Most Teachers Say AI’s Impact on Education Will Surpass the Internet

A sweeping new NPR/Ipsos poll of K-12 teachers has captured a profession grappling with a transformative force: nearly three out of four teachers (74%) believe artificial intelligence will have bigger implications for education than past innovations like the internet or personal computers. The nationally representative survey of 545 teachers, conducted from April 27 to May 5, 2026, reveals a teaching force that is simultaneously embracing AI for its own productivity while deeply worried about the technology’s effect on students’ ability to think for themselves.

The Productivity Promise

A majority of teachers (62%) report using AI to help with their work, and among those who do, 69% say it has made them more productive and efficient. Teachers are primarily turning to AI for administrative and preparatory tasks: 69% use it to create classroom materials, 52% for writing or planning lessons, 42% for administrative tasks, and 41% for communicating with parents or writing reports.

Michele Naber, a veteran biology teacher at El Toro High School in Orange County, California, described how AI has transformed tasks that once consumed hours. “That’s something that normally, as a teacher, would have taken you probably upwards of an hour … and it minimized the entire task to five minutes,” she told NPR. “That’s helpful.”

Yet the time savings are modest for most: 63% of AI-using teachers say the technology saves them two hours or less per week.

The Critical Thinking Crisis

Despite the productivity gains, a majority of teachers harbor serious concerns about AI’s impact on learning. According to the Ipsos poll results, 54% of teachers say AI makes it harder for students to learn critical thinking skills, and 55% view AI as mostly a shortcut for students to avoid doing more work. Nearly six in ten (59%) agree that AI is eroding the level of trust between students and teachers.

Mallory Newall, a senior vice president at Ipsos, identified the erosion of trust as “one of the biggest red flags in the data.” She added, “What that tells me is that they are trying to navigate some very complex challenges in an environment that is already rife with mistrust.”

Christa Corricelli, a special education teacher at Saugus Middle/High School in Massachusetts, worries about the long-term effects on students who aren’t already intrinsically motivated critical thinkers. “I think people who are not already that personality type, we’re going to see those critical thinking skills atrophy over time,” she said.

Teachers are already adapting: 39% are requiring more assignments to be done by hand, and another 39% are requiring more in-class assignments to combat AI misuse.

The Guidance Gap

Perhaps the most striking finding is the disconnect between teachers’ desire for AI guidance and the lack of institutional support. While 78% of teachers believe schools should teach responsible use of AI, 52% say their school has not offered any guidance on AI, or they’re unsure what the guidance is. Only 33% report having a formal policy on student use of AI, and just 23% have a formal policy on teacher use of AI.

As Education Week reported, this guidance gap leaves teachers navigating complex challenges largely on their own. Ellie Rodriguez, a special education teacher in Florida, said she hasn’t received any training on the technology. “They need to teach us how to apply that information to what we do and most importantly to how we teach to be able to utilize [AI] in a positive way,” she told NPR.

Knowledge vs. Skills in the AI Era

The poll results arrive amid a broader debate about what students need to learn in an age of AI. As Chalkbeat’s Matt Barnum reported, cognitive scientists argue that critical thinking cannot be taught as an abstract skill divorced from content knowledge. University of Virginia psychologist Daniel Willingham has written that “domain knowledge is a crucial driver of thinking skill.”

This challenges the notion that schools should focus solely on “21st century skills” at the expense of factual knowledge — a debate that AI has made far more urgent.

A Nuanced Picture

The poll reveals important differences by grade level. High school teachers (grades 9-12) are significantly more likely than elementary school teachers (grades K-5) to view AI’s impact as negative (47% vs. 32%), likely reflecting the greater prevalence of writing assignments and independent work in high school.

Special education presents a more nuanced picture. Teachers like Rodriguez highlighted that AI can be beneficial for students with disabilities, helping them complete assignments they otherwise couldn’t. “I praised him,” Rodriguez said of a student on the autism spectrum who used AI to complete an assignment. “It got him to do the work, but hopefully, too, it helped him to apply using resources — like you would use an encyclopedia, like you would use a library book — to find your answers.”

What’s Next

Overall, teachers are deeply divided on AI’s impact: 49% say it has had a mix of positive and negative effects, 40% say its impact has been negative, and only 9% say it has been positive. As Newall put it, “Teachers are acknowledging that AI is having humongous implications on education as we know it. It’s not going away. And so now is the time to act.”

The coming months will reveal whether school districts, state education departments, and teachers’ unions can close the guidance gap — and whether AI can be integrated in ways that enhance rather than undermine the critical thinking skills that teachers are working so hard to cultivate.