Discover how 6 million teachers are using AI tools like Khanmigo, MagicSchool, and Grammarly to transform classrooms—saving 6 hours weekly while enhancing learning.
Prologue: The Discovery
Sarah Martinez stands in her ninth-grade English classroom at 7:15 AM, coffee in hand, staring at her desk where a stack of 120 essays sits untouched. It’s the third week of school, September 2024, and she’s already drowning. But today, something different awaits her—not another administrative memo, but an email from a colleague with the subject line: “You need to try this.”
Within that email lies a link to MagicSchool AI, and Sarah, skeptical but desperate, clicks. What she doesn’t know yet is that she’s about to become one of the 6 million teachers worldwide already using this platform, part of a quiet revolution happening in classrooms everywhere—one where artificial intelligence isn’t replacing teachers, but becoming their most unlikely ally (MagicSchool, 2024).
This is the story of the AI tools that teachers actually use, the students who’ve secretly fallen in love with them, and why this technological frontier matters more than any debate about whether calculators would “ruin math forever.”
Chapter One: The Classroom Arsenal—Where Pedagogy Meets Algorithm
The landscape of educational AI in 2025 isn’t the dystopian vision of robot teachers many feared. Instead, it’s a surprisingly human story of educators discovering digital partners that handle the mundane so they can focus on the meaningful. According to a 2025 Gallup survey, 60% of teachers now use AI tools in their work, with weekly users saving an average of 5.9 hours per week—time redirected toward the irreplaceable human elements of teaching (Walton Family Foundation & Gallup, 2025).
The Digital Sidekick: MagicSchool’s Ascent
MagicSchool AI has emerged as one of the most popular platforms, now used in nearly every U.S. school district and reaching educators in 160 countries. The platform offers over 80 distinct AI-powered tools designed explicitly for educational contexts—from lesson plan generators to rubric creators, from differentiation assistants to email composers.
What makes MagicSchool remarkable isn’t just its breadth, but its specificity. This isn’t generic AI repurposed for education; it’s built by educators for educators, earning a 93% privacy rating from Common Sense Privacy and meeting ESSA evidence requirements (MagicSchool, 2024).
However, here’s where the story gets interesting: while more than 7 in 10 teachers reported not having received any professional development on using AI in the classroom as of early 2024, they are still adopting it, learning through trial and error, peer recommendations, and sheer necessity.
The Language Learning Phenomenon
Duolingo’s integration of GPT-4 technology through its premium Duolingo Max subscription tier has launched two AI-powered features: “Roleplay” and “Explain My Answer,” priced at $29.99 per month or $167.99 per year. The Roleplay feature enables learners to practice real-world conversations with AI characters in scenarios such as ordering coffee at a Parisian café or discussing vacation plans, receiving contextual feedback on accuracy and complexity.
The platform now serves over 500 million registered users globally, making it one of the world’s most widely used educational applications. But the transformation isn’t just about scale—it’s about accessibility. Students who once felt too embarrassed to practice speaking a new language in class now engage in extended conversations with AI tutors, building confidence in private before bringing that energy to human interactions.
Klinton Bicknell, head of AI at Duolingo, explains the pedagogical shift: “This new model GPT-4 was going to be a really transformational technology for the entire industry. The first two features that we came up with were what ultimately became Explain My Answer and Roleplay, two ideas that we thought were promising, instrumental use cases, things we’ve been looking to offer for a while but couldn’t—things that get us closer to having all the nice properties of a personal tutor” (Bicknell, as cited in InnoLead, 2023).
The Personal Tutor for Every Student
Khan Academy’s Khanmigo, powered by GPT-4, is being piloted in 266 school districts as of December 2024. Unlike ChatGPT, which readily provides answers, Khanmigo employs Socratic dialogue—asking guiding questions that help students discover solutions on their own.
The impact is measurable. Khan Academy’s 2024-25 annual report shows that Khanmigo experienced 731% year-over-year growth in reach, suggesting accelerating adoption despite initial skepticism. The platform’s approach to AI tutoring addresses a fundamental challenge in education: providing personalized, one-on-one support at scale.
Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, articulates the vision: “We’re at the cusp of using AI for probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen. And the way we’re going to do that is by giving every student on the planet an artificially intelligent but amazing personal tutor” (Khan, 2023).
