As Nelson Mandela opined, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” 

Teachers and access to education play a crucial role in our future. Teachers educate the next generation by sharing knowledge, fostering critical thinking skills, managing parents, and developing children. 

At the same time, teachers face an increasingly difficult professional challenge, often feeling overworked and under-supported, spurring the threat of widespread teacher shortages. Our future, however, depends on strengthening and supporting teachers while providing broader access to education. That strength and much-needed support may have just arrived in an unlikely vehicle: AI and generative AI.

Here are some of the ways AI and generative AI can bolster education, helping teachers and students—and ultimately, improving our collective future:

The teacher’s assistant

After a day of teaching in the classroom, teachers often have to grade homework and projects after hours. Generative AI can help alleviate some of that workload by automating the grading process for various assignments and assessments. By using generative AI for automated grading, teachers can spend their time on other priorities while students get their grades back quickly.

Generative AI can also help teachers craft educational content. Different formats, including text, graphics, and simulations, can be tailored to different topics and styles, helping teachers and education be more effective.

Smarter learning

Students learn in various ways and at different speeds across different topics. Generative AI can help analyze where students are at and customize educational content to their specific needs and pace. This keeps students appropriately challenged and engaged. In other words, generative AI can optimize learning by architecting personalized learning journeys for individual students.

Student support

Remember being in school and not understanding the subject being taught? I do. And for me, there were limited ways to get more support. Generative AI is changing that and expanding options for students to enrich learning and deepen comprehension.

For example, AI-driven chatbots can assist students by answering questions about study materials, topics, and courses. Further, AI can engage students as a virtual teacher or tutor, providing additional support outside of the traditional classroom setting.

To boost knowledge retention, AI and generative AI can be used to summarize volumes of educational content, facilitating understanding of subject-matter concepts and saving students time. Additionally, generative AI can function as a research assistant to students. By summarizing relevant information and generating insights, students can accelerate understanding and advance research projects.

New ways to learn

While the traditional classroom is likely here to stay, new learning vehicles that augment classrooms are emerging from generative AI models. For example, realistic, digital simulations and virtual laboratories can be created for students. These simulations and laboratories allow students to experiment in safe yet challenging environments with hands-on, iterative learning. This is especially helpful in subjects like science and engineering.

Language learning platforms are also a product of generative AI. The platforms provide realistic conversations, pronunciation, and language-specific exercises and experiences for language arts students. 

Watch-outs

Alongside this big, beautiful list of AI and generative AI capabilities and educational benefits is another list of potential watch-outs that need to be managed. Educators worry about students short-cutting the critical thinking and problem-solving part of learning or misusing the technology. There is also the inherent risk of technology outages, data breaches, and a lack of human emotion and empathy when technology teaches students. Other risks, often unintentional, include plagiarism, bias, and misinformation. Educational guidelines and guardrails are needed to fully leverage the potential that AI and generative AI hold for advancing education and supporting teachers and students. 

Another big watch-out is how IT leaders at educational institutions put generative AI into practice. Today, many institutions are gridlocked because AI and generative AI have very different data and IT needs than traditional technology. Users must get the right kind of storage infrastructure to handle AI workloads and process unstructured data in real-time. AI-capable data storage is a foundational element to moving forward and there is no shortcut. Traditional data storage systems are not set up to handle these new requirements. If left unaddressed, traditional storage systems will cause a “final mile” stall in AI and generative AI deployments.

Modern storage systems are designed with AI workloads and data requirements in mind. Capabilities such as distributed storage, data compression, and efficient data indexing support the speed and scale that AI workloads require.

A gold star

Teachers and the education industry can benefit from AI and generative AI—and they come at a time in the industry’s evolution when new solutions are imperative. However, out of the gate, generative AI won’t get straight A’s. Guardrails and guidelines are needed to ensure proper use. And organizations need to modernize storage solutions so that their IT systems are ready to manage unstructured data in real-time for AI workloads. After that, I’m betting generative AI can earn its way to getting a gold star report card in education.

See Intel’s solutions for IT professionals in education, K-12, and higher education, and read more about Intel AI solutions.

Learn more about unstructured data storage solutions and how they can enable AI technology.

Read about Dell Technologies AI solutions.

Learn about classroom support provided by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.