How Many Teachers Use AI? Seven Surveys Compared, and Why the Numbers Differ
Surveys put US teachers' AI use anywhere from 46% to 85%, and the gap is mostly wording, samples and sponsors. This lists seven surveys with exactly what each asked, whom it asked, who paid, and what it found, and shows why none of the headline figures can be set against another.
As of · Each survey owner's own report or release, except the EdWeek row1234567
| Survey | Published | Fielded | Who was asked | What "use" means | Headline result | Funder or sponsor | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallup with the Walton Family Foundation, "Teaching for Tomorrow" | Jun 2025 | Mar 18 to Apr 11, 2025 | 2,232 US public K-12 teachers from the RAND American Teacher Panel, weighted; ±2.5 points | Used "any AI tools, like chatbots, adaptive learning systems, or other interactive AI platforms for your work or teaching" in 2024-25 | 60% yes; 32% use AI at least weekly across nine tasks, 28% less often, 40% not at all | Walton Family Foundation partnered with Gallup | 1 |
| Ipsos for NPR | Jun 2026 | Apr 27 to May 5, 2026 | 545 K-12 teachers on the Ipsos KnowledgePanel; weighted to general-population demographics, not teacher characteristics; ±5.0 points | "Have you used artificial intelligence to help with any of your work or tasks as a teacher?" | 62% yes, 37% no; 44% use it zero days a week for prep or administration | Not stated | 2 |
| Center for Democracy & Technology, "Hand in Hand" | Oct 2025 | Jun to Aug 2025 | 806 teachers in grades 6 to 12; quota sample, weighted | Used AI in class in 2024-25 in at least one of about ten listed ways | 85% yes | Not stated | 3 |
| Impact Research for the Walton Family Foundation | Jun 2024 | May 7 to 15, 2024 | 1,003 K-12 teachers; ±3.1 points | Use of AI chatbots "once a week or more" (memo wording) | 46% weekly or more; about three-quarters have used chatbots personally or for school or work | Walton Family Foundation commissioned it | 4 |
| EdWeek Research Center (trend, reported by Education Week) | Jan 2026 | Not stated on the article | Not stated | Used AI "a little", "some" or "a lot" | 34% in 2023, 32% in 2024, 61% in 2025 | Not stated (article only) | 5 |
| Carnegie Learning, "State of AI in Education 2025" | Early 2025 | Dec 16, 2024 to Jan 27, 2025 | 656 educators, 85% of them teachers; self-selected, vendor audience | How often respondents use AI: never, rarely, sometimes, often, always | 7% never, 14% rarely, 36% sometimes, 34% often, 9% always (all educators) | Carnegie Learning, an ed-tech vendor, ran and published it | 6 |
| Gallup with the Walton Family Foundation, "Closing the Expectations Gap" | May 2026 | Feb 9 to Mar 2, 2026 | 2,069 US public K-12 teachers from the RAND American Teacher Panel; ±2.5 points | Not a usage survey; it measures guidance on AI | 82% report no formal guidance; 34% no guidance at all | Walton Family Foundation published it | 7 |
The order is not a ranking: the figures answer different questions, so they cannot be compared or averaged. The Gallup 2026 row is included because it is often quoted next to the usage figures but measures guidance, and the EdWeek row is the only one whose method we could not read. We could not open RAND's own reports, which return access errors, and we do not use the RAND figures that circulate in news coverage. Percentages are as each source states them.
The analysis
Highlights
Gallup 2025 and NPR/Ipsos 2026: about 6 in 10, asked differently
Gallup asked public K-12 teachers from the RAND panel whether they had used any AI tool for work or teaching in the 2024-25 school year and got 60% yes; Ipsos asked 545 teachers whether they had used AI to help with any of their work or tasks and got 62%.12 The question wording is close, the periods differ ("during the school year" against ever), and the Ipsos sample is weighted to general-population demographics, so the near-match is not a trend. Gallup also reports that weekly users estimate saving 5.9 hours a week, a self-estimate across six tasks asked only of users; Ipsos asked all users how much time they save and found 14% save none, 29% under an hour, 34% one to two hours, 14% three to five hours and 8% more than five.12
CDT: 85%, because "use" is broader
The Center for Democracy & Technology counts a teacher as a user if they used AI in class in at least one of about ten listed ways in 2024-25, among grades 6 to 12 only, which is why its 85% sits above the others.3 It is not evidence of faster growth.
Walton and Impact Research 2024: weekly use, a year earlier
A poll commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation found 46% of teachers used AI chatbots once a week or more in May 2024.4 Gallup’s 2025 weekly measure is 32% across nine tasks; the two use different definitions and should not be read as a decline.14
EdWeek: 34%, 32%, 61%
Education Week reports an EdWeek Research Center series in which the share using AI "a little", "some" or "a lot" went from 34% in 2023 to 32% in 2024 and 61% in 2025.5 The article gives no sample, dates or question, so we treat it as a reported trend, not a verified one.
Carnegie Learning: a vendor audience
Carnegie Learning, which sells AI tutoring and curriculum, surveyed 656 mostly self-selected educators and found 79% use AI at least sometimes, a figure we add up from its categories.6 Its respondents are educators, not only teachers, and it is not a probability sample.
Gallup 2026: the guidance gap
The 2026 Gallup report finds 82% of teachers receive no formal guidance on applying AI to their work and 34% none at all, not even informal.7 It restates the 2025 usage figure without re-measuring it.
What to look for in any such figure
Ask who was sampled (all educators, public school teachers, grades 6 to 12), what counts as use (ever, this year, weekly, or any of a list), whether time saved is a self-estimate, and who paid. Four of the seven surveys here were commissioned, published or run by a foundation or a vendor with an interest in AI in schools, which does not make them wrong but is why the sponsor column is in the table. For what AI does in a teacher’s tasks, graded by evidence, see AI tutors: what the randomized trials found; this post counts how many teachers say they use AI, not how well it works.
Sources
- Gallup / Walton Family Foundation, Three in 10 teachers use AI weekly, saving six weeks a year (Gallup release, June 24, 2025; report PDF on waltonfamilyfoundation.org).
- Ipsos, Teachers concerned about the impact of AI on students’ critical thinking (NPR/Ipsos poll), June 5, 2026, with the published topline.
- Center for Democracy & Technology, Hand in Hand: Schools’ Embrace of AI Connected to Increased Risks to Students, October 8, 2025.
- Walton Family Foundation, The value of AI in today’s classrooms (Impact Research poll memo), June 2024.
- Education Week, More teachers are using AI in their classrooms. Here’s why, January 12, 2026 (article only; the underlying survey method was not found).
- Carnegie Learning, The State of AI in Education 2025: Key Findings from a National Survey (vendor report), 2025.
- Gallup / Walton Family Foundation, Teaching for Tomorrow: Closing the Expectations Gap, May 27, 2026.