In a November 2024 interview with Edutopia, Khan explained his excitement: “I’m excited about this latest generation of AI because it is inherently conversational. It can not just pretend to take on personas, but really embody those personas. If you look at what generative AI can do, it is pretty much indistinguishable from what I used to do while chatting remotely with my cousins” (Khan, as cited in Edutopia, 2024).
The Writing Revolution
Grammarly, with over 30 million daily active users and deployment in more than 3,000 educational institutions globally, has evolved from a simple grammar checker into a sophisticated AI writing coach. The platform’s educational impact is documented: approximately 82% of students report better grades after using Grammarly for an average of three months, and 99% of students surveyed stated that Grammarly helped them improve their grades (Grammarly Student Survey, 2024).
Dr. Sarah Moore from the University of Texas at Dallas captures the transformative effect: “When the commas have been taken care of, when the awkward wording has been fixed for students, I can focus on why I really wanted to do this job. I get to address a student’s argument, evidence, and scholarly voice instead of mechanical issues” (Moore, as cited in Grammarly for Education, 2024).
But here’s where the philosophical rubber meets the road: Is this cheating, or is it simply the literacy equivalent of power steering? The debate mirrors historical anxieties about calculators in mathematics education. As Stanford political science Professor Rob Reich poses: “Is generative AI comparable to the calculator in the classroom, or will it be a more detrimental tool?” (Reich, as cited in Stanford HAI, 2023).
Chapter Two: The Students Nobody Expected
If teachers were cautious explorers of this new territory, students arrived as eager colonists, immediately finding uses educators never imagined. The adoption statistics tell a striking story: 85% of teachers and 86% of students used AI in the 2024-25 school year, according to a report by the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The Accessibility Breakthrough
AI-powered assistive technologies represent the most significant advancement in equity in modern education. Dyslexia affects approximately 10-15 percent of students worldwide, and for these learners, AI tools are genuinely transformative. Text-to-speech technologies, such as Microsoft’s Immersive Reader and Speechify, convert written content into natural-sounding audio, enabling students with reading difficulties to access the same curriculum as their peers.
Josh Clark, leader of the Landmark School in Massachusetts—a private institution serving children with dyslexia—and chairman of the board for the International Dyslexia Association, describes the impact: “If you have a class of 30 kids in 9th grade, and they’re all reading about photosynthesis, then for one particular child, you can customize [the] reading level without calling them out and without anybody else knowing and without you, the teacher, spending hours. I think that’s a super powerful way of allowing kids to access information they may not be able to otherwise” (Clark, as cited in Education Week, 2024).
Clark, who is dyslexic himself, offers a deeply personal perspective on AI as assistive technology: “I’m kind of obsessed with the idea that the world just became so much better at writing, spelling, written communication, the things that dyslexic kids have such a hard time with. It takes away a level of shame. An AI tool is not going to judge me on my spelling. It’s not going to say ‘Gosh, you’re in the 6th grade. You’re writing like a first grader. What’s wrong with you?’” (Clark, as cited in Education Week, 2023).
This raises a profound ethical question: If AI can compensate for learning differences, where do we draw the line between accommodation and enhancement? The answer, increasingly, is that we’re asking the wrong question. The real issue isn’t whether AI assistance is “fair”—it’s whether students are learning and demonstrating understanding.
The 24/7 Homework Companion
In interviews with students using Khanmigo, one consistent theme emerges: “always available” and “never judges me” rank as top reasons students prefer AI tutors for homework help over traditional resources. A 10th-grade math student told Khan Academy researchers: “Personally, I struggle with math. Before a test or quiz, I ask Khanmigo to give me practice problems, and I feel more prepared—and my score increases” (Khan Academy Annual Report, 2023-2024).
But there’s a shadow side to this unconditional positive regard. Are we creating a generation that can’t tolerate intellectual frustration? They expect instant guidance rather than productive struggle? According to the Center for Democracy and Technology’s nationally representative survey, 70% of teachers worry that AI weakens critical thinking and research skills.
Chapter Three: The Pragmatic Paradox—Adoption Amid Uncertainty
The data on AI adoption in education reveals a fascinating contradiction. A 2025 Gallup survey found that 60% of teachers utilized AI tools during the past school year, with weekly users reporting time savings of almost six hours per week. Yet less than half of teachers (48%) have participated in any training or professional development on AI provided by their schools or districts.
