Built in 48 Hours with AI

PoliPulse started with a simple observation: A-Level politics students are expected to reference real-world news in their exams, but most teenagers don't read Hansard or follow Parliamentary debates. The gap between what examiners want and what students actually consume was obvious — and so was the solution.

We wanted to build a daily politics digest that takes real news, runs it through AI analysis, and maps it directly to exam board specifications. Every morning, students would receive a brief they could read in ten minutes that would make them the most informed person in their politics class.

The question wasn't whether this was a good idea. The question was whether a solo developer could build it — a full-stack application with authentication, payments, an AI pipeline, email delivery, and multi-board curriculum mapping — in a weekend.

The answer, it turns out, is yes. Using Claude Code as an AI pair-programming partner, the entire platform was architected, built, and deployed in roughly 48 hours. The stack: Next.js 15, React 19, Tailwind CSS 4, PostgreSQL via Neon, Stripe for payments, Resend for email, and Claude AI for the content analysis pipeline itself.

This is a case study in what happens when AI tooling transforms software development. When a single developer can produce work that previously required a team of five working for three months, the implications extend far beyond technology.

For a platform that teaches politics, it seems only fitting to analyse the politics of how technology reshapes education.

Democratising Access to Political Literacy

Political engagement among young people remains a persistent challenge in UK democracy. AI-powered tools like PoliPulse can bridge the gap between the news cycle and the classroom, making current affairs accessible and exam-relevant. When students understand the political context of what they read, they become more informed citizens — not just better exam candidates.

Technology and Political Participation

The relationship between technology and political participation is complex. Social media has lowered barriers to political expression but also created echo chambers and misinformation. PoliPulse takes a different approach: curated, AI-analysed news mapped to rigorous academic frameworks. The goal is not to tell students what to think, but to give them the tools to think critically about politics.

AI in Education: Power and Responsibility

AI-generated political analysis raises important questions about bias, neutrality, and editorial responsibility. PoliPulse is designed to present multiple perspectives and encourage evaluation — skills that A-Level politics examinations explicitly reward. The AI acts as a curator and analyst, but the critical thinking remains firmly with the student.

The Future of EdTech

PoliPulse demonstrates that a single developer with AI tooling can build production-quality educational platforms at unprecedented speed. This has implications for how quickly educational resources can adapt to current events — a critical advantage in a subject where this week's news could be next month's exam question.