Esther Bawo Tsotso

Esther Bawo Tsotso is a software engineer, former educator, broadcaster, and human-centered AI product builder whose work sits at the intersection of learning, technology, communication, and responsible AI.

Her professional journey began in education, where she taught Computer Studies, Mathematics, English, and Biology to primary and junior secondary learners. Working directly with students introduced her to the practical differences in how learners understand explanations, respond to difficulty, develop confidence, and move between guided and independent work.

She later trained in radio broadcasting and journalism and worked across radio and television as an intern, presenter, radio host, and news anchor. Her years in broadcasting strengthened her ability to research, communicate complex information clearly, facilitate conversations, and translate ideas for different audiences.

Following the COVID period, Esther transitioned into frontend engineering and digital product development. She has since worked across frontend engineering, open-source development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and AI-powered product engineering. Her technical work has included multimodal and agentic AI systems, on-device intelligence, natural language processing, text-to-speech systems, product strategy, interface design, and cross-functional product delivery.

These experiences eventually converged around a central research question: how can AI support learning without replacing the cognitive work learners need to perform themselves?

Esther now leads SILT, where she coordinates interdisciplinary research into how rapidly evolving technology and AI-supported systems can be designed to support learning, cognitive development, learner agency, and healthy interaction with technology. Her current research interests include productive cognitive effort, appropriate reliance on AI, metacognitive monitoring, help-seeking, human connection, age-appropriate design, model behaviour, and responsible AI governance.

Her work at SILT brings these questions into an interdisciplinary institutional programme spanning research and carefully bounded applied inquiry through SILT Labs.