Teachers using AI weekly save 6 weeks annually, Gallup finds

A new Gallup poll reveals that 30% of teachers are using AI weekly in their classrooms, with regular users saving approximately six weeks per year on administrative and instructional tasks. The study, conducted by the Walton Foundation alongside Gallup, surveyed over 2,200 K-12 educators and found that teachers are reinvesting this time into more personalized instruction and deeper student engagement, though concerns remain about AI’s impact on critical thinking skills.

What you should know: The research shows significant time savings for educators who embrace AI tools regularly.

• Weekly AI users report reclaiming nearly six hours per week, which they reinvest in “more personalized instruction, deeper student feedback and better parent communication.”
• 60% of K-12 teachers reported using some kind of AI tool in their work, most commonly to create worksheets or activities, personalize material to students’ needs, and prep lessons.
• Teachers using AI tools less than weekly saw a significant dropoff in time saved compared to more active users.

The big picture: AI adoption in education remains uneven, with significant barriers still preventing widespread implementation.

• 40% of teachers don’t use AI at all, and just 19% said their school has an AI policy in place.
• High school teachers present a paradox: “While high school teachers are among the heaviest users of AI, they are also among those most likely to oppose the use of AI.”
• The study found that having an AI policy helps schools increase the amount of time saved.

Quality improvements: Teachers report that AI enhances their work across multiple areas.

• Educators reported AI made their work better by as much as 74% for admin tasks and 57% for grading.
• Student feedback supported these improvements, though 16% of teachers felt AI negatively impacted their work product.
• 57% of teachers agree that “AI will improve the accessibility of learning materials for students with disabilities,” with special education teachers even more likely to agree at 65%.

The cognitive trade-off: Both educators and students express concerns about AI’s impact on critical thinking abilities.

• Teachers and Gen Z students worry about how using AI will affect their critical thinking skills and problem-solving endurance.
• A recent MIT Media Lab study found that while AI “undeniably reduced the friction involved in answering participants’ questions,” this “convenience came at a cognitive cost, diminishing users’ inclination to critically evaluate the LLM’s output.”
• However, tools like Anthropic’s Claude for Education AI aim to promote critical thinking rather than replace it.

Why this matters: The findings arrive as schools continue grappling with how to integrate AI effectively since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022 fundamentally disrupted traditional educational approaches.

• The research suggests that with proper training and institutional support, AI tools could become “a powerful force in reshaping teachers’ workload and, ultimately, student outcomes.”
• The study emphasizes that “as AI tools grow more embedded in education, both teachers and students will need the training and support to use them effectively.”