THE TECHNOLOGY INTERVIEW
Dave Treat joined Pearson almost two years ago as Chief Technology Officer, later adding the Chief Information Officer role, giving him oversight of the company’ s entire technology remit. The move marked a return to a sector he grew up around.
“ My favourite thing about the job is the return to the world of education,” he says.“ Education was my original career path. Everyone else in my family is a teacher in one way or another. And so now, I get to hold my head up high knowing that I too now am helping people realise the life they imagine through learning.”
The role stretches from strategic innovation to keeping a 182-year-old company running day to day.
“ I am as equally responsible for our agentic AI future as I am for fixing the space bar on our CEO’ s laptop when it breaks,” Dave explains.“ My heart is in the innovation space but I also need to keep this place running.”
It’ s certainly no small task, considering Dave’ s technical oversight spans a global workforce of approximately 17,000 people across multiple business divisions.
Academic integrity concerns are real One of my first questions for Dave was how Pearson addresses cheating as students gain access to generative AI tools. Dave is clear that the risk is genuine, but argues it stems from
“ I am as equally responsible for our agentic AI future as I am for fixing the space bar on our CEO’ s laptop when it breaks”
Dave Treat Chief Technology Officer Pearson
how the tools are deployed rather than from the technology itself.
“ It’ s important to recognise that the academic integrity concerns are real,” he says.“ AI is a real concern, but only if we just dump it on teachers and students. If they only use it to get answers, it leads to cheating and stops actual learning.”
Pearson’ s AI study tools instead prompt students to think through problems rather than hand over answers, guided by learning science.
Dave notes that usage data reveals a pattern that has little to do with classroom hours.
“ We’ re getting the peak hit rate of US students around 9pm in higher education,” he says.“ So, they’ re asking a question definitionally when the teachers and TAs are not there to help them.”
The same interactions feedback to teachers the next morning, giving them a sense of where the class is struggling before the next day of tutoring begins.
28 August 2026