AI in Education: From K–12 to Higher Education to the Workforce

Dr. Anna Colquitt, the Guinn Center’s Director of Education Policy, leads statewide research at the intersection of law, education, and workforce development, and has recently put her focus on artificial intelligence with the mission to improve education in Nevada.

The Guinn Center published Dr. Colquitt's latest brief on AI use in K–12 education on November 17 as part of its ongoing series on the uses, benefits, and risks of artificial intelligence in Nevada and nationwide. The brief also serves as a companion to Dr. Colquitt's earlier work on AI in higher education, released earlier in 2025.

“AI practice is moving at a much faster rate than AI policy,” says Dr. Colquitt. “That is concerning because the second that it's being used at a rate that policy cannot keep up with, privacy becomes a concern.”

Privacy is just one of the many concerns that have arisen out of the rapid growth and adoption of AI tools being used in classrooms. Without guidance from thoughtful policy, AI models can compromise sensitive data, exacerbate inequities through reproduction of bias, or threaten academic integrity.

“I think the other thing is that at a K–12 level, you are learning so many foundational skills that in higher-ed you are often then either continuing to build upon or continuing to master. When you are learning, having the opportunity to replace learning those skills with utilizing AI can feel concerning,” says Colquitt.

However, ignoring AI entirely may be an even larger concern. Colquitt clarifies, “It doesn't mean that we should toss AI altogether. Whether you talk about it or not, it is being used. And so, if you want it to be used in an appropriate, safe, and beneficial way, you have to talk about it.”

Colquitt focuses her research on not only addressing the concerns of AI usage but also answering the broader questions of how AI can be used as a tool to reshape learning through appropriate use.

AI is being used in innovative ways to transform learning in classrooms across the country. For example, Dr. Rod Case at the University of Nevada, Reno, enrolled ChatGPT as a participating student in his online Education and Human Development course to allow his class to critically assess the work produced by AI models and reflect on ethical considerations.

Colquitt explains, “...I think we need to, as an education system, realize that it is our job and our role to figure out how we want to approach [AI use] and how we want to develop those skills within students, and that needs to be aligned with how the workforce is approaching it, because when K–12 is ignoring it... students then get to higher-ed and get in some murky water, and then experiment for the first time. If they skip the higher-ed step and go straight to the workforce, they're then experimenting with it in the workforce, and that can have some really negative implications if we are pretending like it doesn't exist in the K–12 or higher-ed setting.”

According to Colquitt, right now, the most practical uses for AI across the board involve administrative work. In K–12, safe and appropriate AI use can reduce teachers’ administrative burden for things like lesson planning and grading. In higher education, capitalizing on AI capabilities in academic counseling can be tremendously helpful in addressing students’ needs. There is also great potential for AI to become a tool for personalized learning, which can be difficult for teachers and professors to address on their own when dealing with large class sizes.

Yet, AI is not in a place where it can replace human workers in schools and universities. Human oversight is still needed in order to help safeguard against bias. “I do not think we are there yet,” Colquitt explains. “However, I think there is great hope that we can actually develop AI models that are less biased than our human capacity in terms of things like grading.” Teachers, administrators, and academic counselors still play an important and irreplaceable role in education.

“Students crave human interaction. We know that students' success is dependent on having humans believe in them and students believing that humans believe in them,” says Colquitt. “I think there is this incredible opportunity right now to think about how AI can be used to improve the learning process for students. However, it should not take over the importance of human interaction. I think a lot of what we saw through COVID, and the mental health crisis that we are still in, is the lack of human interaction that took place and the lack of sense of belonging for students, and those things can really only be accomplished by humans.”

There is significant potential for the use of AI in education, and ongoing attention is needed to ensure that its integration supports both students and educators. Considerations related to human oversight, privacy, and appropriate use remain central as schools and districts explore new tools and practices. Clear and consistent guidance can help educational institutions align AI use with instructional goals and workforce expectations, supporting informed decision-making as the technology continues to evolve.

The image used in this article is an Adobe Stock photo generated by AI.