How will teaching evolve as AI advances, and what changes should the profession undergo? Ongoing research aims to answer these questions.
The Portrait of a Teacher in the Age of AI guides leaders and teachers on the changes and opportunities AI is bringing to the education industry. Educators must take command of the technology to control its impact, argues Vriti Saraf, co-founder of Ed3 DAO, the organization leading the research.
“Should we allow AI to do all of our facilitation for us?” she asks. “Or are there places where human judgment must lead?”
So far, the preliminary data suggests that teachers are using AI to augment curriculum design, instruction and pedagogy research. However, most teachers indicate that AI has yet to make a big impact on their daily tasks.
Teachers want personalized professional development to better understand AI’s capabilities, Saraf adds. Meanwhile, roughly half of districts nationwide report providing AI training, with many leaders adopting a “do-it-yourself” approach after struggling to find third-party partners to provide such training.
“We don’t often create parallel structures for teachers and students,” she says. “If we want a student to be creative, agentic and fulfilled, then we need teachers to be creative, agentic and fulfilled.”
With guidance from a cross-sector Advisory Council, the project has moved from concept into active research and design:
- Phase 1—Between Promise & Practice: Examining how AI is actually being used in schools, and where it reinforces or disrupts the status quo.
- Phase 2—Architecture of the Educator Role: Mapping current teacher responsibilities against emerging demands, and identifying where human judgment remains essential.
- Phase 3—Science of Artificial Relationships: Exploring the teacher’s role in helping learners navigate the cognitive and emotional impacts of AI-mediated relationships.
- Phase 4—The Portrait Framework: Developing a localizable, interactive toolkit to help education leaders iterate the teacher role over time.
Addressing reality
Most educators are using AI “for survival” as K12 leaders grapple with concerns about data privacy and academic integrity, Saraf says.
“We’re using AI to perpetuate the same systems we have because that’s the only reality we know,” she explains.
There are better ways teachers can use AI, she adds. They first have to be uncovered. Teachers, not tech companies, should identify how to deploy the technology.
“Tech companies want AI adopted into every aspect of our lives, and that’s not necessarily going to be best for human development,” she says.
Educators also want to ensure that AI isn’t replacing the human connection. Research already confirms that hundreds of millions of emotionally invested users are connecting with AI companions, exacerbating the effects of loneliness and depression.
More from DA: FETC 2026: How to drive new levels of student engagement
The Brain Trust
As the research progresses over the next year, a public group of educators, students, edtech professionals and policy experts—known as the Brain Trust—will provide feedback to ensure that the portrait accurately reflects the realities of the K12 classroom.
Participants don’t need to be “experts” to join. The group is currently seeking teachers, school and district leaders, edtech professionals, higher education faculty and program designers, education policy experts and more.
Now is the time to understand how AI could disrupt teaching, Saraf contends.
“We need to think about how technology is changing our industry, because it’s changing whether we’re ready for it or not.
Join the Brain Trust by signing up here.
