Wednesday, 1 October 2025 As AI reshapes schools, the focus must remain on developing critical thinking, creativity and independence, not just faster knowledge. In the industrial age, we outsourced physical labour to machines. In the information age, we outsourced our memory to microchips. At the dawn of the intelligence age, what we will ultimately outsource to our artificial companions is still taking shape. However, what we must protect – particularly for the generation that will grow up side-by-side with AI – is our ability to think. AI in Education: The Vision vs. The Reality The Vision: Personalised, Data-Driven, Efficient AI’s promise in the classroom is compelling. A student enters their virtual learning space to continue their lesson on learning maths. Struggling to grasp the concept, their classroom AI offers them an example about players on an oval from their favourite sports team. The student’s frustrated responses are calibrated in her engagement score. An alert is sent to her teacher, flagging the student’s disinterest and area of difficulty in a brief summary, and placing her in a virtual queue that the teacher uses to guide which student he will attend to next. The teacher sits down with the student, providing the personalised, targeted attention and encouragement previously impossible in a thirty-student classroom. Students learn more effectively. Teaching is calibrated to their pace, strengths and difficulties. Teachers are less burdened with administration and lesson planning. Data to improve pedagogy and curriculum is abundant. This is the alluring vision of what AI could bring to schools. The Reality: Risks to reasoning and learning integrity However, the reality of AI which is already alive in the classroom is much more complex. A student, intending to improve an essay, enters it into ChatGPT and says ‘improve this’. ChatGPT spits out an enhanced version via an algorithm fuelled by large-scale patterns and weighted probabilities. The essay is improved. ChatGPT does not know why. Neither does the student. The teacher marking the essay is uncertain as to how much of it has been produced by the student alone, but can’t verify their concerns. One essay contains a wildly inaccurate statement easily mistaken by a student as a plausible fact. Graded on a bell-curve, the students for whom typos and grammatical errors attest to a lack of AI copy-editing now receive lower grades. Parents are uncertain on what guidance to give their children. The future of AI in the classroom is both of these scenarios. AI undoubtedly has the potential to help students learn faster, overcome hurdles, and potentially learn more deeply. But more than ever, education is not about amassing knowledge as quickly as possible – it is about learning to think critically, creatively, reflectively. It is about persisting through the challenge of developing new skills and ultimately, problem-solving independently. The greatest risk posed by AI in the classroom is that in outsourcing the information-sourcing, testing and checking, students inadvertently outsource the process of reasoning – and the cognitive weightlifting that builds mental strength – along the way. Systemic Challenges and Equity Risks Other challenges will test the education system. Risk 1: Screen-based learning and social development Echoing the issues of the COVID generation, on screen-based learning will diminish time spent on essential, socially-based learning that happens through observation and interaction with peers in the classroom. Risk 2: Equitable access to regulated tools and teacher guidance Another risk the government must grapple with imminently is the potential for social inequities to be deepened as AI plays a greater role in teaching students. Those who can afford access to secure, well-regulated AI tools, and teachers who can appropriately guide them, will be advantaged in educational attainment and navigating the world beyond it. The future divide will be between those who can harness but not be overtaken by AI – and those who can’t. The Fragmented Landscape of AI Adoption The rate of AI adoption appears exponential. With no consensus on the best way to manage what AI should and shouldn’t do in the school sector, the current landscape is characterised by a range of divergent approaches. Some Australian schools such as Westbourne Grammar School, are embracing AI to its fullest, with AI teaching assistants and classes devoted to developing AI skills, while others are battling to eliminate its use entirely. In New South Wales and South Australia, governments are valiantly facing into the challenge by co-developing their own AI tools with technology providers, such as ‘EduChat’. It will take many years and a great number of research papers for the school sector to start to approach some consensus on what ‘good’ pedagogy in the AI-powered world should look like, but its growing influence on students and learning environments is better measured in weeks. Governments need to move beyond policy statements, principles and guidelines. Teachers, parents and students need practical tools and real-life guardrails to help them navigate the environment today. A call-to-action for Governments and Educators Governments today need to: Protect reasoning Equip teachers and parents with age-appropriate, practical guidelines for the use of AI-supported learning to ensue students continue to build critical thinking skills Build students understanding of the importance of cognitive fitness, as we have done with physical fitness and mental wellness, and how to use digital technologies responsibly while protecting their wellbeing Equip teachers Develop curricula to teach students how to use AI, and how to think critically about AI: how it works and where its information comes from, applying it with confidence but also what its limitations and ethical risks are Develop resources for teachers to support them in adapting to the new teaching imperative, from educating students about AI to designing assessments that truly assess whether students have developed the requisite skills Support equity Safeguard information privacy through legislation and not just guidelines Create a scaled model to provide all schools with equitable access to technological expertise and support in implementing AI in their environment The artificial intelligence revolution has put a formidable challenge to governments, and meeting the moment will require pace and dexterity beyond what has been achieved to date. But in the school sector, the stakes are no less than a generation of young people learning how to learn. And so we must meet it. This is the first in a three-part series by Marija Simich, Executive Director at KordaMentha, exploring the rise of AI in the education sector – what it promises, the risks, and how we can prepare.