Experts predict 2025 may be the year of edtech. According to Arizton’s latest research report, the Edtech market will grow by close to 15% by this December.
The industry saw a rise in investments after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed students and teachers into the reality of online learning. Although investment activity has dipped since its 2021 peak, the industry is expected to grow faster in the coming years than the overall global education sector, per Morgan Stanley analysts.
These aren’t small numbers either. Morgan Stanley projects global edtech spending to increase from $250 billion in 2022 to $620 billion in 2030.
Yet conversations about the future of edtech wouldn’t be complete without a discussion on AI. The education sector experienced some of the most significant disruptions following the launch of ChatGPT, as students became eager early adopters of the technology.
For educators, AI is polarizing. Some oppose its use entirely, while others seek ways to help students incorporate it into their learning sensibly. One thing we all know for certain: AI is here to stay.
While 77% of educators think AI is useful, only 56% are actually using it according to Carnegie Learning’s The State of AI in Education report. This hesitancy in committing to AI suggests K–12 education leaders are taking a wait-and-see approach to this new technology.
Yet AI today needs to be considered in a much broader context. The question is no longer about whether students are using AI, but instead on how it can solve some of the most pressing challenges in today’s classrooms. Here are three things many are overlooking when it comes to Edtech and AI in 2025.
Improving teacher workload and retention
It’s no secret that teachers are overworked and underfunded. Limited funding and the stress of teaching are turning many away from the profession, adding to the burden of those who stay. As teachers try to do more with less, their ability to focus on educating students is becoming increasingly impossible.
Last year, the World Economic Forum found that teachers often put in over 50 hours a week; however, direct student interaction makes up less than half of this work.
At the same time, students report an engagement gap, with 50% saying they are “not engaged in what they are learning in school most of the time,” according to Gradient Learning research.
AI can positively impact teachers and students alike. With innovations ranging from personalized learning journeys to predictive analytics, AI has the potential to reverse these growing retention and decreased engagement trends experienced across the US.
Michael Gaskell, a veteran principal in New Jersey working at Central Elementary School in East Brunswick, recently shared several tips on how generative AI can be used to handle the administrative workload associated with teaching.
For example, using the right prompts can save hours when writing letters of recommendation or drafting student feedback reports.
Using AI chatbots to take on personas and pop culture characters like Yoda can help teachers bring some light relief to their students, while tools like LeonardoAI can help to foster creativity and get learners excited about group projects.
In addition to general tools, teachers can benefit from AI solutions tailored to meet the classroom’s specific needs. Perplexity is an AI tool that includes footnotes with links to the sources in prompt responses, making it excellent for helping students learn how to use AI as an effective and trustworthy research tool.
The risk of cyberattacks in education can no longer be ignored
The first months of 2025 have raised serious concerns about data security in the education sector and the potential long-term consequences for affected students and staff.
PowerSchool, a provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education that serves over 18,000 school organizations, suffered a security breach on Dec. 28, 2024, in what is proving to be one of the biggest breaches for the education sector.
The hackers behind the PowerSchool breach are reported to have stolen data records for 62.4 million students and 9.5 million teachers.
Further, while concerns about the growing risk of cyberattacks have been gaining momentum for years, NBC News reported that the company failed to take basic precautions to protect students’ data.
As the education sector continues to deal with the fallout from this breach and the 92% spike in K-12 attacks more broadly, security measures will likely be increased.
Doug Levin, national director of K12 SIX, an industry nonprofit, emphasized the broader issue of lax cybersecurity standards in educational technology, stating, “For a sector so integral to the American way of life, it is unconscionable that neither K-12 schools — nor their vendors — are held to a cybersecurity standard.”
These lax standards often stem from a lack of in-house expertise, low security budgets and poor cyber hygiene. This is a sentiment backed by the Center for Internet Security and its K-12 Report, which found schools are data-rich and can be resource-poor, making them particularly lucrative targets for cyber threat actors, while the average school spends less than 8% of its IT budget on cybersecurity.
The good news is that AI also offers a way for educational institutions to keep pace with the rising threats by monitoring school networks 24/7, detecting real-time threats and minimizing the risk of costly breaches.
AI can also take care of incident responses, run predictive analysis on emerging threats and help schools tackle cybersecurity on a tight budget with automated screening and actions. Further, with autonomous AI agents on the horizon, companies like Anthropic expect to bring autonomous agents with the ability to respond to phishing and other threats into public use within the year.
Phishing emails represent one of the biggest vulnerabilities for schools. According to the 2024 Sophos State of Ransomware in Education, 63% of K-12 organizations were hit by ransomware last year, and 26% of those attacks started with a phishing email.
Ultimately, the key to success for AI and edTech will be the teachers
A Pew Research poll found that only 6% of teachers think AI can provide more benefits than harm in education. But the reality is that AI is being used whether they like it or not. While schools may choose to ban the use of AI in assignments, students delight in finding new ways to dodge AI detectors.
Meanwhile, more than half of US teens now spend almost five hours on social media every day, on platforms that can exacerbate loneliness or even encourage antisocial behavior. Mitigating the risks of technology will require a concerted effort from both parents and teachers alike.
Rather than penalizing students for using AI and banning social media, thoughtful conversations and tools that improve digital literacy and awareness will be key.
AI isn’t just disrupting the classroom. It’s changing every aspect of our world, from scientific research to medicine to advertising and business — and beyond. Schools are obligated to train students for the society and job market they will be entering in the future, not the ones of the past or present.
Students with more experience working with and understanding AI will be better prepared for their future, and teachers have a highly important role to play here, helping engage students properly with AI and its associated risks and benefits.
Media Literacy Now is an excellent resource with over 130 lesson plans that teachers can use to explain important new concepts like digital citizenship or educate their students on how to detox their feed.
What’s next for AI in the classroom
As we look to the horizon, we can already see examples of where the next wave of AI innovation will land for the education sector. Arizona State University is currently piloting how AI can be used as an immersive learning tool, including simulated philosophers and AI-generated patients on which to practice behavioral health techniques. Meanwhile, a school in the UK announced the first teacherless classroom in 2024 that combines virtual reality with AI to deliver targeted lessons.
For the US in particular it looks like that AI will gain even more prominence across the education sector as the government seeks to grow the next generation of AI innovators. The White House Task Force on AI Education will encourage and highlight student and educator achievements in AI, promote wide geographic adoption of technological advancement, and foster collaboration between government, academia, philanthropy and industry to address national challenges with AI solutions.
AI has already had a phenomenal impact on the education sector. These ongoing examples show us that its use in the classroom will increase further, driving the adoption of edtech tools that support educators and students with bespoke learning and automated classroom management.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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