Artificial Intelligence as the Invisible Assistant: A New Ally for Teachers in the Fight Against Overload
Artificial Intelligence as the Invisible Assistant: A New Ally for Teachers in the Fight Against Overload
Imagine someone lending you a hand every day as you take attendance, write reports, create schedules, or communicate with parents. Someone who doesn’t sleep, forget, or complain. That “someone” is artificial intelligence. And for many educators in today’s education systems, AI is no longer science fiction—it’s a daily necessity.
At a time when administrative tasks threaten to overshadow the core of education—the teacher-student relationship—the project AI Compass: Guiding School Leaders Through Technological Frontiers draws attention to this problem. Its mission is clear: to support secondary school teachers and leaders in using AI tools to ease their workload and refocus on what truly makes a difference in learning.
The Invisible Burden of Teaching
According to the Eurydice report (2018), secondary school teachers spend on average less than 47% of their working time in direct interaction with students. The rest goes to planning, record-keeping, assessment, administration, and communication. In adult education, that percentage may be even lower.
This hidden labour leads to:
- Burnout,
- A decline in teaching quality,
- Decreased motivation for professional development,
- Teachers leaving the profession.
Therefore, finding ways to make teaching work more sustainable, with the support of technology, is one of today’s key educational policy challenges.
How Can AI Help—Concretely?
Within the AI Compass project, models were developed to address the most common administrative burdens teachers face. Here are a few examples:
Automatic Lesson Planning and Preparation - Generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can generate lesson plan drafts aligned with learning outcomes, offering customisation options.
Generating Reports and Records - Natural language processing tools can automatically create weekly reports, progress evaluations, and administrative forms.
Attendance Tracking and Parent Communication - AI systems linked with electronic gradebooks can automatically send notifications and generate summaries for parent-teacher meetings.
Learning Data Analysis - Instead of manually analyzing tests and grades, AI can identify student progress patterns and suggest interventions.
Case Study: A Day in the Life of a Teacher with AI
Before AI implementation:
- 1h for lesson preparation
- 30 minutes for report writing
- 20 minutes for attendance tracking
- 40 minutes replying to parent messages
After AI implementation:
- 20 minutes to personalise AI-generated lesson plans
- 10 minutes to review automatically drafted reports
- 5 min to approve system-generated notifications
Time saved: 1.5 hours per day
What Is the Key to Successful AI Integration in Education?
- Teachers’ Digital Literacy – Introducing AI tools requires basic training, but with the right approach, these tools are intuitive and adaptable.
- Ethics and Transparency – Teachers need to understand what AI does, which data it uses, and how that data is protected.
- Leadership Support – School principals and coordinators play a key role in fostering a culture of innovation and trust in technology.
- Localisation and Language Adaptation – Tools must be available in the local language and aligned with the national curriculum.
Conclusion: AI Is Not a Threat, but an Ally
Artificial intelligence does not replace teachers. It replaces papers, forms, and routine.It enables teachers to return to the core of their profession: inspiring, engaging, supporting, and guiding learners.
The AI Compass project shows that when developed with a deep understanding of teaching practice, technology can be a quiet force of change.
Now is the right time for AI to become our invisible assistant in the fight against teacher overload.
