In November 2025, the British Council announced the launch of AiBC, an artificial intelligence engine that supports learners in practising English-speaking skills and receiving real-time feedback. We were privileged to lead the architecture and engineering delivery of this transformative platform.
The Problem
The British Council needed to extend its world-class English teaching beyond the classroom. While their teachers are renowned globally, learners needed additional ways to build fluency and confidence between live lessons.
Traditional language apps couldn't deliver the authentic conversation practice that serious learners need. The British Council wanted something that felt like talking to a real person — with the pedagogical rigour their reputation demands, and the ability to scale to millions of learners across 100+ countries.
Our Approach
We took ownership of the end-to-end product vision for English Online, working closely with the British Council's product and pedagogy teams to understand what learners actually needed. Our role was to translate educational requirements into a technical architecture that could deliver authentic conversation practice at global scale.
We directed multiple cross-functional squads across frontend, backend, data/ML, and MLOps — establishing not just the technical foundations, but the governance and operating model that would allow the platform to evolve safely and rapidly.
Key Approach Highlights
- Conducted extensive research with pedagogy teams to understand learner needs
- Designed modular architecture allowing independent capability development
- Built Task Developer Tool enabling content teams to create tasks without engineering
- Implemented multi-provider AI routing with safety guardrails and quality gates
The architecture was designed around a clear separation of concerns: managing AI prompts and conversation flows, handling real-time dialogue, generating personalised feedback, and continuously evaluating quality. This meant each capability could be developed and improved independently.
Technical Excellence
Empowering Content Teams
One of the biggest challenges in AI-powered education is the gap between pedagogical expertise and technical implementation. We bridged this by creating the Task Developer Tool — a platform that allows content specialists to define, test, and publish new conversation tasks without writing code.
Before TDT, onboarding a new learning task took days and required engineering involvement. Now it takes under an hour, with built-in quality gates ensuring every task meets consistency and safety standards before going live.
Reliable AI at Global Scale
Building a conversational AI platform for millions of learners required more than just calling an LLM API. We designed a resilient architecture that routes requests intelligently across multiple AI providers, with automatic failover and load balancing.
The platform is built on AWS with Kubernetes orchestration, using TypeScript and Python services communicating via event-driven messaging. We instrumented everything with OpenTelemetry and Langfuse for deep visibility into AI behaviour.
Security & Compliance
Working with learner data demands rigorous attention to privacy. The architecture supports regional data residency requirements, critical for markets like Vietnam. We implemented comprehensive access controls and audit trails across all services, with PII minimisation aligned to GDPR and British Council governance standards.
The Results
AiBC launched successfully in November 2025, representing a significant milestone in the British Council's digital transformation. The platform now enables a new model of English learning where AI complements human teachers.
Outcomes
- Platform successfully launched to millions of learners across 100+ countries
- Task onboarding time reduced from days to under one hour
- Hundreds of conversation tasks created and deployed by content teams
- “Human-first” AI model established, complementing live teacher instruction
- Full GDPR compliance with regional data residency support
Looking Forward
AiBC will continue to evolve, supporting a wider range of English learning and assessment experiences across the British Council's global teaching programmes. The launch is part of the organisation's long-term commitment to using innovation responsibly, helping people around the world learn English and connect across cultures.