EdTech Breakthrough names Arly its 2026 AI Innovation Award winner — the company’s fourth consecutive EdTech Breakthrough win — in an awards class that included Canvas, LEGO Education, PowerSchool, and Cisco
/PRNewswire/ — Arly, the platform that connects how youth programs run with what the research says works, has been named the 2026 AI Innovation Award winner by EdTech Breakthrough — its fourth consecutive win from the global awards program.
Arly Wins Top AI Innovation Award Among Industry Giants —
EdTech Breakthrough names Arly its 2026 AI Innovation Award winner
The award recognizes a fundamentally different approach to AI in education technology. While most platforms have bolted AI on as a feature, Arly built its AI into the platform from the ground up, putting the knowledge that used to live only in an organization’s most experienced people into the hands of every staff member, in every role, the moment they need it.
“I spent years running programs before we built Arly. What struck me, again and again, was how much operational knowledge lived in people rather than systems, and how different every program is. Afterschool looks nothing like summer camp. A university recreation program runs on completely different logic than a community-based youth organization. Most software asks programs to reshape themselves to fit the tool. We built Arly the other way around.
Arly delivers institutional knowledge to every program team in the moment they need it, and within the context of how that program actually runs. This recognition affirms that embedding AI into the fabric of a platform — built to flex around real programs rather than constrain them — is the right approach. We built it this way on purpose.”
— Lauren Gilbert, Ed.D., CEO, Arly
The award was selected from a global field of more than 3,000 nominations across the educational technology industry, with fellow winners including Canvas, LEGO Education, PowerSchool, Carnegie Learning, and Cisco. Arly earned the top honor by building AI throughout the platform from the ground up, so every user, in every role, gets the right guidance inside the workflow they’re already in, rather than somewhere else. That recognition, in that company, signals that the judges understood not just what Arly’s AI does, but why it was built the way it was.
The AI guide within Arly, Compass, is a guide in the truest sense, not a search tool, not a chatbot, but a knowledgeable presence inside the platform that knows how programs run and meets every staff member where they are.
Arly focuses where most AI in education technology does not, the everyday work of actually running programs — setup, scheduling, compliance, staff onboarding, family communication. It understands the distinct workflows of afterschool, summer, and expanded learning providers that generic AI tools were never built for, and it draws on more than three decades of research-backed practice to guide every operator in real time.
EdTech Breakthrough’s recognition echoed that view. “What sets Arly apart is where it focuses,” said Steve Johansson, Managing Director of EdTech Breakthrough. “Most AI in education technology is built for the classroom, but the work of actually running high-quality out-of-school time programs happens in the back office, in scheduling, in compliance, in staff onboarding. Arly brings AI to that operational work, giving every program team access to guidance that was previously held only by their most experienced staff. We are proud to recognize Arly as our 2026 AI Innovation Award winner.”
This is Arly’s fourth consecutive EdTech Breakthrough Award. In prior years, Arly earned recognition for enrollment management, professional development, and education operations — each award marking a different layer of a platform that has been building toward this.
To learn more about Arly and request a demo, visit arly.com/demo.
About Arly
Arly, an innovation by national nonprofit BellXcel, is the youth program management platform built on more than three decades of evidence, research, and experience. Designed for afterschool programs, summer camps, parks and recreation, universities, and youth-serving organizations of all kinds, Arly connects enrollment, session management, participant safety, staff operations, and outcomes reporting in a single unified system — with AI woven throughout from the ground up. Arly embedded operational AI guide, delivers the institutional knowledge of decades of evidence-based practice directly to every operator, in every program, in real time. Learn more at arly.com.
About EdTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the EdTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in educational technology products, companies, and people. The EdTech Breakthrough Awards provide a platform for public recognition around the achievements of breakthrough educational technology across categories including e-learning, student engagement, school administration, career preparation, language learning, STEM, and more. For more information visit EdTechBreakthrough.com.
Media Contact:
Danielle Amodio
VP, Marketing & Communications, Arly
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