When I founded the AI in Education at Oxford University (AIEOU) Hub with my colleagues Professor Rebecca Williams and Professor Elizabeth Wonnacott, I knew the name I chose would provoke questions, reflections, and double-takes. English speakers in particular seem to instinctively reorder the letters back to the familiar: A-E-I-O-U. That reflex is, in many ways, the point.
As well as aligning perfectly with our purpose and our location at the University of Oxford, the name AIEOU was inspired by the children’s song, “A-E-I-O-U.” These five vowels form the foundation of English words and sentences. These simple letters, repeated in classrooms across generations, form the scaffolding of expression, meaning, and connection.
By reordering the letters and placing AI at the start we signal a shift. A nudge. A cognitive pause. AI is forcing us to rethink what we think we know about how we teach and learn. In that subtle twist lies our mission, to examine what AI could mean for the future of education.
The Hub is about more than artificial intelligence. It is about architecture. Not the architecture of algorithms, but of ideas, values, voices, and visions. All carefully layered to support the co-creation of something larger than any one of us could build alone.
AIEOU is not a formal institute or a static network. It is a living, breathing hub. A place of belonging and becoming. We began with a few conversations and invitations. Today, we are more than 1,500 collaborators strong, representing nearly every continent and countless contexts from early childhood classrooms in New Zealand to AI policy in the USA and think tanks in South-East Asia.
One of our collaborators, Dr Vuyokazi Mntuyedwa from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in South Africa, recently shared a striking statistic. 78% of her first-year students had never interacted with a computer before arriving at university. Determined to support their digital literacy, she began designing a foundational digital skills course but needed support. Through the AIEOU hub, she connected with educators from Türkiye, India, and the UAE who willingly shared expertise, resources, and encouragement. What began as a local need grew into a globally supported solution.
This kind of organic, interdisciplinary collaboration is in no way incidental. It reflects a design principle at the very heart of AIEOU, the recognition that education does not happen in isolation but is shaped by interconnected layers of influence: cultural, institutional, relational, and technological. Our hub is deliberately structured to honour those layers. We don’t disseminate ideas, we cultivate relationships between educators and technologists, researchers and practitioners, early-career scholars and senior leaders from all over the world.
Rather than viewing AI as a top-down disruption, we see it as a call to co-construct, co-reflect, and co-respond in ways that centre human experience and relational intelligence. This is what makes AIEOU more than a network. It is an evolving system of care, inquiry, and shared responsibility.
Vuyokazi’s story is one of many such stories. Whether leading a faculty-wide AI task force, managing professional learning for lecturers, or experimenting with ChatGPT in your classroom, AIEOU offers a platform to collaborate, ask questions, and build knowledge collectively.
Another of our collaborators, Selin Erzin from the Higher Colleges of Technology (UAE), captured the essence of our name beautifully:
“AEIOU. The vowels in the English language that form the heart of syllables. Single letters with multiple responsibilities:
Connection – they make speech fluid and smooth.
Transformation – change one vowel in a word, and you get another.
Expression – they carry tone and support rhythm.”
When Selin first encountered AIEOU online, her instinct was to assume it referred to a language learning project. Instead, she discovered an inclusive space where educators and researchers from around the world were discussing AI’s impact on their work. The conversations ranged from pedagogy and ethics to assessment to professional identity.
Selin views AIEOU like a beehive, with collaborators forming their own think tanks, sharing articles, co-designing pilots, and cross-pollinating ideas. She says, “What makes the work feel sustainable is not just the reach, but the sense of shared responsibility. We know that AI will continue to reshape how we teach, learn, and relate. The question is how we choose to shape it in return.”
Reflecting on the concepts of connection, transformation and expression, Selin shares that “AIEOU gives us a shared space to voice ideas and grow stronger together. We inspire and shape one another. New insights take root daily. We are able to speak candidly about our fears, hopes, and aspirations for AI in education.”
AIEOU is a reminder that even small things like the rearrangement of well-known vowels can carry powerful meaning. With a slight shift, they can change everything.
So the next time you come across us and stumble over the name, pause. Notice the rearrangement. Let it be a prompt, not a mistake. It’s an invitation to rethink what you know and join a global conversation about what may come next.
