An AI tutor that sees your screen, and makes you do the thinking

It's an assistant that looks at the problem you're stuck on, the worksheet, the code, the app you're learning, so you don't have to retype it or describe it. You ask out loud, it sees what you see, and it helps from there.

The catch is that most of them help by giving you the answer. That's fine for a setting you can't find. It's no good for a sum you'll meet again in an exam. A tutor worth the name makes you do the thinking, and that is what Koi's Study mode is for: it circles where your working went wrong, asks what you'd try next, draws only the next step, and keeps what you missed as flashcards.

What Koi can't do, before you read on:

• It's a Mac app only. No iPad, no iPhone, no Windows.
• It sees the screen, not your desk. Working on paper? Photograph it and open the picture, or type it up.
• Study mode is a switch. With it off, Koi answers like any assistant would.
• There's no free plan, only a 3-day trial that needs a card, and no student price. Its AI is online, so a call needs the internet.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Facts about the other tutors below come from their own sites, checked October 16, 2026.

An answer you copy is gone by the next morning. The bit you worked out yourself, after being shown where you slipped, tends to stay. So a good tutor does three things a chatbot usually skips: it finds the exact line where your reasoning broke, it asks you a question instead of finishing the job, and it comes back to your mistakes later.

A screen helps with all three. The tutor doesn't need you to explain your working; it reads it. And it can point at the line instead of describing it.

1. Turn on Study mode. It's a switch in Settings, under Koi, and in the menu bar, or just say “turn on Study mode” to Koi.
2. Open the problem and your working: a PDF, a worksheet in the browser, a Koi page, your code.
3. Tap Fn + ⌘ once and say where you're stuck: “I got question 4 wrong, can you look at my working?”
4. Koi looks at the screen and circles the line where it went wrong. Then it asks what you'd try next, instead of fixing it.
5. Stuck again? It draws only the next step on a board over the screen, by hand, and waits for you.
6. Each thing you missed becomes a flashcard on a page called What I got wrong. Say “quiz me on what I got wrong” before the exam.

It talks back out loud, in whatever language you speak to it, and you can go back and forth like with a person. The call ends after 7 quiet seconds (not while Koi is talking or working), or when you tap the keys again. Prefer to type? Tap Control twice for a chat box that sees the screen too.

Koi's flashcards are spaced the way Anki does it. A Study pill over the cards shows the front, Space shows the back, and Again, Hard, Good or Easy (1 to 4) decides when each card comes back. They're ordinary Koi documents, so you can edit them.

Half of learning a subject is learning its software: the spreadsheet, the statistics package, the design tool. There, you want the tutor to point, not lecture. Ask Koi “where do I add a trendline?” and it circles the control on your screen, in any Mac app, and lets you click it yourself.

Koi can also click for you when you ask, but for learning, doing it with your own hand is the point. And some buttons are always yours: Koi won't send, post, publish or confirm anything for you. It circles that kind of button and leaves the press to you, so handing in your work stays your job. More on that line in our guide to an AI that controls your Mac.

A tutor works best with your own material in front of it. Koi can make it:

• Import a PDF, a Word file or PowerPoint slides from the Documents panel, or File, Import. The words are read on your Mac and become a page.
• Choose Make study notes from the page's menu. Koi writes a summary, the key points, flashcards and a multiple-choice quiz, on a page of its own.
• Record the lecture itself. Tap Fn + ⌃ and pick In person: Koi writes down what it hears on your Mac and keeps the sound. If you say yes to notes, a class gets a summary, the key points, flashcards and what you were told to do.
• Type /flashcards on any page for a deck of your own.

Step by step guides: make flashcards from a PDF on a Mac and record a lecture on a Mac. The editor itself, with tables, charts and LaTeX equations, is on Koi's notes page.

A few apps teach from your screen now. They differ in what they teach, how they show you and what they cost.

• Skilly calls itself an AI teaching companion that sees your screen, talks to you and points at what it means. It ships with five skills for creative apps, and you hold Control + Option to talk or switch on a Live Tutor mode that listens all the time. It started as a fork of the open-source Clicky.
• Guidy shows you where to click, step by step, and says it doesn't do anything on your screen without you. You type your question. Unlimited is $9.99 a month.
• HeyClicky walks you through what you're doing out loud, drawing to point the way, and its free plan resets every month. Our HeyClicky review has the rest.
• Vellum Ambient's guidance mode draws an arrow or a ring where to click and leaves the click to you, per a September 24 launch write-up. It needs macOS 15.

On macOS 27, Apple's Siri AI, in beta, can also answer questions about a window or part of the screen you pick, such as a diagram open in Notes. It needs an M1 Mac or later, or a MacBook Neo, and works in English to start. It answers; it doesn't teach you step by step.

Not when it teaches you, and not when your school allows it. That's the honest line. Rules differ by school and by course, so check yours, especially for coursework that counts and for recording lectures. Never use an assistant in an exam or test unless you're told you can.

Study mode is built for the right side of that line: it asks rather than tells, and what you get wrong comes back as cards to learn, not answers to paste.

• During a call, your voice goes to the AI provider, and a picture of the screen with each question, unless you switch it to only when you ask, or never.
• Make study notes sends the page's words to Koi's AI, and the notes it writes are kept nowhere but the new page on your Mac.
• Your documents, flashcards and when each card is due are files on your Mac. There's no sync and no cloud copy.
• A recorded lecture is transcribed on your Mac. Only if you say yes to notes do its words go to Koi's AI.

Koi needs macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel. Pro is $20 a month after the 3-day trial; see Koi's pricing. Everything else Koi does on a call is on the Koi assistant page.