In a world shaped by automated technology, the influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly increasing, and becoming fundamental to our daily lives.  The impact of AI is also being felt in schools. It has practical applications for helping teachers (planning lessons and giving feedback) and students (using it as a tutor). However, this powerful tool, while offering enormous benefits, is outweighed by the dilemmas that blur the lines between its use and control. 

This raises the question: Is AI beneficial to our education system, or does our over-reliance on it impact our ability to learn new things? I want to investigate potential answers to this question by understanding both sides (student vs. teacher); however, it’s important to realise that what started off as theoretical concerns for both learning and jobs is now actually in play, and this can be supported through extracted statistics from Naveen Kumar from DemandSage and Lindsey Seril from Engageli, statistics-driven newsletters. 

Global statistics from students’ perspectives prove that there is widespread adoption as:

• On average, 86% of students in schools and higher education utilise AI. 
• Nearly half (50%) of students have used AI writing tools at least once in their academic careers.
• 54% of students use AI on a daily or weekly basis.

Our faculty aren’t an exception, as:

• Nearly 50% of school administrators use the technology daily.
• Moreover, 71% of teachers say AI tools are essential for student success
• About 60% of teachers integrate AI into their teaching.
• Global AI reached $7.57 billion in 2025 and is predicted to reach $112.30 billion by  2034

So what can we take away from this? We now know that this market is being accommodated for, and it will only continue to increase at a rapid pace. The AI education market is projected to reach $112 billion by 2034. This data solidifies the idea that AI is now, more than ever, a core part of the classroom learning experience. However, to truly understand the impact of AI, comparing it to our own educational community at ISB will help shed light on these statistics and the investigation.

The Student Perspective

Personally, I tend to use AI as an assistance in being my English tutor, study buddy and a tool to help refine my thinking. However, it hasn’t always been green on my side, as I do find myself being “heavily inspired” with my writing when it comes to using AI in instances where I’m really crunched for time and it is my only resort. While I have taken a step away from this unhealthy habit, my experiences with AI are sometimes different from those of others, as I was privileged enough to witness its growth.  For someone like Anton Sommerville, a student at ISB who recently joined us in 10th grade, arriving around 2 months ago, making him the perfect candidate, as he got exposed to ISB’s selection of tools, and has to go through a learning experience of how to effectively use it. 

I prepared some general questions for Anton, mainly around the use of AI, its impact on our learning, and his personal line to be drawn.

He estimates his usage of AI is around “two, three times a day”, mainly for uses that revolve around his “note-taking, but maybe sometimes to help out with studying for different tests”. This is an interesting standpoint taken from Anton, as his uses represent benefits that come with AI, which are very personal and relatively easy to use. When asked if he prefers Ai tutoring, Anton stated that “I’d rather have an AI tutor, just because they won’t get annoyed at you…plus, it goes at your own pace”, which again shows these unique benefits of it being personalised and stress-free.

During our Interview, I had a quick question pop up, as I remembered that teachers stated that there were distinct features of a text that would help them identify that a text is most likely AI-generated. When I approached this question to Anton, he stated that “If we’re just talking about like essays, I could not tell at all”, which, if true for many others, would put us in a position of using integrity in our work.

For the students who feel that they have dug too much into the rabbit hole of AI, Anton offers a simple solution: “Take a complete break from it.. And then come back to it with a different approach, like I’m not going to use it to do everything, just going to ask it to help me”. 

The Teacher Perspective: 

With this altered education system, teachers also have to adapt and tailor their teaching styles and materials to consider this technological change, according to Mr Bell, the high school’s librarian and technology coordinator. He notes that the adoption rate is now extremely high and cites a statistic from a recent conference, reporting that 95% of American students are using AI tools, which is not surprising to see. 

Mr Bell explained that teachers worry about how cheating has evolved into a “strategic response”, arguing that people cheat for two main reasons: “they are out of time or they don’t understand the assignment”.  He explains that using these AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, which are provided by ISB, helps solve the first problem, allowing teachers to focus on the second. “Primarily, what we’re finding is that there are two reasons people cheat. One is, they’ve run out of time, and they just needed to get something turned in, or they don’t understand the assignment. When we have those two, AI takes away the first one”. 

