Artificial intelligence is already embedded in English classrooms, but schools are adopting the technology far faster than they're developing plans to use it responsibly. A new study from Accenture and Teach First reveals a significant gap between AI adoption and institutional readiness, with only 2% of surveyed schools reporting a fully developed AI strategy despite widespread informal use.

How Are Teachers Currently Using AI in Schools?

Teachers across England are already leveraging AI for everyday classroom tasks, according to school leaders surveyed in the research. The most common applications include lesson planning, quiz creation, and drafting exam questions. Among nearly 200 school leaders interviewed, 60% reported using AI at least weekly, including 16% who use it daily and 44% who use it at least once a week.

However, this adoption is happening largely through informal, localized decisions rather than coordinated school-wide approaches. Teachers are making independent choices about which tools to use and how to integrate them into their work, creating what researchers describe as fragmented activity without a shared model for exchanging evidence or best practices.

Why Are Schools Struggling to Create AI Strategies?

The research identified several interconnected barriers preventing schools from moving beyond ad hoc AI use to structured, strategic implementation. Staff capability emerged as the most significant obstacle, with 63% of school leaders citing limited staff confidence or skills as a major barrier to adoption. Beyond confidence, schools face other substantial challenges:

• Data Privacy Concerns: 51% of school leaders identified data privacy as a significant barrier, reflecting legitimate worries about how student information is handled by AI systems.
• Limited Understanding of Educational Value: 41% of leaders pointed to insufficient knowledge about how AI could actually support teaching and learning outcomes.
• Safeguarding and Accuracy Risks: School leaders expressed concerns about plagiarism, inaccurate or biased information, and the potential for students to become overly reliant on AI-generated work.
• Cost Considerations: While less common than other barriers, 16% of leaders cited cost as a concern, though this ranked lower than confidence, privacy, and knowledge gaps.

The disconnect between adoption and strategy is particularly stark when it comes to training. Only 20% of surveyed schools provided AI-focused staff training, and three in ten school leaders estimated that fewer than 20% of their teachers felt confident using AI.

What Role Does Leadership Play in AI Adoption?

The research found a clear relationship between senior leadership engagement with AI and broader school adoption patterns. Schools where leaders used AI themselves and demonstrated its applications showed more consistent and coordinated adoption across their institutions. Conversely, schools with skeptical or disengaged leadership experienced slower and less coordinated implementation.

A notable regional variation emerged in the data. In London, 29% of surveyed school leaders reported using AI every day, compared with just 12% across the rest of England. This disparity raises concerns about uneven access to technology and professional development, potentially widening existing inequalities between schools and regions.

"Artificial intelligence is no longer a future consideration for schools, it is already embedded in day-to-day teaching and learning. This research shows adoption is moving faster than the strategy, training and support needed to sustain it," said Matt Prebble, Head of Accenture in the UK and Ireland.

Matt Prebble, Head of Accenture in the UK and Ireland

What Do Experts Recommend for Schools Moving Forward?

Accenture and Teach First outlined five key steps to help schools move from fragmented AI use toward coherent, sustainable implementation. These recommendations address the gap between current adoption and strategic readiness:

• Leadership Engagement: School leaders should engage directly with AI tools themselves and model responsible use, demonstrating how the technology can be applied effectively and ethically.
• Define Purpose and Boundaries: Schools should establish clear purposes for AI use and identify activities where human judgment must remain central, rather than allowing unrestricted adoption.
• Start with Lower-Risk Applications: Begin with uses where value is easier to identify and measure, building toward a broader strategic plan rather than attempting comprehensive implementation immediately.
• Enable Controlled Experimentation: Create opportunities for staff to test tools and share what they learn within clear professional and safeguarding limits, fostering a culture of evidence-based practice.
• Build Capability Through Shared Learning: Develop staff expertise through ongoing collaborative learning rather than relying solely on standalone training sessions, allowing teachers to compare tools, discuss mistakes, and share examples of effective practice.

The distinction between AI policies and broader strategies is important. While 12% of surveyed schools reported having an AI policy in place, these policies typically establish rules for use rather than articulating what schools want AI to achieve or how staff capability will be developed.

"Artificial intelligence has the potential to support teaching and reduce workload pressures, but there's a real risk that variable access to technology and training could deepen existing inequalities between schools and pupils, particularly outside of London," noted James Toop, Chief Executive Officer of Teach First.

James Toop, Chief Executive Officer of Teach First

What Does This Mean for Students and Teachers?

The research did not independently measure whether AI use improved student outcomes or how many hours teachers actually saved through AI-assisted lesson planning and administrative work. However, school leaders reported that teachers valued AI primarily for reducing preparation time through activities like drafting lesson materials, creating questions, and producing administrative content.

The concern about uneven access is particularly pressing. If schools in wealthier areas or regions like London continue to adopt AI more rapidly and comprehensively than schools elsewhere, the technology could exacerbate existing educational inequalities rather than reduce them. This outcome depends heavily on whether schools develop equitable strategies for implementation and whether professional development reaches teachers across all regions and school types.

The Accenture and Teach First study surveyed roughly 6% of England's secondary school sector and was supplemented by 30 semi-structured interviews with school leaders and six interviews with AI and education specialists. While the research provides valuable insights into current adoption patterns and barriers, it does not claim to be a complete audit of AI use in every school, nor does it include direct measures of student learning outcomes.