Language opens up the world to children. It enables them to express themselves, build relationships and participate actively in social life. It is particularly during the early years of life that important foundations are laid for their future educational journey. With WISPER (Wiener Spracherfahrung: Vienna Language Experience), the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, in close cooperation with the City of Vienna’s nursery schools, has developed an AI-based solution that supports children aged between three and six in their language acquisition through play. The City’s specialist expertise in the field of early years education and language learning was incorporated into the development and implementation of the project.
There is a significant need for language support in Vienna’s kindergartens: around 26,000 of the total of approximately 88,000 kindergarten children – that is around 30 per cent – have a first language other than German. The WISPER project focuses on supporting staff: The technology is designed to complement existing language support programmes, ease the workload on teaching staff and give children additional opportunities to use language at their own pace. “WISPER is not about replacing teaching with technology. It is about opening up additional spaces for children to speak, whilst at the same time supporting the valuable work of language support staff,” explains Georg Regal, project manager at the AIT Center for Technology Experience.
Christian Vogelauer, WISPER project manager and Digital Officer for the City of Vienna’s nursery schools, explains: “One in three children in Vienna’s nursery schools has increased language support needs. With WISPER, we are providing language support staff with a scientifically sound tool. For me, WISPER demonstrates what digital humanism looks like in practice: the technology remains in the background, whilst the focus is on the child, their curiosity and their first sentences.” WISPER has been nominated for the eAward 2026 in the ‘Education and Social Affairs’ category.
A telephone that listens
The idea behind WISPER is deliberately simple: a child picks up the receiver and starts telling a story. A friendly, patient voice listens, responds, asks questions and, together with the child, develops a story step by step – exactly as the child wishes, with no limits to their imagination. The settings, characters and plot of the story emerge as the conversation unfolds.
Starting with initial concepts such as a ‘talking doll’ or a ‘talking train’, a child-friendly, ‘classic’ telephone with a handset that can be picked up proved to be the most suitable piece of hardware as the project progressed. From the outset, the focus was on a user experience tailored to the needs and abilities of nursery school children. The AIT Centre for Technology Experience has many years of experience in this area: People are at the heart of technology development, and technologies should benefit individuals.
Another important aspect is the human-centred use of AI; “we also refer to this as the ‘human-AI experience’,” explains AIT project manager Georg Regal. Adequate data protection is also ensured. The data and conversations are stored on AIT servers in Vienna and are used exclusively for WISPER.
A new story every time
What appears to be a simple conversation is based on a carefully developed educational and technical concept. WISPER was developed in collaboration with language support staff from the City of Vienna’s nurseries, following the principles of user-centred design and interaction design. The latest research on language acquisition was incorporated, as was modern AI technology. WISPER adapts the conversation and the story in real time to the children’s language level.
The focus is on engaging with language in a playful way. The child decides for themselves how long they want to ‘talk on the phone’ and develop their story further. At the end, as a small reward, a picture of the story they have created is printed out via the telephone’s built-in printer.
Personalised, child-centered language support
Dealing with multilingualism plays a key role – as the children speak many different family languages, such as Romanian, Turkish, Arabic or Ukrainian. Regardless of which language is used, WISPER can understand what is said in all these languages, but consistently responds in German. If a child cannot think of a German word, they can temporarily fall back on their first language without the flow of conversation being interrupted.
In this way, WISPER aims to create a conversational environment in which children can speak without fear of making mistakes. The focus is on fluency, confidence and the experience of being understood. This approach is not only about building language skills, but also about fostering self-confidence and a sense of self-efficacy.
Support for teachers and language support staff
WISPER is explicitly not intended as a replacement for language support staff or early years teachers. Rather, the technology is designed to provide additional opportunities for practice and to ease the workload of professionals. This frees up more time for those children who require particularly intensive one-to-one support.
Furthermore, the conversations can provide information about individual language development trajectories. This data is intended to provide an evidence-based foundation for tailoring language support even more precisely to the needs of individual children.
Pilot scheme underway in Vienna
WISPER is currently being trialled at a nursery in Vienna’s Floridsdorf district. This allows the innovation to be tested directly in everyday educational practice and further developed under real-world conditions. The AIT Centre for Technology Experience is providing methodological support for the trial and evaluating how children interact with the system, what usage patterns emerge, and where there is a need for further development.
The findings from the pilot scheme are being directly incorporated into the further development of the solution. An expanded trial in nursery schools across Vienna is planned for 2026.
About the WISPER project
The WISPER project – Vienna Language Experience, submitted by the City of Vienna – Kindergartens and the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, was selected for funding by the jury as part of Call 8 of the City of Vienna’s Innovation Management programme. The project ran from 1 March 2025 to 31 August 2026.
The City of Vienna not only played a central technical role but also funded the implementation of the pilot project. This created the conditions for the new tool to be tested, evaluated and further developed in the day-to-day setting of kindergartens.
Scientific and technical project management:
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Center for Technology Experience
Client/funding: City of Vienna – Kindergartens
Funding program: City of Vienna Innovation Program
AIT project manager: Georg Regal
About AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Contact
Mag. Dr. Christine Wahlmüller-Schiller
AIT Communication
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Center for Technology Experience
+43 50550-2201
christine.wahlmueller-schiller@ait.ac.at I www.ait.ac.at
Mirjana Savic
Stadt Wien – Kindergärten
Unternehmenskommunikation
+43 1 4000 90295
unternehmenskommunikation@ma10.wien.gv.at