81% of students use AI (but only 28% learn these skills in the classroom)

Teachers consider AI an important component of the future of education, but there are clear disparities in terms of access, training and trust, especially between public and public schools. Despite the fact that more than half (58%) of Italian teachers believe that AI will be crucial to students' future professional lives, one in four (24%) say their students have no access to AI tools in schools.

The latter becomes even more worrying when one considers the disparity in teachers' skills: while 43% of teachers in public schools receive AI training, only 24% in public schools are adequately trained, a gap that underlines the need for investment in public education.

In this context, according to teachers, Italian schools should aim to introduce new subjects into the curriculum, such as cybersecurity (48%), sustainability education (40%) and technological development, including AI (30%). These proposals reflect a growing awareness of the need to prepare the new generations not only for a digital world, but also for a world in which AI will play a central role in multiple professional and personal spheres.

Regional data confirm the picture painted by the opinions of teachers and students: Italian schools, on the whole, are not yet prepared to integrate artificial intelligence effectively. Although Lombardy emerges as the region furthest ahead, only 48% of its students have access to advanced technologies and barely 24% of teachers are trained in AI. Numbers that, although among the highest in Italy, still show an insufficient reality with respect to the standards required by modern education.

The gap widens in other regions: in Campania and Lazio, respectively, only 20 and 21% of students have access to technology and teacher training on AI remains limited (18% in Campania, just 6% in Lazio).

Beyond access to technology and teacher training, the data reveal a deeper gap: there is a lack of an integrated educational ecosystem linking school, family, institutions and the tech world in a common path of artificial intelligence literacy. 50% of Italian teachers consider artificial intelligence a 'fundamental human right' and 58% believe that AI will play a central role in students' professional lives.

At the same time, families say they are enthusiastic but unprepared. Only 30% of parents say their children use AI tutors or assistants to study, and 34% have access to AI-based teaching tools, but over 60% still lack them. The main obstacles are cost (23%), lack of devices at school (19%) and lack of knowledge about the tools (30%). Despite this, 40% recognise the value of the personalised learning offered by AI and 47% see its potential if integrated with traditional teaching. However, the importance of the human factor (74%) and concern about misuse such as copying (52%) remains strong.

What is needed, therefore, is a shared national strategy that does not merely equip schools with tools, but promotes structured training programmes, updated curricula, collaboration with experts in the field, and inclusion of families in the transition process. Only in this way will it be possible to reduce the gap between students' enthusiasm and the system's unpreparedness, guaranteeing everyone the same opportunities in an increasingly digital future.

"Teachers' creativity inspires students and gets them excited," says Felix Ohswald, Co-founder & CEO of GoStudent, "Teachers' knowledge and ideas about AI can help shape students' success with new technologies. That's why we developed tools like GoStudent Learning and our AI Tutor: to empower teachers, not replace them'.