A weekly distillation of what matters in AI + education. No fluff. No hype. Just tools, trends, and implications you can actually use.
In this week's briefing:
🚀 This Week’s Highlights
Australia’s AI ecosystem shows resilient growth and unique strengths (8–10 min read)
A national snapshot shows Australia’s AI sector is growing steadily, led by SMEs, research specialisations, and sector-specific adoption, but continues to lag in commercialisation and global share of research output.Perplexity Max launches with unlimited Labs, early features, and top-tier models (3–5 min read)
Perplexity ups its game with a premium plan targeting researchers, strategists, and creators, offering access to OpenAI o3-pro, Claude Opus, and a new AI-native browser called Comet.Redactive AI co-founder turns security pain points into $11.5M startup success (5–7 min read)
Melbourne alum Andrew Pankevicius is tackling one of AI’s most underappreciated bottlenecks, enterprise deployment security, and finding market traction in compliance-first innovation.
🧠 What It Means for Educators
The "AI-taker" dilemma deserves scrutiny. While Australia excels at adopting AI, it risks becoming overly reliant on imported models and platforms. Where is the long-term strategy for sovereign infrastructure in education tech?
Research–industry alignment is mostly missing in education. The report celebrates alignment in sectors like manufacturing and health, but there’s no mention of EdTech or education-focused AI ventures. This is a strategic blind spot.
Perplexity Max could shift how research is done. With access to cutting-edge models and unlimited “Labs,” this isn’t just a productivity tool, it could redefine academic workflow, synthesis, and student inquiry methods. But how do institutions vet or govern its use?
Enterprise AI is a governance challenge waiting to explode. Redactive AI’s success underscores a growing tension: educators want to use tools like ChatGPT, but institutional IT and compliance teams often say “no.” Who mediates that risk–innovation gap?
Hype vs. readiness gap is widening. AI capability is surging, but real implementation, especially in education, lags due to skills gaps, cultural inertia, and unclear procurement pathways. Are schools and universities structurally ready to adopt what the market now offers?
🛠️ Tool of the Week
Illustrae: Custom Scientific Illustrations Without the Stock Image Shuffle
Illustrae is a browser-based tool that turns hand-drawn sketches, photos, or text prompts into clean, publication-ready scientific visuals. Think diagrams for journal articles, teaching slides, or grant proposals, without hiring a designer or settling for clipart.
Why it matters for educators:
Saves serious prep time: generate accurate, editable visuals for complex concepts, biology, anatomy, chemistry, in under a minute.
A potential game-changer for STEM teaching materials, but may be overkill for generalist educators or those outside the sciences.
Pricing starts at USD $9/month with no current free plan, so institutional support may be needed for sustainable use in classrooms.
Behind the scenes:
Developed for researchers frustrated by clunky illustration workflows, Illustrae targets the “last mile” of science communication, making complex ideas visual, fast. It’s already in use at places like Oxford, Cambridge, and Imperial College.
📚 Deep Dive
AI Growth Without Pedagogy? Why Education Is Still Missing From Australia's AI Vision
The Australia’s Artificial Intelligence Ecosystem: Growth and Opportunities report is a comprehensive, data-rich portrait of how AI is evolving across Australian industries. It identifies clusters of innovation, patterns in patenting and research output, commercialisation bottlenecks, and skill demand trends. The narrative is one of evolutionary integration: AI as a productivity enhancer embedded in legacy industries, not as a revolutionary disruptor.
What it gets right:
The report’s strength lies in its detailed mapping of industry-aligned innovation. It breaks down Australia’s dual-track model, being both an AI "taker" and an emerging "maker", and exposes the geographical and sectoral contours of that reality. The data linking patents to manufacturing, and research to regionally specialised clusters (e.g. Perth for mining, Canberra for government), offer sharp insights into the nation’s practical strengths. Its sober acknowledgment of Australia’s publication-to-patent imbalance (23:1) is refreshingly honest.
What it misses:
For a report framed around “ecosystem growth,” the education sector is conspicuously absent. Apart from a few mentions in private-sector company stats, there is no deep treatment of how AI is transforming pedagogy, curriculum, or educator work. The authors rigorously track AI’s uptake in mining, finance, and government, but education, arguably one of AI’s most impacted and impactful domains, is treated as peripheral. This is not just an omission, it’s a strategic blind spot. Where are the insights on how AI is reshaping assessment, learning design, or equitable access to skills?
Rhetoric vs reality:
The report asserts that “the tools of today are sufficient to transform Australian industry.” But if education systems are not part of that transformation strategy, we’re treating learning as an afterthought rather than a lever. It also praises the National AI Capability Plan and new safety standards, but offers little reflection on whether these are filtering into school systems, universities, or teacher preparation programs.
Key takeaway:
This is essential reading for policymakers and education leaders, but not because it speaks to education. It doesn’t. That’s the problem. Use this report to advocate for the sector’s inclusion in AI strategy. If AI is a national priority, pedagogy cannot be an afterthought.
🎯 Insight of the Week
Thanks for reading,
Rich Stals, Centre for AI and Education Futures