Everyone in education, from K-12 teachers to university presidents, is well aware that AI is transforming the classroom. That presents all the challenges you’ve probably already heard of: students using ChatGPT to cheat, churning out papers and assignments without a second thought. But there’s also the more underreported development — teachers are deploying the technology to write lesson plans, make quizzes, and streamline administrative tasks, saving them hours of grunt work.

In the best-case scenario, AI promises to make teachers better at their jobs. And ultimately, if AI becomes the transformative force optimists hope it will, that will help students get smarter, becoming a tireless teaching aid and providing 24-hour tutoring assistance. That’s a big if, of course.

At the very least, the time saving element for teachers is real, and it’s a big deal. A recent survey from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found that 6 in 10 teachers used AI for their work in the 2023-2024 school year. Those that used AI weekly — about a third of the teachers surveyed — estimated it saved them about 6 hours each week, which, in the best of circumstances, could mean that’s 6 more hours of face time with students.

“This is not plugging students in front of computers, engaging with a chat bot,” Chris Agnew, director of the Generative AI in Education Hub at Stanford, said. “This is supporting teacher practice and then enabling this trained, experienced adult that’s in front of kids.”

Of course, giving teachers some time back doesn’t necessarily curb AI cheating. The savviest educators have clear guidelines for when AI can be used and when it can’t, as well as a good system in place for discussing the technology’s evolving role in school. After all, this is hardly the first time a new technology has swept into schools and upended old ways of doing things — educators used to worry about calculators in the classroom.

“We went from the phase of, ‘Ban AI, it’s a cheating tool,’ to now, the majority of the market really is, ‘How do we leverage these tools in really productive ways?’”

This also isn’t the first time a new technology has opened up a huge business opportunity for tech companies to reach young, inquiring minds and make a lot of money in the process. Google, for instance, now offers its Workspace for Education with Gemini built-in for up to $66 per teacher per month. In a school district of 500 teachers, that could easily add up to an extra $400,000 a year. For school districts that use a learning management system, like Canvas by Instructure, or an........

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