Posted December 3, 2025

By Olivia Odileke

A Hidden Opportunity—Or a Stolen One?

Over 70% of the world's educators are women.

We teach. We nurture. We design curriculum, solve crises, build relationships, and shape futures. We are experts in human development, systems thinking, and adaptive problem-solving—skills that are foundational to innovation in any field.

Yet when it comes to creating AI tools, too many of us still hesitate.

We see ourselves as teachers—not inventors.
As helpers—not builders.
As problem solvers in classrooms—but not product creators in the marketplace.

And here's the uncomfortable truth: that mindset wasn't entirely self-imposed. It was taught to us.

For decades, women in education have been told—implicitly and explicitly—that our role is to implement innovation, not lead it. To consume technology, not create it. To adapt to tools designed by others, not to design tools ourselves.

That narrative is about to change.

Because the truth is, AI isn't just something to use—it's something to create with. And for millions of educators, especially women, that realization could open doors to innovation, economic empowerment, and a fundamental redefinition of who gets to shape the future of learning.

The Gap Between Need and Creation

AI is already transforming education, but here's what's broken about the current landscape:

The tools flooding the market are mostly built by tech companies—not by the teachers who actually know what schools need.

And that's not just a missed opportunity. It's a design flaw.

Think about it: venture-backed EdTech startups raise millions to solve problems that sound impressive in pitch decks but don't reflect the lived reality of teaching. They build tools optimized for scalability and profitability, not for the nuanced, relational, culturally responsive work that happens in actual classrooms.

Meanwhile, educators navigate hundreds of micro-problems every single day that AI could help solve—problems that don't make headlines but quietly drain our time, energy, and joy:

• Automating repetitive communication tasks (the third email to a parent about the same field trip form)
• Organizing student data for insight, not overload (turning numbers into understanding)
• Personalizing feedback faster (so students get it while it still matters)
• Designing inquiry prompts or SEL reflections that spark real engagement (not generic check-ins)

These are not small problems. They're the connective tissue of education.

And instead of waiting for Silicon Valley to catch up—or worse, to build solutions that don't understand us—educators can start designing AI-powered solutions themselves. Tools born from lived experience, cultural competence, and deep compassion for the work.

Because the people closest to the problem are often closest to the solution.

Why This Matters Urgently for Women Educators

Women make up the majority of the global teaching force, yet remain dramatically underrepresented in educational technology leadership and startup spaces.

That's not an accident. That's a system.

When women are kept out of the rooms where EdTech tools are designed, funded, and scaled, we lose more than diversity. We lose perspective. We lose empathy. We lose solutions that actually work for the educators who will use them.

But here's what's changing: AI is lowering the barrier to entry in ways that have never existed before.

You don't need venture capital to build a useful AI tool. You don't need a computer science degree. You don't need permission from a tech accelerator or a seat in a male-dominated boardroom.

You just need a problem worth solving and the curiosity to explore it.

When women educators start building AI tools, we shift from being end-users to architects of change. We move from the margins of innovation to the center. And in doing so, we create:

• Solutions that serve classrooms authentically (not just what sounds impressive to investors)
• Income opportunities beyond traditional teaching salaries (economic mobility and choice)
• Leadership pathways in a growing field (influence in spaces where we've been historically excluded)
• New narratives about what's possible (for ourselves and for the young women watching us)

This isn't just about individual opportunity. This is about who gets to define the future of education.

And right now, that future is being defined largely without us. That has to change.

My Journey: From Classroom Pain Point to AI Creator

Let me tell you how this became real for me.

When I built the Spark Curiosity GPT Coach, I wasn't trying to launch a company. I wasn't thinking about entrepreneurship or market positioning. I was solving a pain point I'd seen in every coaching session I facilitated:

Teachers didn't need more scripted lessons. They needed help sparking curiosity before teaching began.

They needed a way to create entry points into learning that honored students' lived experiences, that made abstract concepts feel urgent and personal, that transformed compliance into genuine intellectual engagement.

So I built a GPT that did exactly that. I fed it examples of the kinds of questions that worked. I taught it to understand different grade levels, content areas, and student populations. I refined it through iteration—testing it with teachers, adjusting based on their feedback, making it better with each conversation.

The technology was the easy part. The hard part was believing I had the right to create it.

