Brian Carlson’s a 2x founder with over 25 years of experience in the education technology sector, Brian Carlson is the CEO & Co-Founder of Storytime AI, an innovative platform that leverages advanced AI to support literacy, representation in reading, and more equitable access to reading materials for all, especially in underserved and remote communities.

Prior to Storytime AI, he co-founded and led eThink Education (now Open LMS), a fully-managed eLearning solutions provider that was acquired by Learning Technologies Group in 2020. He consulted for Ellucian, a leading higher education campus technology solutions provider, and previously taught in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. He is also an active advisor and mentor for several other technology startups in the edtech, artificial intelligence, and social impact domains.

Brian, for those who may not be familiar – what is Storytime AI, and what inspired its creation?

Storytime AI is a personalized reading platform that uses generative AI to create custom books, read-along videos, and songs for children in 194 languages. It is rooted in the science of reading and aligned with state standards, making it easy for educators and parents to create super engaging personalized experiences for their students and kids that support educational outcomes.

We created Storytime AI to help address one of the most urgent challenges in education worldwide: the rising literacy gap. According to data from UNESCO, over 700 million children globally are not reading at grade level, with barriers ranging from limited access to books to a lack of culturally relevant or inclusive content. These early gaps have lifelong consequences.

As a former educator who spent time teaching in the island nation of Vanuatu in the South Pacific, I saw children from under-resourced communities, multilingual households, or with special needs struggle to find quality educational resources as well as stories that reflect who they are. This experience launched my career in education technology, where I’ve since focused on using technology as a force for equity and helping make quality education accessible for all learners.

With Storytime AI, we’re leveraging AI to make reading more engaging, inclusive, and accessible for all. Each story can be tailored to a child’s name, culture, language, reading level, and interests which helps them build confidence, fluency, and a love of reading that allows them to unlock their full potential.

We’ve all heard that personalized learning is impactful, and it’s continued to be a hot topic in education. How does AI-generated storytelling help deliver truly personalized reading experiences for kids?

The data is clear that representation matters and personalized learning increases student engagement and learning outcomes. Students relate better to materials reflecting their identities, enhancing interest and comprehension. Conversely, limited representation harms self-perception and learning attitudes.

Storytime AI has a bold vision: to help every child unlock their full potential through on-demand, culturally relevant content – personalized and accessible in any language. How does your platform actually do that?

Storytime AI leverages the power of personalization, enabling educators, parents, and children to create on-demand reading material that is personalized to learner interests and needs in 194 languages. Materials can be leveled and translated, ensuring we’re able to reach students where they are and support their development.

The ability for content to be personalized to better reflect the individual learner is paramount. When children can see themselves represented in their stories, they’re more likely to engage with the material. This leads to enhanced comprehension, social-emotional development, confidence, and literacy – all of which unlock future success for that child.

Besides literacy, are there any other specific use cases where personalized storytelling is particularly impactful?

Personalized storytelling with Storytime AI has also been proven particularly impactful for social-emotional development and special education use cases where children with a disability require specific educational needs and supports.

For social-emotional development, Storytime AI is able to weave in any pertinent lesson that may be relevant for a child, including topics like kindness, compassion, friendship, or resilience. With the ability to personalize the story to include the child’s name or a specific situation they may be struggling with, children are able to better identify with lesson themes.

In special education, teachers of students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) often need to personalize lesson material for different students based on their needs. This could include:

• The creation of social stories – short, personalized narratives that explain social situations and expected behaviors to individuals, particularly those with autism.
• Leveling of reading material – different students in the same class may require lower or higher level reading material.

In these instances, creating personalized social stories or leveling reading materials can require teachers to create this differentiated content themselves or to source multiple materials from different places, which can be time-consuming. Storytime AI can streamline the creation of social stories and adapt to required levels, making it easier for educators to leverage stories for differentiated learning experiences for all learners.

Storytime AI is being used by parents and educators around the globe. Can you share more about the momentum Storytime AI has been building?

Absolutely. We were recently recognized by the AWS Education Equity Initiative, which supports organizations creating digital learning solutions for underserved learners globally. I’m also very excited to share that Storytime AI was recently accepted as a semifinalist into the prestigious 2025 Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC).

The EBPC is hosted by Catalyst @ Penn GSE, a global center for education innovation and impact at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE). The competition supports mission-driven ventures that advance teaching and learning through bold, scalable solutions. Being selected as one of 25 semi finalists from hundreds of submissions across 56 countries is a great honor, and we’re thrilled to leverage the expertise of the Catalyst team at UPenn to accelerate our impact.

Additionally, the timing of this honor is great as we are currently building a new web-based classroom platform that we’ll be releasing late this summer. Based on the traction we’re currently seeing with educators who are using the mobile version of Storytime AI in classrooms, we are looking forward to creating a web version that is even more feature-rich and accessible for classroom use.

Tell us more about the web-based classroom platform you’re releasing later this summer. What will this mean for educators and students?

Educators have shared how powerful they find the ability to incorporate personalized storytelling into their classroom, so we’ll be taking personalization to the next level while making it easier for educators to incorporate Storytime AI into their classrooms using any device.

Storytime AI for Educators offers a library of standards aligned content that can be personalized, leveled, and translated for differentiated learning experiences. The platform will allow educators to increase student engagement through personalization, better support students with special education requirements (ESL, IEP), adjust reading levels on the fly, and provide on-demand customized assessments. We are launching free pilots for K12 schools and districts this Fall 2025.

Sounds incredibly impactful! How can schools, districts, and educators get involved?

We’re actively co-creating with some educator ambassadors now and encourage any educator (K-12, before- or after-school, tutoring, etc.) that is interested in leveraging Storytime AI for Educators in the classroom this fall to sign up for our waitlist here.

We’ll be launching the Storytime AI for Educators beta with a limited number of pilot partners this fall. Participating schools, districts, and educators will receive free exclusive early access and be entered into contests for best fall usage. Educators can move up the waitlist by referring others, and if you don’t make the first round of pilots, rolling access will be provided later in the year.

Looking ahead, what’s your vision for the future of Storytime AI – and how do you see your work impacting literacy on a larger scale?

Our vision is to transform literacy worldwide by making reading personal, inclusive, and joyful so every child, everywhere, can see themselves in the stories they read.

Storytime AI is building a future where high-quality, personalized books and videos are accessible to all children across languages, cultures, and abilities. We’re aligning with state standards, the science of reading, and classroom needs, while integrating with teacher workflows to make life easier for educators and building a bridge for parents to support literacy efforts at home as well.

Long term, we aim to help close global literacy gaps by reaching children in both modern and low-resource settings, supporting 194 languages and preserving endangered ones. Our platform’s ability to scale across countries and contexts means we’re not just creating stories, we’re creating a movement: one where personalized, engaging reading experiences inspire lifelong learning, confidence, and connection for millions of children around the world.

For parents and educators curious about trying Storytime AI, what’s the best way to get started?

Download the Storytime AI app and try it for free. Every user has the ability to access 85,000 books and videos in our Discover Library and is given 10 credits to use towards a custom book or video, with the ability to earn more through the app.

If you’re an educator, you can start using the Storytime AI app today and sign up for the Storytime AI for Educators waitlist here to apply for first access to the web version coming soon.

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