From “ultimate cheating machine” to classroom ally: Startup Edvisor rethinks AI in higher ed

As generative AI began reshaping the way people work, learn, and create, Rameez Mahmood, MBA 26, saw higher education entering a period of profound change. 

Through his startup, Edvisor, Mahmood is helping instructors rethink teaching and learning for an AI-native world, by giving them course packs that enable them to control access to AI and keep students engaged in the classroom.

What sets Edvisor apart from other AI education platforms is its focus on what Mahmood calls “AI resilience.”

“AI has made the ability for misuse so easy in the classroom, but it’s also opened up so many opportunities to reimagine what’s truly human and what we want graduates to walk away with through their education,” he said. The startup already has traction, recently raising a $1.3 million pre-seed round led by Draper Associates. 

Before coming to UC Berkeley Haas, Mahmood spent nearly five years working in frontline social work, supporting people experiencing incarceration, suicidality, and severe mental illness. That experience, he said, taught him that “after the love and relationships that someone had, it was education that made such an enormous impact on outcomes.” 

The emergence of generative AI gave Mahmood a new way to pursue that belief. Alongside Edvisor co-founder Shariq Shah, whose AI homework helper Tutorly attracted roughly 500,000 users in three months, Mahmood saw both the promise and pitfalls of generative AI in education. 

After realizing the platform had become what he called “the ultimate cheating machine,” the pair shifted focus from students to instructors, asking a simple question: If you were rebuilding your classroom from scratch for an AI-native world, what would it look like? 

Backed by learning science, Edvisor uses AI to provide students with instant, personalized feedback and Socratic style coaching instead of just giving them the answers.

AI resilience is just one of the “three As” Edvisor is built on. The other two, affordability and accessibility, reflect Mahmood’s vision and values for higher education. The platform replaces traditional static textbooks with digital course materials at a fraction of the cost while supporting students with diverse learning styles through multimodal learning experiences, including audio, chat, reading, and interactive activities. 

Edvisor has rapidly grown and is now used by nearly 50 universities, including UC Berkeley, Duke, Northeastern, Queen’s University, and several UC and CSU campuses, with plans to reach about 80 institutions this fall. The company has also partnered with OpenStax to augment hundreds of Open Access textbooks, and won the Jacobs Foundation Ed Tech Prize at UC Launch’s Fall 2025 showcase.

Mahmood and Shah credit Berkeley Haas and the UC Launch accelerator with helping connect the company to mentors, investors, and early supporters.

Looking ahead, the company is preparing for its next funding round while continuing to build “the world’s greatest teaching and learning ecosystem for an AI-native world,” Mahmood said.