Commenting on the proliferation of AI in the education system, the UK Government said : “We believe it could be used to improve our education system, for example, early research suggests it could be used to free up teachers’ time and provide personalised support to pupils.”

This notion is supported by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates who said that AI could alleviate overworked teachers by allowing them to offload tasks to AI and spend more time with students one-on-one. 

Despite this, the outlook on AI in the classroom is mixed, with just about half (53%) of parents believing AI has the potential to impact their child’s education positively. The other half thinking the opposite, or remaining unsure, according to Doodle Learning.

This prompted The Knowledge Academy to take a closer look at the impact of AI on education, and offer insights on the advantages and disadvantages of integrating it. 

The advantages start with streamlining tasks for teachers, where AI is used to do time-consuming activities such as lesson planning, visualisations, and creative strategies. AI can also help teachers tailor learning to individual needs, when a student needs extra learning or materials, AI can cater to different styles. Ai can also analyse student progress, which gives teachers the chance to address learning gaps and provide support. 

Disadvantages include an impact on critical thinking, where over reliance on AI may hinder the development of problem-solving and creativity, potentially affecting students’ capacity for independent thought. AI can also cause job redundancies in the sector by taking over certain administrative tasks. Finally, AI tools can be costly to provide to both educators and students, and could result in inequalities between schools. 

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“AI has been making its way into people’s everyday lives for a while now and it seems inevitable that we’ll see it being used more often,” said a spokesperson for The Knowledge Academy 

“It’s easy to see that AI can be a great asset to the education industry, allowing teachers to spend more time with students due to AI tools helping with administrative tasks and giving students the opportunity to personalise their learning practices. 

“But on the other hand, it could potentially do more damage to students’ skills, like creative and critical thinking, and problem solving. Educational institutions should carefully consider all potential advantages and disadvantages of AI before making the decision to implement it.”