The convergence of deep technology leadership and a rapidly transforming global education sector has led to the launch of Fermi.ai, an AI-first edtech platform founded by Peeyush Ranjan, a former General Manager and Vice President at Google and Airbnb, and a former Chief Technology Officer of Flipkart. Headquartered in Singapore, the startup is rolling out its personalized learning platform for high-school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects, beginning with mathematics, physics, and chemistry, through dedicated subsidiaries in the United States and India. Ranjan, who is also a Partner at the venture studio Meraki Labs alongside Myntra co-founder Mukesh Bansal, is positioning Fermi.ai not merely as another AI-driven chatbot but as an adaptive, real-time coach specifically designed to confront the challenge of shortcut-based learning in the era of generative AI.[1][2][3][4]

Ranjan's transition from developing large-scale AI products at Google, including contributing to Google Assistant and parts of the Gemini app, to leading an edtech venture underscores a critical new direction in applied AI: prioritizing pedagogical effectiveness over computational speed. The foundational philosophy of Fermi.ai centers on restoring what the company terms the "productive struggle"—the mental effort essential for true mastery and deep learning. This approach directly contrasts with mainstream AI tools that deliver instant solutions, a practice the company notes is leading to weaker fundamental understanding among students. By focusing on reasoning, Fermi.ai’s adaptive tutor is built to keep the student’s brain engaged and prevent it from switching off when faced with difficulty.[5][6][1][2] The platform aims to mimic the behavior of a great teacher by prompting students with strategic questions, identifying faulty reasoning, and offering tailored hints, rather than jumping immediately to the final answer.[4]

The platform's technology is built on a sophisticated, multi-pronged approach to personalized education. For students, the primary interface is a stylus-first digital canvas, prioritizing a handwriting experience that facilitates the problem-solving process for STEM subjects, which often involve complex equations, diagrams, and molecular structures. This interface supports the platform's core offering: pedagogically sound stepwise coaching. As a student works on a problem, the AI tracks their approach step-by-step, flags conceptual errors in real-time, and customizes prompts based on the individual's unique struggle patterns, making the experience truly adaptive. The entire platform runs entirely on AI, leveraging multiple large language models (LLMs) to power the guidance system and generate high-quality, customized feedback, with no human tutors involved in the loop. The student experience is structured around three core flows: Homework Assist, Practice Made Personal, and Revise What Counts, all designed to shift students from passive guessing to active engagement and the ownership of concepts.[5][7][1][3][4]

One of Fermi.ai's most significant contributions is its focus on providing unprecedented diagnostic insights for educators, addressing what is often the "silent struggle" in a crowded classroom. The platform promises "Classroom Command," with the objective of helping teachers "See Every Student. Reach Every Struggle." By analyzing the aggregate and individual problem-solving data, the AI pinpoints exactly where a student’s reasoning faltered, highlighting questions that a student never even knew to ask. This deep analytics layer extends a teacher's impact by ensuring each lesson can be tailored to where students actually are, rather than where the curriculum presumes they should be, transforming unseen conceptual gaps into targeted breakthroughs. This level of granularity in diagnostic feedback represents a valuable use case for AI in education, shifting the technology's role from merely content delivery to deep, analytical support for the instructor. The efficacy of the platform's approach was evidenced in a three-month pilot program involving 79 students, which included over 15,000 concept tests and showed a clear "Mastery Curve" of student progression toward greater independence.[5][3]

The decision to launch in both the United States and India simultaneously is a calculated dual-market strategy targeting two of the world's largest education ecosystems—the US market estimated at $5 billion and the Indian market at $8 billion for edtech. This cross-continental launch acknowledges the universal challenge of foundational STEM learning, regardless of the specific educational system. By establishing a presence in both Silicon Valley (via Ranjan’s Meraki Labs partnership) and India (with a subsidiary in Bengaluru), Fermi.ai is positioned to capitalize on the distinct opportunities of each region while leveraging the technical talent available in the global technology hubs. As the edtech sector in both regions navigates the increasing role of AI in classrooms, Fermi.ai's philosophical stand—AI for reasoning, not for answers—sets a competitive tone for the next generation of intelligent tutoring systems. The company is currently available for free on the cloud and plans to expand its subject offerings and geographical footprint, underscoring its long-term ambition to redefine how AI tools are used to build genuine academic understanding.[5][2][4]