If 2023-2025 were the “panic and pilot” years for AI in schools, 2026 will be the year habits harden. The policies, tools, and norms districts choose now will set the defaults for how a generation learns, works, and thinks with AI. As a lifelong teacher, principal, and now technology founder serving schools, I get a unique vantage point in this transformation.
Today, I spend most of my time with district leaders, teachers, students, and families who are thinking about how AI is affecting children. I see the board presentations and policy drafts, but I also hear what kids say in hallways and what teachers say after PD ends and the real conversation starts.
From that vantage point, here is how I think 2026 will actually look.
1. The surprise: students use AI less to shortcut work and more to stretch their thinking
In 2023, the fear was simple: “Kids will use AI to cheat.”
By the end of 2026, the bigger surprise will be how many students use AI to do more thinking, not less, in schools that teach them how.
We already see students drafting on their own, then using AI for formative feedback aligned to the teacher’s rubric. They ask “Why is this a weak thesis?” or “How could I make this clearer?” instead of “Write this for me.”
Where adults set clear expectations, AI becomes a studio, not a vending machine. Students write first, then ask AI to critique, explain, or suggest revisions. They compare suggestions to the rubric and explain how they used AI as part of the assignment, instead of hiding it.
The technology didn’t change. The adult framing did.
2. Policies will be common. Thoughtful AI implementation will still be rare.
If I had to put a number on it, I would predict that roughly three quarters of US districts will have some kind of AI policy or guidelines by the end of 2026. Many will focus on data protection, prohibited inputs, and acceptable use for staff.
The risk is that it stops there. A district can:
- Publish an AI policy.
- Select a generic AI tool.
- Declare victory.
That matters. It is not the same as teaching people how to think with AI.
Districts that lead will define what AI literacy means by grade band, tie AI use to existing goals in literacy, math, language acquisition, and college and career readiness, and give teachers concrete patterns for using AI in planning and instruction.
The goal is not to make every student an AI engineer. It is to help them become thoughtful users who can question outputs and keep their own judgment intact.
3. Teachers stay at the center. AI clears the path for human connection.
I do not believe in a future where AI replaces teachers. I do believe in a future where the job finally matches what drew most people into the profession in the first place.
Teachers are magic. They carry content expertise, relationships, and expectations in one person. They notice who is unusually quiet, who finally got the concept, and who is pretending to follow along. No model replaces that.
In 2026, the most important AI work will not be automating instruction. It will be quietly removing friction around it: drafting and differentiating lesson materials, supporting paperwork that used to swallow evenings, and giving teachers better visibility into how students are engaging so they can intervene earlier.
The point is not that AI becomes the expert. The point is that AI gives teachers back time and context so they can do the work only humans can do: build trust, challenge students, read the room, and connect learning to real lives.
4. One focus for 2026: build student agency, not just student usage
If I could tell districts to focus on one thing in 2026, it would be this: do not measure success by how many students “use AI.” Measure it by how many students can explain when they should and should not use it.
That means teaching students to verify AI outputs against trusted sources, being explicit about risks like bias, hallucinations, and over-reliance, and asking students to reflect on how they used AI on an assignment, what they kept, and what they changed.
Students are already curious. They are already using AI outside school. The question is whether schools will help them build the judgment and habits that will follow them into work and life.
If we bring AI into classrooms openly, safely, and with purpose, 2026 will not be the year we lost learning to automation. It will be the year we started building a generation of young people who can use powerful tools without handing over their thinking, their integrity, or their relationships in the process.
