Nectir’s 2025 Year in Review

2025 was a year of intense scrutiny for AI in higher education. As institutions grappled with unanswered questions about academic integrity, faculty adoption, and measurable ROI, we at Nectir deliberately focused on providing measurable results on how AI can improve the learning experience.

This year was about answering the market's toughest questions with case studies, instructor testimonials, and campus-wide partnerships. These are the challenges we met, and the results that serve as our answers.

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Can AI Actually Improve Student Grades Across an Entire Campus?

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The question of measurable academic ROI was answered this year by our campus-wide implementation at Los Angeles Pacific University (LAPU). The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal OpenPraxis, serves as a definitive blueprint for responsible AI deployment.

The data speaks for itself:

• Students who engaged with Nectir AI three or more times per week saw a 7.5% increase in GPA (and this held after adjusting for age, gender, and ethnicity).
• The study used four statistical approaches, and the results consistently indicated that engagement led to significantly higher GPAs.
• The biggest gains didn’t come from one-off use but regular, active engagement. This means students weren’t just “logging in” but actively engaging with course concepts in dialogue.

LAPU also trained and customized its Nectir AI assistant to avoid completing assignments for students. It guided students Socratically, leading with questions that fostered critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

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How Can Nectir AI Responsibly Scale to a Large, Diverse Student Body?

In 2025, Nectir partnered with the California Community Colleges to bring secure, equitable AI to 116 campuses and 2.1 million students, proving the scalability of our approach.

Instructor-led surveys from our initial 2024-25 pilot data show 73.5% of students reported improved learning and comprehension with Nectir.

Following this success, the system announced a major expansion of the pilot in October, serving as a powerful vote of confidence from a leading public education system.

In fact, one instructor representing the California Community Colleges spoke about her experience using Nectir AI on CBS Bay Area. Adoria Williams, Head Librarian at Merritt College, said the following about teaching her Introduction to Information Resources students how to use AI responsibly and ethically:

“I have trained [my Course Assistant] to not give students the answers, but to lead them down the path of critical thinking and analysis. [Nectir AI] has helped those students who might have families, full-time jobs.”

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How Does Nectir AI Allow Institutions to Personalize Their AI Assistants?

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Every feature we released in 2025 was a direct response to the need for greater faculty control, academic integrity, and measurable oversight.

• Seamless LMS Embedding: Nectir integrates with the learning management systems faculty already use, such as Canvas. By eliminating the friction of new logins and separate platforms, we drive organic faculty adoption.
• Custom Knowledge & Source Sharing: We eliminate the "black box" of AI by allowing you to ground your Nectir assistants on your specific institution, program, or course materials. This year, we also launched our "Share Sources" feature, which requires Nectir AI to cite the exact document it used to provide an answer, turning AI interaction into a lesson in source evaluation.
• Workspace Analytics & Key Topics: Our analytics dashboard provides Workspace Owners with anonymized, aggregate data on the concepts students struggle with most. This transforms a tutoring tool into a strategic asset for curriculum improvement and intervention.
• Groups & Granular Permissions: You can deploy specialized assistants to specific student cohorts. This allows for targeted support for ESL students, athletes, or dedicated programs, ensuring AI is used for its intended purpose.

In fact, at DET/CHE 2025 this December, Alexa Tan, Senior Learning Technologist at Stanford University, presented on how Stanford Graduate School of Business has deployed personalized Nectir AI Role Play Assistants in their undergraduate Intro to Business course, with an upcoming pilot in ExecEd’s Stanford Business Essentials course.

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What Makes Nectir AI Stand Out?

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Technology vendors sell software, but strategic partners help shape the future of education.

Throughout 2025, our CEO and Co-Founder, Kavitta Ghai, has been a leading voice on the national stage, engaging with education leaders at major conferences. Her goal is to advocate for a new standard in educational technology, one where AI serves as a powerful force for accessibility, equity, and student success. Our leadership is on the front lines because our mission extends beyond the tech platform.

This April, Kavitta went on Fund/Build/Scale with Walter Thompson to share more about how Nectir came to be. As a neurodivergent student with autism and ADHD, Nectir AI's development as a learning tool stemmed from many of the challenges she faced as an undergraduate at UC Santa Barbara (spoiler alert: UCSB eventually became Nectir’s first customer).

"My co-founder, Jordan, and I, started Nectir seven years ago when were undergrad students at UC Santa Barbara. Essentially, one day we said, 'What if we stopped complaining and we actually did something about it?' For me, I'm autistic and I have ADHD, so no classroom has ever been in before has ever been comfortable for me to be in. And then I got to college and I started paying $40,000 to be really uncomfortable. And that's finally when it became enough of a pain point for me that I said, 'Either I'm going to drop out or I'm going to do something about it.'"

Her lived experience in the classroom, as a tech enthusiast, and as a female founder of color, along with the immense investment in Nectir AI’s user feedback, continues to drive the company’s mission and product development.

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The Verdict on 2025

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As we reflect on 2025, we are proud that our major milestones this year aligned directly with our efforts to address those challenges. From improving student outcomes to ensuring institutional control, each accomplishment represents our commitment to our partners.

Want to see if Nectir AI is a good fit for your classroom?‍

Book a personalized demo with the Nectir team.