Why New Oriental’s Youdao Premium Courses are pushing deeper into AI tutoring

Reviewed: ad hoc news Software & Services desk. Edited and checked on 2026-06-18, 05:15. Details in the imprint.

With Youdao Premium Courses, New Oriental Education turns the tablet on the kitchen table into a strict but surprisingly patient tutor. Children see a real teacher in a live stream, parents watch progress dashboards, and behind the scenes AI nudges the next exercise.

What Youdao actually offers

Youdao Premium Courses bundle live online classes, recorded lectures, and app-based practice into one subscription-like service for K-12 students in China. According to NetEase’s English filings, Youdao focuses heavily on math, Chinese, and English, with structured multi-week course packages rather than one-off videos. Company reports on Youdao’s business

Visually, the classes look like a TV studio: bright backdrop, large digital whiteboard, fast handwriting overlays. Children follow along on a tablet or laptop, answer quizzes on-screen, and get instant scores while the teacher keeps up a brisk pace.

How the AI tutoring feels

The AI layer stays mostly in the background. The app tracks which questions a child misses, then quietly serves similar items until the pattern improves. Parents see this as color-coded progress bars and error charts that update after each session. Youdao presentations describe this adaptive practice

In everyday use, that means fewer generic worksheets and more targeted drills. The downside: children can feel like the system never lets them go once it has spotted a weakness, which some parents describe as mentally tiring after school days.

Strengths parents tend to like

Structurally, Youdao Premium Courses mimic the regimented rhythm many Chinese families know from offline tutoring: weekly fixed class times, defined homework loads, periodic mock tests. That predictability helps families slot online lessons between school, dinner, and sleep.

Technically, the streaming quality and app design are tidy and modern. Video loads quickly in major cities, annotations are crisp, and the interface keeps distractions low - no cartoon chaos, mostly clean icons, muted colors, and big buttons a child’s finger can hit reliably.

Where it still frustrates

Flexibility remains the sore point. Rescheduling a missed live session can be cumbersome, and while recordings are available, they rarely feel like a full substitute, especially for interactive segments where teachers call on students by name.

There is also the sobering reality of screen fatigue. After a full day at school, another 60 or 90 minutes in front of a display - even with a good teacher - can make concentration wobble. Parents have to watch carefully to stop the routine from becoming pure grind.

Pricing and who it targets

Youdao Premium Courses are positioned as mid to upper-mid priced within China’s crowded online tutoring market. Course packages typically run for several months, with prices adjusted by subject and grade, rather than a flat Netflix-style monthly fee. Reuters recently highlighted education as a growing contributor

The core target group is urban families that still want structured academic support but have shifted away from unregulated cram schools after China’s 2021 tutoring crackdown. For them, an online service from a well-known education name feels safer and more transparent.

Why this matters for New Oriental

For New Oriental Education, digital offerings like Youdao Premium Courses embody the broader pivot from traditional after-school centers toward asset-light, tech-heavy services. The company leans on its curriculum experience while letting AI and streaming scale the model nationwide.

Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group (US6475811070) trade in New York on the NYSE in US dollars as the company continues to reposition toward online and non-academic education services.

This article was AI-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without guarantee; prices and availability may change at short notice. No investment advice, no buy or sell recommendation. Stock-market transactions involve risks up to total loss.