Why artificial intelligence, applied with care, can transform outdated testing and pacing into real-time insights that support both teachers and students.
GUEST COLUMN | by Dr. Leah Hanes and Nolan Bushnell
EXODEXA
Despite record-high education spending – $872 billion in the U.S. last year – student outcomes continue to decline. Globally, 617 million children cannot reach basic proficiency in reading or math. Teachers are leaving the profession within five years, citing burnout, paperwork, and frustration with one-size-fits-all classrooms. Students are disengaged, struggling to keep pace, or held back from moving forward. The system isn’t just strained. It’s broken.
‘Teachers are leaving the profession within five years, citing burnout, paperwork, and frustration with one-size-fits-all classrooms. Students are disengaged, struggling to keep pace, or held back from moving forward. The system isn’t just strained. It’s broken.’
Enter artificial intelligence, a technology that inspires equal parts excitement and skepticism. As this technology becomes more integrated into classrooms, teachers worry about cheating, inequitable access, and the erosion of critical thinking. Parents worry their children will be reduced to data points. And many in the public view AI as a mechanizing force, stripping classrooms of the human connection that makes learning meaningful.
We see it differently. Our conviction is simple: AI should make classrooms more human, not less.
From Blunt Instruments to Real-Time Insights
Traditional assessments or standardized tests reliant on rigid pacing are blunt instruments. They tell us who passed and who failed, but not why. They arrive too late to help the struggling student or to challenge the one who’s ready for more. AI, used responsibly, offers a different path. It can continuously and invisibly assess learning in real time, showing teachers where students are excelling, where they’re struggling, and what kind of support they need.
Learning Through Flow and Engagement
This is the vision we’ve explored at ExoDexa: weaving assessment into an interactive, story-driven game. Instead of sitting for tests, students solve puzzles, apply knowledge, and advance through challenges. The AI adapts to each learner’s rhythm, slowing down when confusion arises, accelerating when mastery is clear. One student might revisit fractions for reinforcement, while another unlocks algebra. Both feel successful. Both stay engaged.
And here’s the critical point: this doesn’t replace teachers. It empowers them. Surveys show that teachers using AI tools save nearly six hours per week and feel better equipped to personalize instruction. That reclaimed time can be reinvested in what teachers care about most: working directly with students, offering encouragement, and guiding deeper understanding.
A Human-Centered Future for AI in Education
As the father of video games, Nolan has long understood the “flow” principle – the sweet spot between productive struggle and skill that keeps players engaged. Education has missed that balance for too long. As an ethicist and education leader, Leah has insisted that AI must be implemented with care, transparency, and equity, so it serves students and teachers, not the other way around. Together, we believe the fusion of these perspectives points to a future where AI and human educators complement each other, creating classrooms that are both adaptive and deeply personal.
Skepticism is healthy. Guardrails are necessary. But clinging to outdated assessment and pacing models is no longer an option. If we want every student to thrive and teachers to stay in the profession, we need tools that reveal, in real time, how to help each learner succeed.
AI won’t replace teachers. It will return them to the heart of their calling: helping students learn, grow, and flourish because AI will help them meet each student where they are.
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Dr. Leah Hanes is CEO of ExoDexa. Nolan Bushnell is Founder of Atari and Co-Founder of ExoDexa. Together, they are the co-authors of the book, “Shaping the Future of Education: The ExoDexa Manifesto” available on Amazon. Connect with Dr. Hanes on LinkedIn.
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