The role of AI in education: Opportunities and challenges

A new landscape review by the Nuffield Foundation and the Ada Lovelace Institute explores the potential and pitfalls of AI in UK schools.

The Nuffield Foundation and the Ada Lovelace Institute have launched a joint landscape review, A learning curve?,  to inform conversations around the use of AI in UK schools. This comprehensive report draws on existing and emerging evidence to highlight the opportunities and challenges posed by AI in education.

The Nuffield Foundation, with its longstanding expertise in education, and the Ada Lovelace Institute, with its sociotechnical understanding of data-driven systems and AI, carried out a year-long investigation into this growing field.

Findings from A learning curve? aim to bring greater clarity on the role of AI in schools, support policy and educational experts in navigating issues, and highlight priority areas for further research.

The review underscores the need for urgent attention to gaps in evidence, supports understanding of types of AI, existing tools and products being used in the UK, and sets out the governance landscape in education.

Since the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2022, interest has grown in how general-purpose AI (GPAI) might interact with and augment educational technologies (EdTech).

Some educators and policymakers see AI as providing groundbreaking opportunities to improve education and teaching in potentially seismic ways. These include:

• the use of AI for personalised learning
• specialist help for pupils with SEND
• automating teachers’ tasks such as lesson planning, marking, assessment, and report writing
• supporting administrators and teachers with insights, predictions, and information about pupils

A learning curve details and contextualises the key issues raised by the use of AI EdTech products, including data, privacy, transparency, and regulation, as well as more wide-ranging challenges and questions. It presents several key findings relating to opportunities and barriers, the pedagogical evidence base, social impact, regulation and governance, and support for procurement. It also highlights topics for future research.

Renate Samson, Projects lead (Data & Digital Society) at the Ada Lovelace Institute and co-author of the report, said: “AI offers many potential opportunities for teachers and schools, however for school leaders and teachers to have a grasp of whether AI will best suit their school and pupil’s needs, an understanding of the technology and evidence of the impact on pedagogy and learning outcomes is needed. Our research has found that these are areas ripe for further research and evidence. 

We hope this work will be the start of an important conversation around the need for greater clarity on the appropriate role of AI in schools, and additional support and evidence for policy and educational experts in navigating these issues.” 

Throughout 2025, the Nuffield Foundation and the Ada Lovelace will continue collaborating to develop and supplement our collective understanding of this field through a series of roundtables to explore overarching questions AI poses for the future of education.