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Your child probably used artificial intelligence (AI) today, maybe asking a chatbot to explain a math problem or help polish an essay draft.
AI is already part of classrooms nationwide. A 2025 national survey from Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation found that six in 10 teachers regularly use AI tools, with frequent users reporting that the technology saves them nearly six hours a week on tasks such as planning and paperwork. That is time teachers can spend working with students instead of sitting at a desk.
Is this cheating?
The answer is: It depends on how AI is used.
Research suggests that the arrival of generative AI hasn't necessarily led to the dramatic increase in cheating some feared. Stanford University researchers studying thousands of U.S. high school students have found that overall cheating rates have not measurably increased since tools like ChatGPT became widely available.
Students also seem to recognize an important distinction. There's a difference between using AI to brainstorm ideas or help explain a difficult concept and asking it to do an entire assignment for you.
Using AI to check grammar, generate questions or work through a tricky idea can be more like using a calculator, search engine or thesaurus. The tool itself is not necessarily the problem. What matters is how we teach students to use it.
Will kids stop learning to think for themselves?
Good teachers aren't handing thinking over to AI.
A recent systematic review examining dozens of studies on generative AI and higher-order thinking found an important distinction: When AI is intentionally incorporated into a guided learning experience, it can support reasoning and deeper thinking. When students use it without structure or teacher guidance, however, it can become a substitute for thinking.
That may be one of the most important lessons for schools and families. The greatest risk is not simply that students will use AI. It is that they will become overly reliant on it.
So what skills will kids actually need?
Not less thinking. More of it.
Students need to know how to ask good questions, evaluate credible sources, spot bias, verify information and recognize when an AI-generated answer simply doesn't make sense. They also need to know when a technology can help them--and when they need to rely on their own knowledge and judgment.
Those are not just "AI skills." They are critical-thinking skills, and they will matter well beyond the classroom.
As a parent or community member, you can help. Talk to kids about how they use AI at school and at home. Instead of simply asking, "Did you use AI?" try asking, "What did AI help you understand?" or even, "What did a chatbot get wrong recently?"
Those conversations help young people become thoughtful users of technology rather than passive consumers of whatever it produces.
AI in the classroom does not have to be a shortcut around learning. Used well, it can become another way for students to practice the kind of thinking they will need for school, work and life.
For more information or guidance about artificial intelligence in education, contact Tiffanie Zaugg, Ph.D., Artificial Intelligence and Assistive Technology Specialist at Central Rivers Area Education Agency at tzaugg@centralriversaea.org. Central Rivers AEA, which serves students, families and educators in an 18 county area of Iowa, provides training to local educators on AI in the classroom and how to use it effectively to increase efficiency and student learning. Learn more at www.centralriversaea.org.