Broonie: local generative AI for schools

Schools keep a lot of data about their pupils and staff are required to regularly report on pupil progress and attainment. This task is repetitive, but time-consuming, because it requires integrating data in different formats from many sources.

AI tools could educators integrate and make sense of the data they have – but sending pupil data to a third-party AI service is a data protection problem most schools cannot responsibly take on.

Broonie’s approach was to run AI models locally instead. We aimed to help schools improve their learners’ attainment and reduce administrative workload without the data protection risk, by enabling them to use AI applications for data analysis on their own premises completely offline, without sending any data to third parties. The offering combined specialised hardware, software, and support.

I was one of three co-founders, in a team that grew to five, from September 2024 until the venture wound down in January 2026. My role covered teacher consultations, data analysis, ensuring compliance with AI, copyright, and data protection legislation, prototype implementation, user evaluation, and business administration.

We secured £26,100 in grant funding to develop the initial prototype from multiple competitions. We won the Young EDGE category of the Scottish EDGE competition and we took part in the Edinburgh Innovations Venture Builder Incubator 5.0, the Summer Start-up Accelerator, and the Converge KickStart Challenge, through which I took extensive training in entrepreneurship, marketing, pitching, user research, and working with commercial stakeholders.