During the interview, a question was asked about the adoption of new teaching models, specifically: How is our school (ISB) ensuring that teachers are more effectively equipped to manage the use of AI?

Mr Bell explained that it’s actually one of his roles here at ISB, and his role specifies to “look for, find, and then provide training for teacher use”, with a large focus on using tools “purposefully”. However, Mr Bell states that while there are benefits such as “feedback” and “grading”, there should not be any comfort with the output. Instead, he emphasises how it can be used as “great starters” and then applies a professional judgment to make the feedback more “personalised”.

AI’s role can extend much further beyond the classroom, as Mr Bell also showed me how he utilises it for his administrative roles through complex data analysis (MAP tests, attendance, and data analysis) by simply uploading it through a screenshot or document. It helps give him a “much more intertwined and linked perspective” 

Hearing about Mr Bell’s roles as a technology coordinator prompted me to consider ISB as an institution, but specifically, what is and will be changed following this rapid increase in AI integration.

Mr Bell mentioned that ISB is taking a “cautiously optimistic” approach to technology, which entails favouring accessible tools such as Gemin,i which offers one of the highest levels of protection. In short, ISB’s approach isn’t to neglect the use of AI, but rather to welcome it as a tool to guide and provoke critical thinking.

This institutional approach leads us to the core focus of this article: Where do we draw the line between using AI to help and using it to cheat?

Ethical considerations

Remember Anton? Well, his boundary is pretty straightforward, as using AI to “complete all homework” is where he draws it. However, for most of us, this line can be so much blurrier.
I conducted an anonymous survey for 10 participants, and I asked if students are “more inclined to copy and paste things from AI tools due to issues like meeting deadlines and ease”, and a strong 70% of respondents said “yes” or “sometimes”. This confirms not only my own considerations, but also Mr Bell’s, when we discussed the overall students’ use of AI from his perspective.

This next question definitely hit home for me when I asked students if their use of AI “hinders their ability to learn independently.” The responses were pretty unsettling as 40% said “yes” and 30% said “sometimes”. This confirms the fear that the price of AI’s convenience is our intellectual independence.

The Unseen Costs

Beyond academics, Mr Bell raises two points I haven’t even considered. First, the environmental costs. He talked about how much consumption there is in our energy and water due to data centres, saying that “creating one 30-second AI video uses as much energy as watching the entire 12 seasons of Friends, 500,000 times over”, shedding light on our need for conservation plans in the technology industry.

Secondly, the point of “personal privacy” was stressed alot, warning us that the more information we put into AI, the more it “can build something like you”. He finished our interview with a powerful statement that really stuck with me, saying that “I would still argue I want to be me, I don’t want there to be a tech out there like me” which reminded me of the integrity of what an algorithm can create, there are clearly no boundaries.

The future of our academic system:

My investigation leads me to this double-sided conclusion that while AI is undoubtedly beneficial, it has the potential for dependency, and ethical considerations are significant. It’s an amazing study partner for me, a non-judgemental tutor for Anton and an efficiency engine for Mr Bell. It’s certain to say, it’s not going anywhere, but it is equally clear that as an institution, we’re adopting a “cautiously optimistic” approach to these new advancements in technology.

So, for the 70% of us who feel that you’ve slipped too deep into the AI “rabbit hole”, how do you break that cycle?

While Mr Bell is extremely excited about the advancements in AI technology as a possibility of not having to grade any finals, he focuses on “the process of thinking”, “how students arrived at the answer”. From a teacher’s perspective, the key is more in shifting away from a finished product glazed by AI, but rather one that shows this humane intellectual thinking.

As for a student’s perspective, we should follow the legendary advice from Anton by taking a break, then, “come back to it with a different approach, like I’m not going to use it to do everything, just going to ask it to help me”.

As for my opinion, I can’t count the scale of my guilt when I use AI, and just like that 70%, it sometimes may get out of control, but rather we should use that as a sense of realisation, rather than just pure fear. I believe that we need to think of AI as a limited natural resourse. When in use, we need to understand its impact on the environment, the privacy we give up, and, more importantly, how we use it.

I’d say that the focus right now isn’t to ban AI, but rather to use it in a way that is more thoughtful and not just something to complete our tasks for us.