One of the most significant ways in which artificial intelligence is entering education is through individual teachers making personal use of AI-driven tools to support and streamline their work. Many teachers now turn to AI tools to assist with preparing lessons, writing feedback and communications, and many other administrative tasks that are part of contemporary teaching. Teachers – as with other similar professions – are increasingly turning to AI-driven productivity tools and short-cuts. Some teachers might also be integrating AI apps into their classroom activities to complement and extend what they can achieve with their schools’ official software and platforms. All told, there is now a wide range of teacher AI use taking place regardless of schools’ official stances on how the technology should (and should not) be used. 

Of course, this is not unique to teaching. Ethan Mollick (2023) has coined the term ‘secret cyborgs’ to describe the trend for employees across all sectors to make private use of AI to make their work easier:

“We know that, when given access to general purpose [AI] tools, people figure out ways to use them to make their jobs easier and better. The results are often breakthrough inventions, ways of using AI that could transform a business entirely. People are streamlining tasks, taking new approaches to coding, and automating time-consuming and tedious parts of their jobs. But the inventors aren’t telling their companies about their discoveries; they are the secret cyborgs, machine-augmented humans who keep themselves hidden”

The main concern for business and management types such as Mollick is that employers might now be missing out on innovative uses of AI tools that could improve their oveall business. The concern here is that powerful forms of AI-led efficiencies that might be rolled-out across an organisation are likely flying under the radar. Who knows what potential significant productivity gains are going unnoticed?

Of course, there are other ways of problematising this ‘secret’ use of AI by workers, especially when it comes to teachers and school work. What are these AI tools doing to the quality of teachers’ work? How is a reliance on these AI tools impacting on teachers’ expertise? What are the wider data privacy and protection risks arising from school-related tasks being conducted through these technologies? Are these tools and apps allowing some teachers to take on excessively high workloads – therefore legitimising unsustainable patterns of over-work and stress across the profession?

Any discussion of schools and AI needs to pay close attention to teachers’ personal entanglements with technology. While many schools might still only be dimly aware of these aspects of AI, such apps and tools are becoming significant aspects of how teachers now do their work.