Many children struggle to stay motivated while practicing reading. Having an attentive listener makes practice more engaging.
Build an AI character (like Yomi) that reacts to reading - nodding along, laughing at jokes, or asking clarifying questions. Use voice recognition to follow along with the text.
Schools and parents would pay for subscriptions, especially if proven to improve reading metrics. Could integrate with common reading curricula.
MVP would be a simple cat character with basic voice recognition and pre-recorded responses. Expand to different characters and more advanced dialogue later.
Risk is making the AI feel genuinely responsive, not just random. Needs good speech recognition and natural language understanding.