‘School systems are being asked to govern a landscape that changes daily’
More than three-quarters of Canadian teachers say the rapid rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in schools is a source of stress, according to new national research.
Overall, 77% of teachers find keeping up with new AI tools stressful, Education Perfect notes.
The report – based on a survey of more than 300 K–12 educators across Canada – concludes that teachers are willing to use AI but overwhelmed by the speed and fragmentation of implementation.
“Educators are being told that AI will transform how they work, yet the majority find the process of keeping up with new tools stressful,” says Tom D’Amico of Education Perfect’s Learning Advisory Board. “This is not a critique of leadership, but an acknowledgement of the unprecedented speed at which technology is evolving. School systems are being asked to govern a landscape that changes daily.”
AI-related stress is consistent across age groups. The report finds 71% of teachers aged 18–34 and 76% of those aged 35–54 feel stressed by the pace of AI adoption, indicating the pressure is not confined to older educators.
‘Paradox of pace’ and governance gap
The Education Perfect report identifies a “Paradox of Pace,” challenging the idea that teachers are broadly resistant to AI.
It notes that 65% of respondents believe their district is struggling to adapt quickly enough to provide ethical AI frameworks, and only about 35% believe their district is adapting fast enough to deliver safe, curriculum-aligned AI tools.
Education Perfect says the findings point to a governance gap in Canadian school systems, with teachers “waiting for institutional clarity on which tools are safe and private.”
In today’s classrooms, the youngest generation of educators is significantly outpacing older peers in adopting AI, according to a previous report.
Regional differences in AI readiness
Across regions, views differ on whether districts are adapting quickly enough to provide ethical, curriculum-aligned AI tools, according to the survey, with the following expressing agreement:
- 40% of teachers in Alberta agree
- 37% in British Columbia and Quebec
- 36% in Ontario
- 31% in Atlantic Canada
- 24% in Saskatchewan/Manitoba
At the same time, majorities in every region say schools and districts should provide access to AI tools that support lesson planning, assessment and feedback, ranging from 54% in Alberta to 88% in Atlantic Canada.
Fragmented tools, workload pressure
Tool fragmentation is a significant factor in the stress educators feel around AI use, according to Education Perfect. And 64% of teachers say a single, unified AI-enabled platform would significantly reduce stress and workload.
“Equitable, unified digital infrastructure is a baseline requirement for the teacher experience in 2026,” says Chris Helsby, Country Manager, Canada, at Education Perfect. “Providing a level of support that consolidates fragmented tools and scrutinizes the efficacy of the current ecosystems is critical to managing workload and protecting the wellbeing and retention of Canada's education workforce.”
Generative AI is “not a magic wand that will solve all of education’s problems,” says Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in a report posted in the organisation’s website.
“It is capable of magnifying good pedagogy and bad. Governments need to ensure that GenAI is used with intent, to enrich learning and not replace cognitive effort or reduce teacher professional judgement.
“Education systems should preferably back tools explicitly designed to enhance teaching and learning, co-created with teachers and students, and scrutinised with rigorous trials. By doing so, governments can ensure that GenAI supports teachers and students worldwide and equips learners with essential GenAI literacy skills that will likely be important for success in the future labour market and in life more broadly.”
While the integration of AI into the workplace is accelerating, Canadian employers are well aware that technology must not come at the expense of the human element, according to a recent report. Overall, 80% of Canadian business leaders agree that “keeping a human in the loop is important when using AI,” ADP previously reported.
How are teachers using AI in the classroom?
Here are some ways educators are using AI in the classroom, according to a CBC report:
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AI teaching assistant trained on course materials (accessible 24/7 and grounded in the professor's own content) |
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Helping students understand course content by summarizing material, building sample exams and answering specific questions |
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Diagnosing learning gaps by having AI review past interactions to identify topics needing extra study |
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Replacing reaction papers with reaction dialogues where students submit AI chat transcripts about weekly readings |
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Assessing depth of engagement with readings by analysing students' AI conversations as evidence of intellectual struggle |
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Practising effective AI prompting as a skill alongside critical reading and writing |
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Generating code on the fly from student suggestions to create rapid, customised programming exercises |
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Adapting content into students' online vernacular (for example, translating slides into meme-style language) to increase memorability |
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Rapid lesson and exercise design, using AI to quickly generate programming examples and classroom activities |
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Teaching research into AI's benefits and drawbacks across industries as part of coursework |
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Co-creating course AI policies with students to define acceptable use and disclosure expectations |
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Redesigning assignments that AI can complete too easily, replacing them with tasks that better assess higher-order skills |
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Allowing AI use on some assignments with explicit disclosure requirements to reinforce transparency and ethics |
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Iteratively rethinking assessment and learning objectives to ensure they still measure genuine student learning in an AI-rich environment |
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Using AI's presence to foreground critical thinking and foundational skills like concise writing and bias detection |
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Normalising responsible AI use by openly discussing it, rather than ignoring it and driving use underground |
Most employees using AI at work do not consider it reliable without human oversight, according to a previous report.
