What is a Tutor?

A Tutor is your own AI chatbot grounded in your documents — with a full Studio for flashcards, notes, slides, podcasts, and more.

Written By Zack (Zense AI)

Last updated 14 days ago

A Tutor is a custom AI assistant you build in Zense AI.

Its knowledge base lets it answer from your files first — class notes, textbooks, study guides — so responses stay accurate and on-syllabus.

Think of a Tutor as a subject-specific assistant that knows your curriculum, not just general AI knowledge. Once created, it lives in your sidebar and can be shared with students or colleagues.

Why use a Tutor?

Tutors combine the flexibility of Chat with the precision of your own teaching materials. They are especially useful when you want students to explore a topic without drifting off-syllabus.

  • Grounded answers — follows your knowledge base, not just general AI knowledge.
  • Tutor Studio — generate flashcards, notes, mind maps, slide decks, podcasts, datasheets, infographics, and voice calls from your material.
  • Custom behavior — system prompt, persona, reply length, study mode, welcome message, and structured start forms.
  • Class management — assign students from the Member tab, run Live Class sessions with tasks, and evaluate progress.
  • Tutor Hub — import community tutors published by other educators.
  • Student-created tutors — school students can create and own their own Tutors (with full settings access). Teachers still manage class Tutors with Member roster, Live Class, and evaluations.

Student-created tutors

At schools that allow it, students can click New tutor on the Tutor browse page and build a personal study assistant — same creation flow as teachers, but typically without class-management features unless a teacher assigns them.

  • Students see Owner / Owned by teacher badges on tutor cards.
  • Student owners can edit their Tutor's settings, knowledge base, and Studio content.
  • Teachers can still assign student-created tutors to a class or link them from Classroom.

Tutor layout

When you open a Tutor:

  • Left panelKnowledge Base uploads (owners) and file list for students when visible.
  • Center — chat with the Tutor.
  • Right panel (Tutor Panel) — tabs below.

General settings (name, model, persona, study mode, welcome message) live in the tutor header / settings — not as a right-panel tab.

TabPurpose
Member *(owners / editors)*Roster, collaborators, evaluations
Live Class *(BETA)*Appears when you join a session — students, tasks, insights, Thread
WhiteboardShared drawing space
StudioAll generated study content
SourceReference materials from web tools

Ready to build one? See Create your first Tutor or Tutor Hub.