journey.

The future of education is a partnership—between humans and AI, teachers and students, and technology and imagination. Start building your AI teacher today and transform the way you teach and learn.

Getting started with Tavus

Ready to bring your AI teacher to life? Here’s how you can get started right away:

• Create your Tavus account to unlock access to AI teacher tools.
• Explore the development tools for building and customizing your AI teacher persona.
• Experiment with Conversational Video Interface (CVI) to see your AI teacher in action.
• Dive into the Starter kit: How to create an AI teacher for hands-on guidance.

Jump in and start shaping the future of learning with Tavus.