According to a recent BBC article, new guidance from the Department for Education is being distributed to schools suggesting that teachers can use the technology to “help automate routine tasks” to allow them more time to focus on “quality face-to-face time”.
Now, if you’re a teacher, school leader, or just someone who knows the pressure that schools are under – this is a big deal.
Why this matters
In my opinion – teachers are superheroes, but they have the same challenges as us mere mortals:
- Not enough hours in the day
- Too many meetings
- Too much admin
AI isn’t a silver bullet, but what this announcement shows is the beginning of a cultural shift – a green light from the top that says, “Yes, you can use AI to make your job easier.”
The government’s guidance focuses on low-stakes marking, quiz feedback, and basic communications like school newsletters and letters to parents – easy wins where AI can help condense hours of work into seconds.
Should teachers be encouraged to learn AI?
As a father of 2 teenagers myself, I can vouch for the fact children are using AI – whether teachers are using it or not.
I’m not going to get into a discussion about whether our children should be taught how to use AI responsibly – that’s a blog for another day! But as for the question as to whether those working in a school/college should be allowed to use AI (be it teachers, office managers, the school administrative team) my response is an unequivocal “YES…… but” so long as it’s governed properly – and that’s the key point.
The importance of AI governance
Just like any other organisation, AI offers incredible opportunities to streamline the work of teachers and the school office team.
But if you don’t have an AI policy or any guardrails in place, there is a strong chance that your people are probably already using AI, whether you have agreed to it or not, and this could leave your organisation exposed to:
- Breaching data protection rules
- Sharing inaccurate / false information
- Reputational damage
Whether you want your people to take advantage of AI or not, it’s vital that you create an AI governance framework and AI policy (and communicate this throughout your organisation), so everyone has clarity over what AI tools they should (and should not) be using.
Which AI tools should you be adopting?
For those using Microsoft Office (with a school or business account) you can now harness the power of AI safely within the security of your Microsoft 365 environment.
Microsoft’s 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio are fantastic tools to enable your people to benefit from the huge time savings associated with using AI and reduce hours of work into mere seconds. The advantage of using Microsoft Copilot’s AI tool, versus a free public tool such as ChatGPT out-of-the-box, is that anything your people share with the AI stays private – securely ringfenced inside your organisation’s 365 environment.
Any documents your team upload (even client data and company information) will not be shared outside of your 365 environment, making Copilot the ideal choice for those organisations who want to empower their teams to use AI safely and securely, without exposing your organisation to data security risks
Think of Copilot in the same way as your Sharepoint files – you keep all your company documents here, but they are all secure.
If your organisation does decide Copilot is going to be the AI tool of choice, you’ll want to ensure this is communicated throughout the organisation and your team receive training and support to use it effectively in their day-to-day roles, so they don’t stray into using alternative ‘unapproved’ tools.
Additionally, you may want to configure different AI tools for different uses. For example, you could have a Microsoft CoPilot AI Agent that automatically puts content directly into a branded PowerPoint slide deck, or a CoPilot AI Agent that automatically writes your weekly school newsletter.
Bespoke AI solution vs public AI tools
The DfE rightly points out the risks: misinformation, data privacy concerns, and the importance of checking AI outputs manually. These are the same principles we apply in business – AI can save you hours, but it should never be left to run on autopilot without oversight and checking the outputs.
Again, this is where using a bespoke AI solution – that has been tailored for your organisation – is key.
By configuring an AI tool (such as Microsoft CoPilot) for your organisation, you can set it up to control the output and ensure the AI is not making stuff up (referred to as ‘hallucinations’) or providing inaccurate information.
Using AI to handle routine FAQs from parents and provide parents with instant responses 24/7
Imagine if you could have an AI agent/chatbot that could provide instant responses to questions from your customers or staff anytime of day or night.
In the context of a school this could take the form of an AI Agent being used to provide parents with instant responses to all those routine FAQs, such as:
- Calling to report their child’s absence
- Asking about term dates
- Information on upcoming school events
- How to pay for school meals/activities
Imagine if 80% of the FAQs that come into your school could be handled automatically by an AI Agent. How much time would that free-up for your School Office Team, to enable them to work on other tasks?
This is exactly what a bespoke AI Agent can do for you. You provide it with as much information as you have and then ‘lock it down’ so it can only provide a response based on the knowledge you have given it. If it’s asked a question that it doesn’t know the answer to, you can configure the AI Agent to refer the parent to a member of the Office team instead.
This is just one very simple use case that can really add value, by reducing time spent dealing with routine FAQs, and the same principle can be applied to any organisation, to deal with queries from customers or even HR queries staff members.
Final thoughts and take-aways
What’s happening in education mirrors what’s happening in small and medium-sized businesses across the UK. AI is becoming the new way of working smarter.
Whether you’re a headteacher, a marketing manager, or a business owner – you’re facing the same challenge: not enough time, too much admin, and pressure to deliver results.
There’s no doubt that AI is fast-becoming the next major tool for work. In the same way as Microsoft Office revolutionised the way we work in the 1990’s (introducing Word, Excel and PowerPoint), and the internet did in the late 1990’s, AI is now the next major technological gear-change.
- Those who are harnessing AI are condensing hours (if not days) of work, into mere seconds.
- With Microsoft Copilot, you can empower your people to use AI within the safety of your 365 environment, so however your people use the AI, you can be reassured that everything remains safely ringfenced inside your organisation.
- Having an AI governance framework and AI policy is vital – whether you choose to adopt AI now or not. There’s a good chance most of your people are already using AI – with or without your blessing – so create a policy and communicate that to your people so they know what is (and is not) ok.
- If you have Microsoft 365 (Work or School account), the chances are, your people are already experimenting with CoPilot – which means they can access any document stored within your 365 environment – unless you have restricted permissions. So make sure that any confidential or sensitive information you have on Sharepoint is stored within SharePoint sites or folders with restricted access. Otherwise, anyone in your organisation can retrieve it.
- Bespoke AI solutions (such as creating AI agents with Copilot) are a great way to customise the use of AI, in order that it is specific to your organisation, and addresses specific activities, helping to save your people hours (if not days) of time.
Helping you implement AI safely and securely across your organisation
At South West AI Solutions, we help businesses (and yes, schools too) unlock these practical wins. If AI can draft a parent letter or mark a quiz, just imagine what it can do for your Sales, Marketing, HR and Customer Service teams.
The key is having an AI governance framework in place to begin with, creating bespoke AI tools that are customised for your organisation and ensuring your staff receive training and support so they can use AI in a safe and secure environment and in accordance with your organisation’s approved AI governance framework.
If this article has got you curious about how AI could work in your organisation, get in touch to book a FREE AI Introductory Session.
Original Source: BBC News – “Teachers can use AI to save time on marking, new guidance says”