How ZNotes’ Amazon Bedrock chatbot addresses educational inequality globally

Empowering underrepresented communities through open access learning

Education remains out of reach for many students from underserved and underrepresented communities due to financial and resource limitations, particularly in regions such as Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In sub-Saharan Africa, more than one-fifth of children, aged 6 to 11 are no longer in school, and this figure continues to rise to nearly 60 percent for youth aged 15 to 17. Meanwhile, in the Middle East and North Africa, at least 30 million children are currently out of school, limiting their access to future opportunities

ZNotes, a social-impact startup on a mission to end educational inequality, primarily reaching young learners aged 14-18, is working to bridge this gap by providing free access to high-quality notes, videos, and quizzes that are co-created with top students to foster a collaborative peer-learning community.

With Amazon Web Services (AWS), ZNotes enhances its ability to deliver accessible, high-quality learning experiences, ensuring that students—regardless of their background can receive the support they need to succeed. With a reach extending to more than six million learners, across 190-plus countries, ZNotes is making a lasting impact on equitable access to education.

ZNotes approach is built on peer collaboration and empowerment, ensuring students—especially those in marginalized educational systems, gain access to quality learning resources without financial barriers.

Figure 1. Tablet examples showcasing the ZNotes platform and its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, enabling personalized learning for students worldwide.

Transforming learning with AWS-powered AI

To further its mission of reaching students in under-resourced communities, ZNotes partnered with AWS to develop an AI-powered chatbot using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases. This chatbot serves as an intelligent, on-demand learning assistant that provides students with real-time, validated educational support. Since its launch in December 2024 through early February 2025, the chatbot has:

• Engaged 1,000-plus users, facilitating more than 3,500 messages.
• Represented 1% of ZNotes monthly active users (MAU).
• Set a projected growth to 10 percent of MAU, targeting 10,000 users, each engaging with the chatbot around five times per month.

With Amazon Bedrock powering the chatbot’s AI capabilities and Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases enhancing its ability to deliver curated, syllabus-aligned responses, ZNotes makes sure that students—particularly those in disadvantaged learning environments, have access to reliable, high-quality educational support.

Expanding AI capabilities for greater impact

As ZNotes continues to scale, the organization remains committed to using AWS-powered AI to make education more accessible. Recognizing the transformative potential of ZNotes’ mission, AWS has selected ZNotes for the AWS Education Equity Initiative (EEI). Through this initiative, AWS is committing up to $100 million in cloud credits and technical expertise to help organizations develop innovative digital learning solutions for underserved communities.

This investment will enable ZNotes to modernize its platform and advance AI use cases, turning its learning ideas into reality with access to AWS Cloud technology, AI services, and technical guidance. Beyond chatbot enhancements, ZNotes aims to:

• Expand localized content creation by leveraging generative AI to develop resources aligned with local end-of-school exams for under-resourced national curricula.
• Integrate AI-driven peer learning solutions to provide personalized study experiences and facilitate adaptive learning communities.
• Train an AI model using ZNotes existing content to develop an expert-in-the-loop validation framework to maintain accuracy and quality in AI-generated learning materials.
• Extend ZNotes into new, interaction languages using generative AI.

“At ZNotes, our mission has always been about breaking barriers to education. With the support of AWS and Amazon Bedrock, we’ve been able to create an AI-powered chatbot trained on pre-validated content that personalizes learning for students, no matter where they are in the world,” said Zubair Junjunia, ZNotes Founder and CEO. “This is more than technology—it’s about equity, inclusion, and ensuring that every learner has the tools they need to succeed.”

By utilizing the support and technology provided through EEI, ZNotes will continue to break barriers in education and empower young learners worldwide with equitable, high-quality learning experiences.

Conclusion

ZNotes’ partnership with AWS is a testament to the transformative power of AI in education. By integrating Amazon Bedrock and Amazon Bedrock Knowledge Bases, ZNotes is making high-quality learning accessible to students in underserved communities. As the organization continues to innovate and expand, it remains dedicated to breaking educational barriers and empowering learners globally. With AI-driven solutions and strategic collaborations, ZNotes is helping shape the future of inclusive and equitable education for all.

Visit ZNotes to learn more about their impact.