Generative artificial intelligence is reshaping education by altering the roles of teachers, students, and institutions, shifting the focus away from simple task completion towards greater human oversight, judgment, and strategic decision making, according to the OECD’s Digital Education Outlook 2026 report.
The report finds that for teachers, GenAI is increasingly acting as an enabler rather than a replacement. By automating routine tasks such as lesson planning and resource preparation, teachers are gaining time to focus on pedagogy and student engagement. Evidence cited in the report shows that secondary science teachers in England were able to reduce planning time by nearly a third without compromising quality. This has encouraged a move towards a teacher AI teaming model, where educators act as pedagogical orchestrators who define learning goals, guide AI behaviour, and intervene where professional judgment is required.
Beyond productivity gains, GenAI is also influencing teacher development. New tools allow novice educators to practise with simulated students or receive real time guidance during tutoring sessions, while classroom analytics provide feedback on instructional practices such as how effectively teachers draw out student thinking. At the same time, the report notes growing awareness of the risks of over reliance on AI, highlighting the emerging responsibility of teachers to monitor how students interact with these systems and to design learning environments that preserve independent thinking.
For students, the report describes a shift from passive consumption of information to more active, reflective learning. GenAI is enabling personalised and conversational tutoring that adapts to individual needs through Socratic style dialogue rather than rigid question and answer formats. Students are also using AI as a collaborative partner in group work and creative tasks, particularly when encouraged to engage in slower, iterative exploration instead of instant content generation.
However, the OECD warns of the risk of what it describes as metacognitive laziness, where students rely on AI as a shortcut for effortful thinking. While task performance may improve, actual learning can weaken once AI support is removed. As a result, the report stresses the importance of AI literacy, with students needing to understand when to delegate tasks to AI and when to engage directly with complex reasoning themselves.
At the institutional level, administrators are also adapting to new possibilities. GenAI is being used to streamline programme alignment and credit recognition across institutions, reducing the manual burden of evaluating course equivalencies. Curriculum and workload analytics are helping institutions identify mismatches between credit values and actual student effort, supporting redesigns aimed at improving retention and outcomes.
The report also highlights innovation in assessment and research. Institutions are experimenting with AI generated assessment items that can be tested using synthetic student responses to calibrate difficulty, while privacy preserving synthetic datasets are opening new avenues for analysing sensitive administrative data that was previously inaccessible.
Overall, the OECD concludes that generative AI is not simply a tool for efficiency but a catalyst for redefining human roles in education. Its impact, the report argues, will depend less on technical capability and more on how well systems support human agency, accountability, and critical thinking across classrooms and institutions.
