Transforming K–12 Education: Insights on AI from Industry Leaders

Remember when the biggest technological disruption in your classroom was deciding whether to use PowerPoint or that new interactive whiteboard? Those days feel charmingly quaint now that artificial intelligence (AI) has strutted into K–12 education like an overeager substitute teacher—promising to revolutionize everything while occasionally getting the basic facts hilariously wrong.

But here’s what I discovered after talking to educators and education professionals across the country: the AI revolution (in its current state) isn’t quite what we expected. It’s not the robot apocalypse some feared, nor is it the magical solution to every educational challenge that others hoped for.

Instead, it’s something far more interesting—and quite useful.

The ultimate teaching assistant never calls in sick (but sometimes makes things up).

The educators with whom I spoke aren’t using AI to replace their expertise; they’re using it to amplify their humanity. They’re not handing over the keys to the classroom; they’re finding ways to spend more time doing what they became teachers to do in the first place: inspire, guide, and connect with students.

So, before you either panic about AI taking over education or dismiss it as just another tech fad, let me share what my “snapshot-in-current-time” (Summer 2025) research shows. It’s a view of what is really happening in schools where thoughtful educators are quietly integrating these tools into their daily practice. I tapped into my inner circle of peers both within the industry and those supporting it in some way.

Spoiler alert: it’s not about the technology at all—it’s about what happens when you free up brilliant educators to be even more brilliant.  

Four key points surfaced:

1. AI as a Time-Saver That Elevates Teaching, Not Replaces It

Multiple educators emphasized how AI doesn’t diminish their role but actually enhances it by handling routine tasks. The history teacher at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., using AI to create detailed character profiles for a 1963 Southeast Asia simulation exemplifies this perfectly—what would have taken months became possible in hours, allowing more focus on guiding student inquiry and critical thinking.

Similarly, a teacher at Brooklyn Friends School is using AI to generate rubrics, directions, and scaffolding materials, freeing the educator to design more creative, student-centered experiences. At Emma Willard School they enhanced existing tasks previously accomplished with automation tools and turbo-charged them with AI. AI can address contextual issues that previously needed manual intervention, dramatically saving time.

2. AI as a Powerful Accessibility and Differentiation Tool

One of the most compelling themes was AI’s impact on accessibility and personalized learning. Greenwood College School highlighted how AI helps students who struggle with communication organize their thoughts and bring clarity to their ideas.

St. Christopher’s School is using AI to explore differentiated lessons and assessments that meet varied student needs more effectively. This represents a significant shift from one-size-fits-all approaches to truly individualized education.

3. The Critical Need for Ethical Framework and Academic Integrity Conversations

A recurring insight was that AI implementation must come with serious discussions about ethics, authorship, and academic integrity. One teacher at Brooklyn Friends School astutely noted that when students realize how quickly they can generate ideas, it sparks important conversations about voice, integrity, and the purpose behind their work. Multiple educators emphasized that while AI can streamline tasks, schools must help students understand the difference between using AI as a tool versus using it to bypass the learning process entirely.

Schools like Thayer Academy cite this double-edged sword where students explore this new ‘toy’ while educators grapple with where AI fits into their job. A well-stated observation from a member of The Ensworth School was, “AI is forcing school administration, faculty, staff, and students to reexamine their craft.” Most tried-and-true practices will be affirmed, but new and exciting classroom opportunities will be born.

4. AI’s Operational Impact: From Data Analysis to Administrative Efficiency

Beyond the classroom, AI is transforming school operations in significant ways. Empowering institutions to use AI to parse large amounts of data and feedback will lead to deeper insights for strategic decision-making.

• August Schools—which provides software for student support teams like school nurses, counselors, and learning specialists—looks to present AI as an opportunity to start deriving actionable insight from all this new data and make it easier than ever to present it to its customers.

• Intelligence for Good® is Blackbaud’s strategy to make AI powerful, convenient, and responsible—saving people time to focus on the meaningful work unique to schools. The goal is to empower customers to work more efficiently and advance their missions more effectively by leveraging AI tools built directly in-product—like an AI-driven document review for financial aid, an AI-enabled question generator for quiz-building, or AI-powered donor insights to drive fundraising.

• For the team at ScheduleX, building a tool powered by AI illustrates how it can process student requests, teacher availability, and room constraints simultaneously—beyond human capacity. To them, replacing the complex, hand-built schedule with an AI-optimized one shifts the annual summer question from “Can we make this schedule work?” to “Which schedule works best for our goals?”

These themes show AI in education isn’t just about flashy new tools—it’s about thoughtful integration that enhances human capabilities while maintaining the essential human elements of teaching and learning.

The Bottom Line

AI in education isn’t the story of robots replacing teachers—it’s the story of teachers getting their weekends back. It’s about turning the tedious parts of our jobs over to algorithms so we can focus on the irreplaceable parts: the moment a student’s eyes light up with understanding, the conversations that happen after class, the creativity that emerges when we’re not buried in administrative tasks.

The educators I spoke with aren’t afraid of AI because they understand something the doomsayers don’t: proper education has never been about having all the answers.

It’s about asking the right questions, building relationships, and knowing when to step in with wisdom that no algorithm can replicate.

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Thanks to all who contributed content to this article, including Graham Getty (St. Alban’s School), Jamie Lassman (Brooklyn Friends School), Nick Marchese (Emma Willard School), Jonathan Tepper (Greenwood College School), Hiram Cuevas (St. Christopher’s School), Jeanne Townsend (Thayer Academy), Jason Hiett (Ensworth School), Kathleen Steinman (New Canaan Country School), Pete Russell (August Schools), Sahil Bhargava & Kristen Duval (ScheduleX), and Carrie Cobb (Blackbaud).