AI, Companions & EdTech: A VC's Perspective (with Rhys Spence, Brighteye Ventures)

What separates an AI companion from an AI agent? And when does a "sticky" learning app actually make you smarter?
In this episode, Svenia Busson sits down with Rhys Spence, Head of Research & Platform at Brighteye Ventures — one of Europe's leading EdTech and future-of-work VC funds, with over €220 million under management.
Rhys shares the key insights from Brighteye's report Me, Myself and My AI: The Rise of AI Companions, exploring how AI companions are reshaping education, health, and finance — and why vertical, regulated tools are safer and more defensible than general-purpose AI. They also dig into the role of behavioral science in making people genuinely want to learn, the tension between product stickiness and real learning outcomes, the rise of VR and smart glasses in vocational training (cutting qualification times by up to 99%), and Rhys's "Fix the Pothole" thesis: why AI should rebuild broken systems from the ground up, not layer efficiency gains on top of them. Rhys also shares what Brighteye Ventures is actively looking for from early-stage EdTech founders today — and what it means to invest for impact without being an impact fund.

To go further:
Me, Myself, and My AI - the rise of AI companions: https://www.brighteyevc.com/sidekick-posts/me-myself-and-my-ai---the-rise-of-ai-companions
Brighteye Ventures: https://www.brighteyevc.com/
Rhys Spence on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhys-spence/
https://www.brighteyevc.com/sidekick-posts/fix-the-pothole (Blog post about the Fix the Pothole reference)

Видео AI, Companions & EdTech: A VC's Perspective (with Rhys Spence, Brighteye Ventures) канала Education Futures