Teachers are learning by doing, driven by necessity rather than institutional support. According to an EdWeek Research Center survey conducted in late 2023, 46 percent of teachers haven’t explored AI tools because they have other more important priorities. As one high school foreign language teacher in South Dakota wrote: “I would like to learn more about AI in the classroom, but with four preps and a new curriculum, I have a hard time finding more time to do so” (EdWeek Research Center, 2024).
The Lesson Planning Revolution
Teachers using AI for lesson planning reported that it helps them complete tasks such as creating worksheets, modifying student materials, creating tests, and writing rubrics—work that previously consumed hours of their limited time.
The impact extends beyond time savings. In fall 2024, 48 percent of districts reported they had trained teachers on AI use—up from 23 percent in fall 2023, according to RAND Corporation research. This near-doubling of professional development offerings suggests growing institutional recognition of AI’s permanence in educational practice.
The Grading Dilemma
The ethics of AI-assisted grading spark intense debate. Marc Watkins, a lecturer and researcher at the University of Mississippi who studies AI’s impact on higher education, warns: “This sort of nightmare scenario that we might be running into is students using AI to write papers and teachers using AI to grade the same papers. If that’s the case, then what’s the purpose of education?” (Watkins, as cited in NPR, 2025).
Yet 57% of teachers using AI tools say they help improve their grading and student feedback, according to the Gallup survey. The reality is more nuanced than the nightmare scenario suggests. Most educators aren’t using AI to replace their professional judgment, but rather to streamline the mechanical aspects of assessment—identifying patterns, flagging common errors, and generating initial feedback that teachers then customize and refine.
The Personalization Promise
Nearly 60% of teachers agreed that AI enhances the accessibility of learning materials for students with disabilities, utilizing features such as text-to-speech devices and translators. This represents AI’s most universally embraced application: removing barriers to learning for students who traditional educational approaches have historically underserved.
Chapter Four: The Philosophical Crossroads
At the heart of every conversation about AI in education lies a deeper question: What is school actually for?
If we believe education is about knowledge acquisition, AI represents an unambiguous advancement—it delivers information more efficiently, more patiently, and more adaptively than traditional methods. However, suppose we believe that education is about becoming human in community with others, about learning to think through struggle, and about developing wisdom alongside knowledge. In that case, AI’s role becomes more complicated.
Khan offers a pragmatic reframing: “Technology has the potential to bridge learning gaps, but the key is to use it as an assistant, not a substitute” (Khan, as cited in Conecta, 2024). He elaborates: “If you look at history, some of the most effective education came from one-on-one tutoring. Think of Aristotle teaching Alexander the Great. AI can bring that model to millions” (Khan, as cited in Conecta, 2024).
Professors Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Education emphasize the centrality of human educators: “It’s not about replacing the teacher. It’s about making the teacher so much more effective. Replacing the teacher with AI would be a disaster in ten different ways. Our argument is how do we fold in these important human values in AI as well” (Cope, as cited in University of Illinois, 2024).
The Data Privacy Dilemma
The ethical concerns extend to data collection and student privacy. Many AI educational tools gather detailed behavioral data on students—including learning patterns, struggles, and personal preferences—without clear guardrails on how this information is stored, shared, or monetized. The Center for Democracy and Technology’s report warns that AI use in schools “comes with real risks, like large-scale data breaches, tech-fueled sexual harassment and bullying, and treating students unfairly” (Laird, 2025).
The Equity Question
While AI promises to democratize access to personalized learning, implementation reveals persistent inequities. Compared to nearly 67 percent of low-poverty districts that have introduced AI training for teachers, only 39 percent of high-poverty districts were able to do the same, according to RAND Corporation’s 2025 report.
The digital divide isn’t just about device access anymore—it’s about access to the most sophisticated AI tools, to professional development that helps educators use them effectively, and to the infrastructure that supports their deployment. Schools in affluent districts are more likely to have site licenses for premium adaptive learning platforms, potentially widening achievement gaps even as the technology promises to close them.
The Human Connection Concern
A recent study’s most unexpected finding challenges the promise of AI-enhanced learning. Half of the students surveyed agree that using AI in class makes them feel less connected to their teachers, and a decrease in peer-to-peer connections as a result of AI use is also a concern for 47% of teachers and 50% of parents (Center for Democracy and Technology, 2025).
This suggests that even as AI makes education more efficient, we may be losing something essential—the human relationships that make learning meaningful, the social-emotional development that happens through collaboration, and the sense of community that schools uniquely provide.
