Can AI Help Close The Mentorship Gap In Education?
By Joash Lee, Forbes Councils Member.
As Published on Forbes: Apr 01, 2026, 07:00am EDT
Joash Lee is the Founder and CEO of Sedifly, a global EdTech firm democratizing access to education.
In the global race for higher education, there's a mentorship gap. While the drive to upskill is universal, access to the “insider track” isn’t. As a builder in the educational consulting industry, I’ve seen a surge in educational consultancies offering admissions packages with price tags ranging from $30,000 to over a million dollars. For the wealthy, these firms can provide a head start; for everyone else, the path to success is often based on trial and error.
The good news? Tides are turning. A wave of EdTech startups is leveraging AI not to replace the human element, but to scale it. By combining AI-driven insights with targeted mentorship, many platforms are working to democratize the kind of guidance once locked behind paywalls.
A Global Example
Singapore, in particular, has emerged as a vanguard of this movement. Through the Transforming Education through Technology Masterplan 2030, the city-state is treating technology as an amplifier for human expertise. Current plans emphasize AI-enabled feedback tools and adaptive learning systems designed to support teachers and help tailor instruction to individual students. The government's vision for "technology-transformed learning, to prepare students for a technology-transformed world" isn’t just about digitizing textbooks; it reflects a strategic shift toward more data-informed teaching.
By analyzing patterns in student performance, AI systems can help educators provide more targeted feedback and support, extending teachers’ ability to address diverse learning needs while keeping human educators at the center of guidance and decision making. At scale, these systems also aim to deliver individualized academic support at a fraction of the cost of traditional one-to-one tutoring or consulting.
From Mass Production To Precision Engineering
The 2026 Global Education Outlook highlights a transition toward the “governed deployment of AI,” where the focus shifts to instructional quality and learner support. In this "EdTech 2.0" era, the benchmarks for success have evolved into engagement as a performance signal and skills as system architecture.
Startups like Geniebook are operationalizing this shift. By moving away from classroom mass production toward "precision engineering," they use AI progress recommenders to eliminate the "wasted hour" or the time a child might spend listening to an explanation of something they already understand. By identifying the exact concept that will yield the highest academic gain for a specific child, they work to provide a "one-size-fits-one" advantage—a level of customization previously inaccessible to the general population.
These same principles can be applied to sub-sectors within the education industry, such as the educational consulting sector. When an algorithm can flag a student's specific extracurricular gaps or suggest a niche scholarship based on a unique talent profile, it bridges the asymmetry of information that has historically favored the elite.
The Human Core Of EdTech
Ultimately, the EdTech narrative is about people. Beyond the data points and algorithms, every number represents a student trying to navigate an increasingly complex future. While AI provides the scale, the support and context of human-centric guidance remain irreplaceable. The algorithm may map the route, but the mentor provides the motivation to walk it. I believe we are entering an age of augmented mentorship, where technology handles the diagnostic heavy lifting, freeing human mentors to focus on emotional intelligence, ethical reasoning and character building.
For education leaders evaluating AI-powered tools, the key question is not simply what the technology can do, but how it fits within the human systems already supporting students. When assessing potential solutions, leaders should consider several practical questions: How transparent is the system about how recommendations or feedback are generated? What data is being used, and how is student privacy protected? And importantly, does the tool demonstrably improve outcomes for students, or does it simply add another layer of analytics?
There are also clear red flags to watch for. Vendors that present AI as a replacement for educators rather than a support tool often underestimate the complexity of real learning environments. Similarly, systems with little visibility into how conclusions are produced can create accountability risks for schools. Overly broad promises, such as guaranteeing admissions outcomes or career pathways, should also prompt skepticism.
As these tools become more pervasive, the maze of higher education will hopefully begin to dissolve, replaced by a transparent, guided pathway. If so, society won't just be closing a gap; we’ll fundamentally be redefining the starting line for the next generation of global talent. In a world of complicated educational pathways, this mentorship-first approach aims to offer every learner not just resources, but the reliable direction to use them.
View the article on Forbes here.
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