What Today’s Educators Think About the Most Disruptive Innovation in Learning

If you’re a teacher, school leader, or homeschooling parent wondering how to keep up with the rapid changes in education, you’re not alone. AI in education is no longer a futuristic idea. It’s here shaping lesson plans, supporting teachers, and even helping students with homework. Whether it’s through an AI assistant that drafts activity ideas, an AI tool that gives instant feedback, or an AI tool for research that saves hours of preparation time, these tools are becoming part of everyday teaching.

In this article, I’ll share what the creators in the education sector think about AI and AI tools in education: how it can save time, personalize learning, and keep the human heart of teaching intact. Tools like Elina can help streamline this process, giving you more time for what matters most: connecting with your students.

Saving Time for What Matters Most

Jacey Erickson from integratED told me that what excites them most about AI in education is its ability to save teachers valuable time, especially when creating classroom materials. For example, when teaching a topic like photosynthesis, the process remains the same. That makes it a perfect opportunity to use AI to generate engaging and accurate resources quickly. This allows teachers to redirect their energy toward fostering connections, delivering instruction, and supporting students.

What resonated with us in Jacey’s perspective is how clearly it highlights the real promise of AI: not to change what teachers teach, but to transform how they prepare for it. Many educators we’ve spoken with echo this: the routines and core content of teaching remain steady, but the endless hours spent creating new worksheets, presentations, or activities can now be lifted off their shoulders. The biggest disruption is not in the lesson itself, but in reclaiming time for what matters most, relationships, creativity, and student support.

If you’ve taught photosynthesis for years, the process hasn’t changed, but now you can use AI tools to create engaging, accurate resources in minutes. This isn’t just a time-saver; it’s a chance to spend more time building relationships, guiding discussions, and helping students succeed.

With an AI assistant like Elina, you can enter a topic, set your students’ age or skill level, and instantly get tailored lesson ideas, printable activities, or even inspiration for projects. It’s like having your own AI toolkit for teaching, one that’s always ready to help.

Personalizing Learning for Every Student

Dina from Dina’s Educational Support, sees the biggest promise of AI tools in education in personalization. We now have tools that can adapt content, pace, and support to the learner’s needs in real-time, something traditional classrooms have long struggled to provide at scale. From helping language learners practice fluency with smart feedback to supporting students with learning differences through customized scaffolding, AI is making differentiated instruction a reality, she said.

We agree with Dina’s perspective that AI is not just making teaching faster, it’s making learning fairer. Personalization has always been a teacher’s dream but nearly impossible to achieve consistently with 25 or 30 students in the room, each with different strengths and challenges. AI finally makes it realistic to design resources and supports that truly meet students where they are. The disruption here is in equity: every student can now have access to materials and guidance that fit their pace and style, without adding more hours to a teacher’s workload.

That used to be difficult in a busy classroom, but with AI tools like Elina and ChatGPT, you can design differentiated materials for the same topic, like a reading guide for one student, a visual summary for another, and an extension challenge for advanced learners all within minutes.

And it’s not limited to lesson planning. An AI tool can help educators review concepts, get extra practice questions, or receive feedback on their work instantly, freeing up class time for better discussions.

Why AI Isn’t a Magic Wand

Of course, not all problems disappear just because there’s an AI tool for them. Theodosis at Educraft reminded me that AI isn’t a magic wand. Even the best tools need a teacher’s expertise to guide how they’re used. Many expect it to instantly resolve everything from lesson planning to grading without effort. In reality, AI tools are powerful assistants that still need human guidance, critical oversight, and thoughtful integration into pedagogy to be truly effective, he outlined.

What we take from Theodosis’s reminder is that the real value of AI in education comes from partnership, not replacement. Teachers bring the judgment, creativity, and understanding of students that no machine can replicate. AI’s role is to amplify those strengths, not to take over. This is where careful tool selection matters: an AI designed for general business tasks won’t necessarily fit the classroom, because education requires context, nuance, and a strong link to pedagogy.

That’s why we believe educators need tools built with their reality in mind. With Elina, the design has been specifically for teaching and learning, so it works as a supportive assistant in the classroom. It helps with everything from lesson outlines to printable materials, while ensuring teachers stay fully in control of the content, the methods, and the learning experience.

A Turning Point in Education

For Gabriel Carrillo, this moment is bigger than day-to-day teaching tools. “AI is the biggest disruptor in educational history. We are living a moment in time that will be studied and researched in the future. Let’s make sure we give those future researchers positive findings that push critical thinking and exploration with our educators and students.”

What struck us in Gabriel’s words is the reminder that AI isn’t just another tool, it’s a shift in the story of education itself. Just as the printing press and the internet reshaped how knowledge was shared and learned, AI is now challenging us to rethink how we prepare students for the future. This disruption is not only about efficiency or personalization, but about what kind of thinkers, creators, and citizens we help students become in an AI-driven world.

This is why we need to talk about AI in education, not just what’s possible now, but how to shape its use so that it strengthens critical thinking, nurtures creativity, and builds ethical awareness. As educators and innovators, our responsibility is to guide AI’s role in ways that elevate learning, not just for today’s classrooms, but for generations who will look back at how we used this moment.

AI as a Partner, Not a Replacement

The more I listen to educators, the more I hear the same theme: AI is a partner. It can automate repetitive work, offer creative sparks, and even act as an AI tool to create images or visual aids for your lessons. But it can’t replace the empathy, insight, and human connection of a teacher.

That’s where Elina fits in. It’s an AI toolkit built for teachers, not to replace them but to give them more time for what only humans can do: notice the quiet student, spark curiosity, and make learning joyful.

You can start using Elina right now to plan lessons, generate ideas, or create classroom materials in seconds.

Open Elina and start creating!