By now, most people in education have encountered AI whether through tools like ChatGPT, adaptive learning software, AI-generated reports, or automated marking systems. It’s no longer a future concept. It’s here, embedded in our inboxes, systems, and classrooms.
And while there’s been excitement, there’s also been hesitation. For every ‘look what it can do!’ moment, there’s an equally valid ‘but what does this mean for thinking, for learning-for people’
These questions matter. Because while AI can do many things, we mustn’t forget the most important thing:
AI is a tool. It cannot replace human thought.
Thinking Isn’t Just Information Processing
There’s a temptation to treat thinking as a transactional process. Input → output. Problem → solution. But true thinking, human thinking is messy, emotional, slow at times, and deeply contextual. It holds contradictions. It notices nuance. It sees meaning where a machine sees only patterns.
AI doesn’t know what it’s saying. It doesn’t understand the learner in front of you. It can’t feel the hesitation in someone’s voice or notice when a young person is masking distress.
That doesn’t make it useless. But it does mean we must be clear on its role.
What AI Is Good At
Used well, AI can be an incredible assistant:
- It can reduce admin strain by summarising reports or generating ideas.
- It can support planning, prompting reflection or providing quick alternatives.
- It can give learners access to resources in different formats and tones.
- It can help neurodiverse learners express themselves in ways that feel safer.
- It can save educators time and sometimes, that’s what matters most.
But none of these replace professional judgment, lived experience, emotional intelligence, or care.
What AI Cannot Do
AI cannot:
- Notice when a child’s behaviour is a trauma response, not defiance.
- Choose the right moment to change the tone in a difficult conversation.
- Intuit when a team needs to pause, reflect, or breathe.
- Hold space for grief, joy, curiosity, frustration, or wonder.
AI doesn’t know your learners. It doesn’t know your setting.
And it certainly doesn’t know your values unless you tell it.
This is where human leadership becomes essential.
Navigating the Grey Areas
We don’t need to fear AI but we do need to stay awake.
Because while AI can support learning, it can also flatten it. While it can reduce effort, it can also shortcut thinking. While it can offer ideas, it can just as easily reinforce bias, echo the dominant voice, or replace the struggle that deep learning sometimes requires.
If we’re not careful, we risk asking young people to consume knowledge rather than create it. To outsource thinking instead of wrestling with complexity.
And in the end, that’s not education. That’s automation.
So What Do We Do?
We lead with intention. We treat AI like the tool it is-useful, powerful, but bounded.
We ask:
- Does this enhance or replace the learning process?
- Are we using it to reflect our values—or shortcut around them?
- Are we modelling critical thinking—or outsourcing it?
And perhaps most importantly:
Are we still making space for human questions? The kind that don’t have instant answers?
AI will become more present in education. That’s a fact.
But what education becomes, that’s still in our hands.
Let’s not be afraid of the tools. Let’s just remember who we are while we’re using them.