Chapter Five: The Horizon—Leading Voices on AI’s Future
Despite challenges and concerns, education leaders see transformative potential. Khan believes AI can do “so much more” than his original remote tutoring: “Over the last 15 years, for example, one of the main critiques of Khan Academy—which I don’t disagree with—is that while it’s great to have on-demand videos that approximate certain aspects of tutoring, what do you do if you have a question? What if you need some more motivation, or you want to connect what you’re doing in a given exercise to the real world? AI can help with these things, and will continue to get better” (Khan, as cited in Edutopia, 2024).
At Stanford’s AI+Education Summit, Professor Bryan Brown observed: “What we know about learning is not reflected in how we teach. Teachers recognize that learning occurs through engaging classroom discussions. However, only one student can speak up at a time. AI has the potential to support a single teacher who is trying to generate 35 unique conversations with each student” (Brown, as cited in Stanford HAI, 2023).
Dr. Angela Stewart, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing and Information, offers an important caveat: “People think that technology is neutral. Right? Like people think that oh, technology, it’s a computer. It’s math. It in no way can discriminate. But it’s really just amplifying and recreating existing discrimination that exists in our life. My advice is to think about the nuance. It’s not all good, and it’s also not all bad. In particular, key into the ways that ChatGPT and other kinds of generative AI systems might be supportive of learning” (Stewart, as cited in Bridges to Learning, 2024).
The Gates Foundation’s recent $50 million investment in AI tutoring systems for under-resourced schools signals broader recognition that educational AI could be a powerful equity tool—if implemented thoughtfully and with attention to the structural inequities it might otherwise perpetuate.
Epilogue: The Adventure Continues
It’s now May 2025, and Sarah Martinez stands in her classroom one last time before summer break. Those 120 essays that once haunted her? She finished grading them in record time using an AI tool that flagged patterns in student writing, suggested targeted feedback, and freed her to write personalized encouragement on each paper.
But what she remembers from this year isn’t the efficiency—it’s the conversations. The student who finally understood character analysis after working with an AI reading tutor. The class debate centers on whether AI-generated poetry can be considered “real” art. The way her struggling writers gained confidence was when an AI tool helped them hear their own voice on the page.
The AI tools teachers and students actually use aren’t replacing human connection—they’re creating more space for it. They’re not the future of education—they’re becoming the present, one classroom at a time, carried forward by educators brave enough to be simultaneously excited and scared, hopeful and cautious, embracing innovation while holding fast to what makes teaching human.
Despite ongoing concerns, 28% of teachers still oppose AI tools in the classroom, reminding us that this technological transformation is neither universal nor inevitable. It’s being negotiated daily by real teachers facing real constraints, making real choices about what serves their students best.
The adventure, as Sarah would tell you, is just beginning. And the question isn’t whether AI will be part of education’s future—it’s whether we’ll use it wisely, ethically, and in service of every student’s potential.
References
- Bicknell, K. (2023, July 18). Duolingo: Partnering with OpenAI for more personalized language learning [Interview]. InnoLead. https://www.innovationleader.com/topics/articles-and-content-by-topic/scouting-trends-and-tech/duolingo-partnering-with-openai/
- Brown, B. (2023, February). AI will transform teaching and learning. Let’s get it right. Stanford HAI. https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-will-transform-teaching-and-learning-lets-get-it-right
- Center for Democracy and Technology. (2025, October). Schools’ embrace of AI connected to increased risks. https://www.edweek.org/technology/rising-use-of-ai-in-schools-comes-with-big-downsides-for-students/2025/10
- Clark, J. (2023, November). This school leader believes AI could transform education for students with dyslexia [Interview]. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/technology/this-school-leader-believes-ai-could-transform-education-for-students-with-dyslexia/2023/11
- Clark, J. (2024, May). The pros and cons of AI in special education [Interview]. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/technology/the-pros-and-cons-of-ai-in-special-education/2024/05
- Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2024, December 3). How to effectively use AI in the classroom, while maintaining trust and inclusiveness. University of Illinois. https://education.illinois.edu/about/news-events/news/article/2024/12/03/how-to-effectively-use-ai-in-the-classroom–while-maintaining-trust-and-inclusiveness