Then came Fearless Educator Radio, powered by AI voice technology. Again, this wasn't about tech—it was about healing. I wanted to give educators a soundtrack of encouragement and reflection during a time of mass burnout and recovery. Music that reminded them they weren't alone, that their exhaustion was valid, that their courage still mattered.

AI didn't replace my artistry or my empathy. It amplified my ability to reach more teachers, faster, with something they desperately needed.

Both projects began the same way: with a question and a problem.
AI simply helped me turn them into reality.

And here's what I learned: The hardest part of creating isn't the technology. It's giving yourself permission to try.

The Educator-Entrepreneur Framework: Building with Purpose

If you've ever said, "Someone should create a tool for that," I want you to consider something radical:

That "someone" might just be you.

Here's how to begin—no coding required, no venture capital needed, no tech background assumed:

Step 1: Identify Your Pain Point

What daily frustration drains your time, energy, or joy?

Examples:

• Tracking student behavior patterns across multiple weeks
• Organizing small group rotations that actually balance needs
• Communicating progress to parents in ways they can understand and act on
• Creating culturally responsive read-alouds or discussion prompts
• Managing the emotional labor of supporting traumatized students

Your pain point is your starting point. Not because you're complaining—because you're paying attention.

Step 2: Define the "Why"

What do you wish existed to make that task easier, more human-centered, or more effective?

That's not just a wish. That's your purpose—and your potential product.

Step 3: Explore No-Code or AI Builder Tools

You don't need to learn Python. You need to learn to prompt and iterate.

Tools to explore:

• GPT Builder (via OpenAI): Create custom GPTs for specific educator needs—lesson planning, reflection prompts, parent communication, etc.
• Poe or Replit: Build prototypes or chatbots with simple, intuitive interfaces
• Glide or Softr: Create web-based apps using spreadsheets as backends (perfect for organizing data)
• Canva Magic Studio: Design and automate visual AI content (graphics, social posts, presentation slides)

The barrier to entry isn't technical skill anymore. It's creative confidence.

Step 4: Prototype Fast

Don't overthink it. Don't wait for perfection.

Build a draft version that solves a tiny piece of your problem. Test it with one colleague. Get feedback. Refine it. Test again.

This is how innovation actually works—not in polished unveilings, but in messy iteration.

Step 5: Test and Share

Use your network—colleagues in your building, online teacher communities, platforms like Wacova—to get honest feedback.

Ask:

• "What worked about this?"
• "What felt clunky or confusing?"
• "What would you need for this to actually save you time?"

The goal isn't perfection. It's participation.
Every small idea you test builds your creative confidence and moves the entire field forward.

A New Narrative for Educators: We Don't Just Implement—We Invent

For too long, the stories around education innovation have come from the outside—investors with no classroom experience, engineers who've never managed a classroom crisis, executives who see teachers as "users" instead of experts.

It's time to rewrite that story.

When educators—especially women—create AI tools, they infuse innovation with empathy. They ensure technology reflects humanity, not just efficiency. They design for relationships, not just transactions. They remember that education is fundamentally about people, and any tool that forgets that will fail the students who need it most.

Teaching itself is one of the most creative professions on earth.
We design experiences. We adapt in real time. We solve problems with limited resources and unlimited heart.

AI simply gives that creativity a new medium—a way to scale our impact, share our solutions, and finally claim our rightful place in the innovation ecosystem we've been excluded from for too long.

Your Invitation: From Hesitation to Creation

The next breakthrough in educational AI doesn't have to come from a tech giant.
It can come from you.

So the next time you feel frustrated by a recurring classroom or leadership challenge, I want you to pause and ask:

"What if I built a tool to solve this?"

Not "What if someone else built it?"
Not "What if I had more time, more resources, more technical skills?"

What if YOU built it—exactly as you are, with exactly what you know right now?

Because when educators create, we don't just innovate for ourselves.
We innovate for the colleagues who share our struggles.
We innovate for the students who deserve better tools.
We innovate for the generations that follow—especially the young women who are watching to see what's possible.

And we remind the world that the future of education won't be written by those who have the most money or the loudest voices.

It will be written by those who love students most deeply—and who refuse to wait for permission to build the tools we need.

That's you.
That's us.
That's the movement.