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One of the most common conversations I find myself having with fellow school leaders about artificial intelligence is centred on efficiency. How can we use it to save time? To automate repetitive tasks? To relieve some of the burden that has crept steadily onto teachers' shoulders over the past decade? These are good questions. Important questions. And they are part of what makes AI such an exciting tool for schools. But increasingly, I find myself struck by a deeper concern: if our use of AI stops at efficiency, we are missing its most profound potential. 

How is AI used in education? 

There is, I think, a real dividing line emerging in how schools approach the question of AI. On one side are those who are harnessing AI as a kind of supercharged assistant—something that fits comfortably within existing systems and practices, helping teachers plan lessons more quickly, mark assessments more consistently, write reports more swiftly. At my school, St Benedict’s, we have certainly made good use of AI in precisely this way. From helping pastoral staff write detailed concern summaries for our 51���� systems to providing administrative support that frees up time for teachers to focus on pupils, there is no question that AI can be a remarkably effective tool for speeding up what schools already do. 

But there is another, more ambitious path some schools are beginning to explore. This is where the conversation shifts from efficiency to transformation. Instead of asking how AI can help us do the same things more quickly, we begin asking different questions altogether: what new kinds of teaching and learning might AI make possible? How might the structure of the school day change when personalised support is always available? What does it mean for assessment when a student can co-create, revise, and explore ideas with an intelligent tool that challenges their assumptions and scaffolds their thinking in real time? 

This second approach does not reject the efficiencies AI offers, but it does demand more of us. It asks us to reimagine aspects of our curriculum design, rethink the nature of classroom interaction, and reconsider the balance between content mastery and intellectual curiosity. It is not simply about offloading tasks, but about reshaping the educational experience itself. 

The pros of using AI in education 

At St Benedict’s we are planning and training for both sides of this equation. On the one hand, our current programme of staff development is focused on building confidence with the kinds of practical tools that make an immediate difference—tools that support report writing, summarise documentation, and help staff cut through time-consuming administrative tasks. This is about building trust in the technology and freeing up time to focus on what matters most: the pupils. 

But alongside that, we are deliberately opening space for staff to consider how AI might fundamentally change the way they teach and how pupils learn in our school. We are in the first stages of training teachers not simply in how to use AI, but in how to think differently about their subjects. What does it mean for a teacher’s role if students are regularly collaborating with intelligent tools? How do we ensure that human insight, encouragement, and judgement are not lost, but enhanced? These are the questions we are encouraging our staff to explore, and our aim is to equip them with both the technical competence and the pedagogical imagination to lead their subjects into this new space with confidence. 

We are also thinking carefully about how this shift will affect our students’ own habits and skills. Planning is underway for how best to guide pupils in using AI responsibly and creatively; not just to speed up their homework, but to become more ambitious and reflective learners. This means developing internal systems that support safe AI use in schools, training our students to question what the AI produces, and helping them grow into discerning users who can use AI not as a shortcut, but as a companion in their intellectual development. 

These are not abstract questions. They are the kinds of discussions that need to be happening now, in governors’ meetings, senior leadership teams, and staff rooms, to ensure we are making the most of what this technology can offer. 

Should AI be used in education? 

Ultimately, the most successful AI strategies in schools will not be either/or. They will not choose between saving time and transforming pedagogy. They will recognise that both are necessary. We must begin with efficiency, because schools are stretched and teachers deserve tools that support them. But we cannot end there. AI is not just a tool to patch up an overstretched system; it is a catalyst to rethink how the system works in the first place. 

There is a well-worn line often attributed to Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”  Just as he looked to create something new, the real breakthroughs come when we look beyond the obvious next step and begin to imagine what might be possible instead. AI can help us run our existing schools more smoothly, but its greater promise lies in helping us reimagine what schools can become. 

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