- EdWeek Research Center. (2024, January). Most teachers are not using AI. Here’s why. Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/technology/most-teachers-are-not-using-ai-heres-why/2024/01
- Grammarly. (2024). Grammarly for education. https://www.grammarly.com/edu
- Grammarly Student Survey. (2024). Grammarly statistics facts and trends for 2025. https://nikolaroza.com/grammarly-statistics-facts-trends/
- Khan, S. (2023, March 12). Sal Khan’s 2023 TED talk: AI in the classroom can transform education. Khan Academy Blog. https://blog.khanacademy.org/sal-khans-2023-ted-talk-ai-in-the-classroom-can-transform-education/
- Khan, S. (2024, November 27). An interview with Sal Khan on AI and the future of teaching [Interview]. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-ai-will-impact-the-future-of-teaching-a-conversation-with-sal-khan/
- Khan, S. (2024). AI will be useful in education [Interview]. Tecnológico de Monterrey. https://conecta.tec.mx/en/news/national/education/ai-will-be-useful-education-sal-khan-creator-khan-academy
- Khan Academy. (2024). Khan Academy annual report 2023-2024: Khanmigo. https://annualreport.khanacademy.org/khanmigo
- Khan Academy. (2025). Khan Academy annual report: SY24-25. https://annualreport.khanacademy.org/
- Laird, E. (2025, October). Schools’ embrace of AI connected to increased risks. Center for Democracy and Technology. https://www.edweek.org/technology/rising-use-of-ai-in-schools-comes-with-big-downsides-for-students/2025/10
- MagicSchool. (2024). AI for educators. https://www.magicschool.ai/
- Moore, S. (2024). Grammarly has changed my professional life [Testimonial]. In Grammarly for Education. https://www.grammarly.com/edu
- RAND Corporation. (2025, April). More teachers than ever before are trained on AI. Are they ready to use it? Education Week. https://www.edweek.org/technology/more-teachers-than-ever-before-are-trained-on-ai-are-they-ready-to-use-it/2025/04
- Reich, R. (2023). AI will transform teaching and learning. Let’s get it right. Stanford HAI. https://hai.stanford.edu/news/ai-will-transform-teaching-and-learning-lets-get-it-right
- Stewart, A. (2024, February 19). The hype and hope of generative AI in education [Interview]. Bridges to Learning, University of Pittsburgh. https://www.ifl-news.pitt.edu/2024/02/the-hype-and-hope-of-generative-ai-in-education/
- Walton Family Foundation & Gallup. (2025, July). Survey: 60% of teachers used AI this year and saved up to 6 hours of work a week. The 74. https://www.the74million.org/article/survey-60-of-teachers-used-ai-this-year-and-saved-up-to-6-hours-of-work-a-week/
- Watkins, M. (2025, October). Research, curriculum and grading: New data sheds light on how professors are using AI [Interview]. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/10/02/nx-s1-5550365/college-professors-ai-classroom
Additional Reading
- Crompton, H., & Burke, D. (2023). Artificial intelligence in higher education: The state of the field. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, Article 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00392-8
- Khan, S. (2024). Brave new words: How AI will revolutionize education (and why that’s a good thing). Viking.
- Luckin, R., Holmes, W., Griffiths, M., & Forcier, L. B. (2016). Intelligence unleashed: An argument for AI in education. Pearson Education. https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/one-dot-com/one-dot-com/global/Files/about-pearson/innovation/open-ideas/Intelligence-Unleashed-Publication.pdf
- Selwyn, N. (2019). Should robots replace teachers? AI and the future of education. Polity Press.
- UNESCO. (2023). Guidance for generative AI in education and research. https://www.unesco.org/en/digital-education/ai-future-learning
Additional Resources
- Stanford Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) – Education
https://hai.stanford.edu/policy/education
Leading research center exploring AI’s impact on education with evidence-based policy recommendations and interdisciplinary research. - International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) – AI in Education
https://www.iste.org/ai
Comprehensive guidelines for ethical AI integration in K-12 classrooms, including professional development resources and standards. - Khan Academy – Khanmigo AI Tutor
https://www.khanmigo.ai/
Direct access to Khan Academy’s AI-powered personal tutor and teaching assistant, with resources for educators and families. - Center for Democracy and Technology – AI and Education
https://cdt.org/
Nonprofit organization conducting research on AI’s impact in educational settings, focusing on equity, privacy, and civil rights. - Every Learner Everywhere – AI and Accessibility
https://www.everylearnereverywhere.org/
Resources and research on leveraging AI to support accessibility and inclusive education in higher education settings.
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