There is a fundamental question behind the next generation of games and digital learning experiences: How can technology become more personalized without becoming less human? That question sits at the center of the latest episode of Game Changers: The Future of Play, where Sarah Ramoz, Toni Callahan and Stephany Ventura speak with Dr. Jody Sherman LeVos, Chief Learning Officer at BEGiN. With a career focused on child development, learning science and technology, Jody offers a perspective that goes beyond the usual conversation about what AI can generate and asks a more important question: what can AI help an experience become?
Jody’s career reflects the convergence of research, technology and play. She describes beginning on a traditional academic path before discovering that her expertise in child development could be translated directly into products designed for children or about children. That realization led her into industry, including work at LeapFrog and other children’s media, education and toy companies. Today, she serves as Chief Learning Officer at BEGiN, where she oversees learning and play-to-learn experiences. BEGiN’s official biography also notes her Ph.D. in Developmental Science and more than a decade of experience in children’s media and early learning.
When Learning Becomes Part of the Game
One of the most compelling ideas in the conversation is that learning and fun should not be treated as competing objectives. Jody explains that learning becomes more effective when it is woven into the context of play instead of being inserted as a separate task that temporarily interrupts the experience.
That distinction matters for game designers and developers. If a child plays a game, stops playing to answer a series of educational questions and then returns to the game, the learning can feel disconnected from the reason the child wanted to play in the first place. Jody argues for a different approach in which the learning objective and the mechanics of the experience work together.
The result is a more seamless form of learning through play. Rather than asking children to choose between education and entertainment, designers can create experiences in which curiosity, experimentation and discovery are part of the learning process itself.
What Does Healthy Play Look Like in a Digital World?
The definition of play becomes more complicated when screens are involved. Jody points out that there is not one singular definition of play and discusses characteristics such as voluntary participation, enjoyment, flow, experimentation and the freedom to safely try, change rules and fail.
That perspective creates an important distinction between screen time and digital play. A digital experience can provide opportunities for learning and exploration, but Jody emphasizes that healthy play should also include time away from screens, free play, outdoor experiences, boredom and other forms of play. In other words, the goal is not simply to replace one type of play with another.
For parents and developers alike, this reframes the conversation. Instead of asking whether a child is using a screen, a more useful question may be: What is the child actually doing while using it? Is the experience passive, or does it encourage agency, exploration, problem-solving and meaningful engagement?
The Difference Between Educational and Meaningful
The episode also explores one of the challenges parents face in today’s digital environment: determining whether an experience is genuinely designed to support learning or simply labeled as educational.
Jody identifies several qualities that can help distinguish stronger educational experiences. Among them are involvement from learning experts, clearly defined learning outcomes, personalization or scaffolding, testing with children, and formative and summative research. She also recommends that parents consider recommendations from trusted professionals and organizations.
This is a lesson that extends beyond children’s products. As AI makes it increasingly easy to generate content, the ability to produce information is becoming less of a differentiator. Intentionality, validation, expertise and trust become even more important.
AI’s Next Step: From Personalizing Content to Personalizing Experiences
The most forward-looking part of the conversation focuses on AI. Jody sees enormous potential in AI’s ability to personalize not just what a child sees, but the entire experience. She describes two hypothetical children who are the same age and working toward the same learning objective but have very different personalities, confidence levels and approaches to experimentation.
Historically, those children might receive essentially the same experience. AI creates the possibility of keeping the learning objective consistent while adapting the experience around the individual child. That could include differences in coaching, pacing, challenges, feedback and encouragement.
This is where Jody’s description of AI as an “adaptation engine” becomes particularly powerful. The opportunity is not simply to add an AI feature to an existing product. It is to rethink how an experience responds to the person using it.
That concept has implications well beyond education. Personalized experiences are becoming an increasingly important part of digital products, customer experiences and interactive entertainment. AI can potentially make those experiences more responsive while allowing designers to keep the underlying goals and guardrails intact.
AI Safety for Children Requires More Than Compliance
The promise of personalization also brings responsibility.
When the conversation turns to AI safety, Jody emphasizes that designing for children requires a particularly high standard. She discusses the risks associated with AI chat experiences and explains that BEGiN’s children’s products do not currently include AI chatbots because she believes more work is needed to ensure those experiences are safe.
For the parent-focused Sage experience discussed in the episode, Jody describes a different approach centered on trust, partnerships, research and a review process designed to ensure responses are science-based, current, appropriately toned and supported by resources. She also explains that Sage is not intended to diagnose children or replace experts in serious medical or mental health situations.
The larger lesson is important for anyone building AI-powered experiences: responsible AI is not simply a compliance checklist. Trust has to be designed into the experience.
Don’t Let AI Replace the Human Feedback Loop
Perhaps the most important warning in the episode comes when Jody discusses what she hopes the industry does not lose as AI accelerates product development. AI can make it dramatically easier to access curriculum, learning standards and other information. But that does not eliminate the need to interact with the people who will actually use the product.
Jody argues that there is no substitute for testing products with children and families. Their reactions, unexpected behaviors and feedback reveal nuances that cannot simply be extracted from a database or generated by an AI system.
For game developers, educational technology companies and AI builders, this is a valuable reminder. Faster creation does not automatically mean better creation. The human feedback loop remains one of the most important parts of building experiences that actually work.
The Future of Play Is Still Human
Looking five years ahead, Jody is excited about AI’s potential to become an adaptation engine that personalizes experiences for children, parents and teachers. At the same time, she sees growing recognition of the importance of play and human connection.
That combination may ultimately define the most meaningful AI experiences.
Technology can make experiences more adaptive, responsive and personalized, but children still need relationships, curiosity, experimentation and opportunities to connect with other people. Jody points to the growing importance of human connection in an increasingly AI-powered world and says parents are looking for deeper, more meaningful interactions with their children.
And when asked what skill people in gaming will need most in the next three to five years, her answer is curiosity. In a rapidly changing industry, knowing every answer may be less valuable than knowing how to ask better questions, challenge assumptions and remain open to learning.
That may be one of the most fitting messages for an episode about the future of play. AI can generate, personalize and adapt at remarkable speed, but the people designing the future still need to stay curious about the people they are designing it for.
The future of play may be powered by AI, but it still begins with understanding people.
Learn more about Sage: A Parenting Companion here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sage-a-parenting-companion/id6766206288