AI Credited With Boosting Pearson’s Sales Growth

Pearson said it’s starting to see the commercial benefit of scaling its AI capabilities across its products and services, helping the company to generate stronger sales in the third quarter.

The British education company said its overall revenue had risen 4% last quarter, and that it remains on track to meet market expectations of an adjusted operating profit of £598 million ($777 million) for the year. Pearson had reported an adjusted operating profit of £250 million for the first half of 2024.

Pearson said its Higher Education division managed to return to growth of 4% last quarter while continuing to see “good engagement” with its AI study tools with over 5 million student interactions in the nine-month period to September. The company extended its AI study tools to more than 90 titles, which has helped to drive double-digit billings growth for those products.

Pearson CEO Omar Abbosh said the company is delivering on the three priorities he had identified at the start of the year.

Abbosh said: “First, our focus on operational and financial performance has driven growth across all divisions this quarter and we are on track to meet full-year expectations.

“Second, we are accelerating our AI capabilities across the business and starting to see the commercial benefit.

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“Third, expanded enterprise relationships with companies such as ServiceNow demonstrate progress on our intention to expand in workforce learning."

ServiceNow is a New York-listed software company that uses AI to manage other companies’ digital workflows.

Abbosh became Pearson’s CEO in early January this year. As the former president of Microsoft’s Industry Solutions business and a former Accenture executive, he has been tasked with accelerating Pearson’s transition from publishing textbooks to becoming a digital provider of education and training services.

Over the past decade, the London-based company issued a string of profit warnings, laid off thousands of employees and offloaded some highly-coveted assets like the Financial Times, a half share of the Economist Group, and Penguin Books. But now, investors are betting Pearson may have turned the corner, the company’s stock is up 18% so far this year.