Introducing HeyOtto for Schools

HeyOtto Is Coming to Schools: Introducing HeyOtto EDU

When we built HeyOtto, we designed it for kids first - not as a stripped-down version of an adult AI, but as an assistant built from the ground up with children in mind. Safe by design. Honest about what it is. Built to make kids curious, not dependent.

So it felt like an obvious next step to bring Otto into schools.

Today, we're excited to introduce HeyOtto EDU - our classroom offering, built for schools and student AI clubs. We're partnering with a small group of schools to start, giving educators and students hands-on access to what AI can look like when child safety isn't an afterthought.

Why Schools? Why Now?

Kids are already using AI. That's not a prediction - it's the current reality. According to recent surveys, the majority of school-age children have used an AI tool in the last month, whether for homework help, creative projects, or just out of curiosity. Most of those tools weren't built with them in mind.

At the same time, educators are under real pressure. They're being asked to teach kids to think critically about AI while navigating platforms that were never designed for a classroom, without guardrails, without transparency, and without age-appropriate guidelines.

HeyOtto was built to solve exactly that problem. And we think the classroom is one of the most important places it can live.

What HeyOtto EDU Includes

Schools and AI clubs get access to HeyOtto's full platform, including:

For students:

• An AI assistant designed for ages k-12 - curious, encouraging, and age-appropriate
• No ads, no social features, no open internet access
• A safe space to ask questions, explore ideas, and learn how to work with AI, not just use it

For educators:

• Full transparency into how students are engaging with AI
• A platform built around the around safety
• A real example of what responsible AI design looks like, useful for teaching AI literacy itself

What Kids Are Actually Doing With Otto

We get asked this a lot, so here's the real answer: kids are doing genuinely cool things with HeyOtto. Not passively consuming - actively creating, exploring, and thinking.

Socratic homework help. Otto doesn't just hand over answers. It asks questions back, helps kids work through the reasoning, and builds the kind of understanding that actually shows up on a test. Think of it as a tutor who won't let you off easy.

Coding, building games, and making apps. Kids are using Otto to learn to code, debug their projects, build simple games, and prototype app ideas. The AI club use case is especially strong here - kids who've never written a line of code are shipping things.

Study guides and flashcards. Otto is great at helping kids turn a wall of notes into something actually usable. Summarize a chapter, turn it into a quiz, make it into flashcards - done. Less time staring at a textbook, more time actually retaining things.

Asking questions they're embarrassed to ask in class. Kids are curious about things they don't always feel comfortable raising their hand for. Otto is a judgment-free space to figure things out.

And a lot of creative stuff. Stories, world-building, song lyrics, poetry, arguments for why they should get a dog. Kids are imaginative, and Otto meets them there.

The throughline: kids aren't using Otto to skip the work. They're using it to do more of it, more confidently.

A Note on What This Isn't

This isn't a data-collection play. We're not training on student conversations. We're not mining school relationships for advertising. HeyOtto is subscription-based and ad-free - our business model doesn't depend on knowing what your kid asked their AI assistant after history class.

This also isn't a wholesale replacement for human teaching. Otto is a tool - a good one, we think - but the educators we're partnering with are the ones who understand their students. We're here to support that relationship, not shortcut it.

Who This Is For

We're looking to partner with:

• K-12 schools exploring responsible AI integration
• Student AI clubs that want hands-on experience with a purpose-built AI
• After-school programs focused on STEM, digital literacy, or creative technology
• Educators who want to model good AI use for their students - including how to evaluate AI safety and spot the difference between AI built for kids and AI retrofitted for them

If that's you, we want to hear from you.

How to Get Involved

We're keeping the first group of school partners intentionally small so we can learn alongside them and make sure every school is set up to succeed.

Bring HeyOtto EDU to your school ->

If you're a parent who wants to bring HeyOtto to your child's school or AI club, you can share this post with an administrator or email us directly. We'll help you start the conversation.

What Comes Next

We'll share updates from our school partners - what we're learning, what educators are telling us, and what kids are actually doing with Otto in a classroom context - right here on the blog. No puff pieces. Real feedback, including the parts that challenge us to be better.

This is the work we came to do.

- Natalie Gibson, Co-founder & CEO, HeyOtto

Interested in HeyOtto EDU? Bring it to your school ->