CODE-E -- PwC’s life-sized, humanoid robot -- is disrupting the way we teach students about technology. The robot travels around the country inspiring students to learn more about emerging innovations like AI, VR, drones and robotics, even encouraging them to consider pursuing future careers in STEM. A key component of PwC’s Access Your Potential initiative - a $320 million commitment to bring digital skills education to students - CODE-E helps:
Raise awareness of the gap in tech and digital skills education, particularly among underserved, diverse students.
Share a solution to help close the gap in digital & tech skills education by creating exciting tech experiences for students, inspiring them to pursue careers in STEM.
Connect with clients to engage them, in a very different way, to work with us to help facilitate change.
Excite & engage social media followers.
More broadly, the robot is one way PwC is responding to the ways that digitization is dramatically impacting the way work gets done. As companies work through how to retrain workers and future workers with new skills for an increasingly automated world, PwC has been a leader, making a $3 billion investment, called New world. New skills., to digitally upskill our people, clients, & communities. AYP and CODE-E are both critical to enabling our people to take their skills into classrooms outside the firm.
We know that parents & guardians sit with their children to read books from a young age to engage them with stories -- we want to do the same with students around technology, but can only spend so much individual time with students teaching them new concepts. If we spark passion for technology in students, however, they are more likely to continue learning and teaching themselves new skills. And if we are able to create a more personal connection by sharing stories and sparking imaginations, we will make learning fun and real.
So PwC worked to introduce a life-sized humanoid robot, CODE-E, to students in the classroom. CODE-E made its debut on social media -- and became an instant hit! Through a crowdsourcing campaign, PwC asked followers and employees for suggestions for names to give to the newest team member and then voted on the submitted names; the name “CODE-E” was ultimately the clear winner!
Since its debut, PwC has built a campaign focused on CODE-E in the classroom. A highlight reel from CODE-E’s first year in the classroom captured the excitement and imagination of students as they learned about the ways technology will change work -- and life -- in the future. Storytelling flowed from there as the team captured footage from classroom visits around the country. Each time CODE-E visits a new school, PwC social followers get an inside peek at the inspiring work of the AYP robot across PwC’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Our Chief Purpose & Inclusion Officer, Shannon Schuyler, is a champion of carrying the AYP message, and the story of CODE-E’s work. The team creates content for her LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram, serving to broaden the reach of the story to her network of business leaders, teachers and media.
Further expanding the CODE-E social campaign, PwC has organically engaged news organizations in every city to produce “social by design” content. PwC invited Chicago Ideas to join CODE-E in the classroom, for instance, which allowed the outlet to capture photos and videos that were shared across Instagram and Twitter to accompany a blog post about CODE-E’s work and PwC’s commitment.
Posts about CODE-E are some of the top performing content on PwC’s brand channels.
CODE-E is helping change the way students are thinking about future careers - followers are able to see this on social and through 27 feature media pieces. This impact is best illustrated by the students and teachers themselves.
7th grader Emily Nguyen shared: "[CODE-E is] really cool, because it's an experience that's new, and it's fun to do as well. I want to get into technology more when I'm done with school, so this is helping me get to that path."
Educator Genein Letford shared: “My students were awestruck to meet a life-sized robot! The concept of robotics moved from being a disconnected idea to a real presence in their lives."
