{
  "id": 10396027,
  "title": "AI May Be the Classroom’s Most Unlikely Ally",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/28/ai-may-be-the-classrooms-most-unlikely-ally",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-28T08:00:35.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PYMNTS",
    "slug": "pymnts",
    "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/news/artificial-intelligence/2026/ai-may-be-the-classrooms-most-unlikely-ally/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Education has long adhered to a conventional framework, with teachers at the forefront, students arranged in rows, and a standardized curriculum delivered on a fixed schedule. This structure remained unaltered despite numerous technological advancements. AI, however, stands out from previous innovations. Unlike others, AI has demonstrated rigorous evidence that it significantly influences learning outcomes. This evidence emerges at a time when AI is perceived as both a potential problem—students relying excessively on machines for problem-solving, test scores declining, and intellectual stamina diminishing—and a promising solution.\n\nA Harvard and MIT study, employing a randomized controlled trial, examined the impact of AI tutoring on college students' learning compared to an active learning class. The trial involved 194 students across two consecutive weeks, focusing on two lessons: surface tension and fluid flow. Each student participated in both scenarios—a 60-minute active learning class with peers and an instructional staff, and an at-home lesson delivered through an AI tutor called PS2 Pal. The findings revealed that students achieved significantly more learning in less time with the AI tutor, with median learning gains more than double those of students in the traditional active learning classroom. Moreover, students using the AI tutor reported feeling more engaged and motivated.\n\nThe control condition was not a passive lecture but an active learning classroom considered best practice in physics education. The AI tutor outperformed this best practice, not just the existing norm. The key takeaway is that instructional design plays a crucial role alongside the technology itself. PS2 Pal was effective because it was built around validated content, structured practice, timely feedback, and self-paced learning. The researchers believe these findings provide empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of a widely accessible AI-powered pedagogy in enhancing learning outcomes.\n\nBrookings Institution's Center for Universal Education highlights that AI's greatest potential in education lies when educators are active co-creators of the tools rather than passive users. Successful AI companies should meaningfully involve educators and stakeholders from the beginning, creating tools that align with research-based learning practices and gain genuine teacher trust. Examples include Junior Achievement programs where AI agents assist students in pitching a product to an investor, providing real-time feedback before presenting to actual business leaders. Online simulations offer students opportunities to practice real-world skills, such as job interviews and entrepreneurship, at a scale unattainable in a single classroom.\n\nThe most effective AI in education, according to the report, follows what it calls \"agentic teaching\": tools that encourage students to think through problems rather than providing answers. AI designed collaboratively with educators and students from the start generates tools that genuinely advance learning, instead of merely repackaging existing approaches with a new interface. Personalization at the scale that schools could not achieve independently is another significant advantage of AI. K-12 trends for 2026, as surveyed by EdSurge, show schools deploying AI across various functions due to declining academic performance and chronic absenteeism. Jim Bowler, general manager of classroom solutions for Riverside Insights, emphasized that personalizing instruction is the key to education, and AI is the most promising tool available for achieving this at scale.\n\nSchools mining student data for insights previously unattainable are using AI to provide early warning systems for students at risk of falling behind. Districts leading in AI implementation combine it with scientifically backed lesson plans and direct student support. The potential lies in leveraging AI to personalize education at a scale unachievable by individual teachers, freeing classroom time for collaboration, mentorship, and deeper thinking that AI cannot replicate.",
  "summary": "Education has always been slow to change. The basic structure of the classroom, a teacher at the front, students in rows, a fixed curriculum delivered on a fixed schedule, has survived every wave of technology that promised to transform it. AI is different. Not because it is more powerful than what came before, but because […] The post AI May Be the Classroom’s Most Unlikely Ally appeared first…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}