Most K-12 Teachers Say AI Will Reshape Education More Than the Internet

A sweeping new nationally representative poll finds that nearly three out of four K-12 teachers believe artificial intelligence will have bigger implications for education than past technological revolutions like the internet or personal computers. The NPR/Ipsos poll, conducted from late April to early May 2026 among 545 teachers, reveals an education system grappling with a transformative technology that offers powerful benefits while raising profound concerns about critical thinking, academic integrity, and the erosion of trust between students and educators.

A Historic Shift in Perspective

According to the Ipsos survey, 74% of teachers view AI as having greater implications for K-12 education than any previous technological change. Only 10% said it was no different from past innovations. Yet teachers remain deeply divided on whether this impact is positive: 49% say AI has had a mixed effect, 40% describe its impact as negative, and just 9% report a positive influence. High school teachers are notably more pessimistic than their elementary school counterparts, with 47% of grades 9-12 teachers viewing AI’s impact as negative compared to 32% of K-5 teachers.

“We’re in an environment where teachers feel like this is going to fundamentally reshape the future of education moving forward,” said Mallory Newall, a senior vice president at Ipsos. “They have serious concerns about AI’s impact on how they relate to their students and how students relate to each other.”

Critical Thinking at Risk

More than half of teachers surveyed — 54% — say AI makes it harder for students to learn critical thinking skills, and 55% view the technology as mostly a shortcut for students to avoid doing more work. Christa Corricelli, a special education teacher at Saugus Middle/High School in Massachusetts, worries that students who are not already strong critical thinkers will be most affected.

“I think people who are not already that personality type, we’re going to see those critical thinking skills atrophy over time,” Corricelli said.

Michele Naber, a biology teacher at El Toro High School in Orange County, California, has incorporated AI into her lessons to teach students how to verify information. She instructs students to ask ChatGPT to describe an animal’s characteristics and then cross-check the results against reliable sources. But she remains deeply concerned about the broader implications.

“I care about my students. I want them to be able to look at the world and figure out things for themselves, not rely on a piece of software,” Naber said. “If we stop questioning what it says, we can be led to believe anything. And that’s what really scares me.”

The Erosion of Trust

Perhaps the most alarming finding concerns the breakdown of the student-teacher relationship. Nearly 6-in-10 educators (59%) agree that AI is eroding the level of trust between students and teachers. In response, 39% of teachers have required more assignments to be done by hand, and another 39% have moved more work into the classroom. Newall described this erosion of trust as “one of the biggest red flags in the data.”

This trust deficit is compounded by the fact that 70% of teachers believe the public’s perception of them has worsened. As The 74 Million reported in 2025, researchers have found that AI is creating a “low-trust environment” where students feel unsafe to freely explore the technology and teachers increasingly suspect their students of outsourcing their work.

Naber said she had to stop offering extra credit for beach cleanups and habitat restorations after her son demonstrated how easily AI could generate fake images of volunteer events. “I had to stop doing that because I can’t verify it. That was sad,” she said.

Teachers Embrace AI for Productivity

Despite these concerns, 62% of teachers report using AI to help with their work. Among those who use the technology, 69% say it has made them more productive and efficient. The most common uses include creating classroom materials (69%), writing or planning lessons (52%), and handling administrative tasks (42%). However, only 23% say they use AI during actual lessons at least once a week.

Naber said AI has dramatically reduced the time needed to generate multiple choice questions for assessments. “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 said. “That’s helpful.”

A Policy Vacuum

The poll reveals a significant gap between AI adoption and formal guidance. While 78% of teachers agree that teaching responsible use of AI should be part of the school curriculum, only 33% say their school has a formal policy on student use of AI, and just 23% have a policy on teacher use. About half of all teachers say their school has not offered any guidance on AI, or they are unsure what guidance exists.

Ellie Rodriguez, a special education teacher in Florida, said she has received no training on AI and wishes she could. “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,” Rodriguez said.

Corricelli summed up the sentiment of many educators: “I think we’re all just kind of trying not to drown with the whole thing.”

What’s Next

As AI continues to permeate American classrooms, the findings underscore an urgent need for schools and districts to develop coherent policies and training programs. The poll suggests that teachers are not opposed to AI — they are already using it — but they want guardrails, guidance, and a curriculum that teaches students how to use the technology responsibly. Without systemic action, the gap between AI’s potential and its pitfalls may only widen, leaving educators to navigate this transformative technology largely on their own.