How is Aila impacting teacher lesson planning practices, workload and expertise? Early insights from the classroom

It has been almost five months since teachers up and down the country began using Aila, our AI lesson assistant, to help them plan lessons for their pupils. Although it is still early days we wanted to investigate if and how Aila was already helping teachers in their day-to-day lives.

We surveyed and spoke with teachers who were already using Aila¹ to explore any positive impact on lesson planning practices, teacher workload as well as curriculum and lesson design expertise. We are delighted to share some early insights into Aila’s potential to support teachers in the classroom.

Our key findings include:

1. Lesson plans teachers created using Aila were generally found to be high-quality; teachers particularly appreciated the quality of quizzes, misconceptions and being able to adapt plans to their pupils' needs.
2. Using Aila is having a positive impact on teacher workload; the majority of teachers felt it saved them time, improved their wellbeing and enabled them to spend more time focused on pupils.
3. Using Aila can help teachers develop lesson planning expertise by supporting both new and experienced teachers to critically engage with the planning process.

Teachers are cautiously embracing AI in the classroom

According to a recent Teacher Tapp survey, almost half of UK teachers are already using generative AI within their role,² despite widespread concerns about the use of AI in education,³ and limited evidence about exactly where these tools might offer the most potential to benefit teachers.

In our research, teachers who were already using AI tools in the classroom shared concerns about the application of AI and its ability to produce an output that is of equivalent quality (or better) than what they would produce themselves.

"I think there’s been a lot of hype around using AI tools, but I don’t think any tools are in a position to do what I can do better." Middle Leader, primary state school

Previous research has shown that using generative AI techniques built on an underlying set of existing high-quality resources can significantly improve the accuracy of the generated output⁴ and this is already being recognised by teachers using Aila.

Aila draws on our bank of thousands of quality assured teaching resources produced by expert subject specialist teachers wherever possible in generating its lesson plans to ensure high accuracy and quality, which gives teachers more confidence in the output than generic AI tools.

A recent Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research trial found that teachers using ChatGPT for specific aspects of lesson planning were able to on average save 25 minutes, but cautioned that although this indicates that generative AI has the potential to reduce teacher workload “support is needed for teachers to ensure that outputs are high-quality and to use ChatGPT effectively”.⁵ This was reflected in our research, where teachers highlighted concerns around their own AI literacy.

"The things that make me a bit cautious are my own limitations in terms of do I have enough knowledge to give it the right commands?" Classroom Teacher, secondary state school

This is why Aila offers an iterative approach to lesson planning, supporting teachers to create a lesson step-by-step, resulting in the final lesson plan being more tailored to their specific needs.

Lesson plans and resources made using Aila are widely considered a high-quality resource

During the first two months of release alone, over 10,000 people used Aila, initiating almost 25,000 lesson plans. These lesson plans spanned a range of subjects, with maths and English being the most popular. Upon completing a specific lesson plan in Aila, 85% of users rated the quality of the structure and content of the plan as fairly high or very high.⁶

"I can definitely see from the lesson that I planned last week the quality of the resource… it’s affording me time to really think about new lessons and new ways of doing things." Classroom Teacher, secondary state school

Teachers also commented that Aila is good for adapting to pupils of mixed abilities.

"[The outputs are] very suitable for especially the lower ability students. Sometimes it's quite hard to find resources to cater for the students that find it hard to access the work, and I found those really useful." Classroom Teacher, secondary state school

Furthermore, we heard how teachers successfully used the quizzes generated in the Aila lesson plans to understand how well pupils had met their intended learning objectives.

Aila is already saving teachers’ time

Almost two-thirds of surveyed teachers said that using Aila either decreased their workload or allowed them to spend more time on other important aspects of their role.⁷ The total time saved varied from 1 hour up to a massive 15 hours! Some teachers explicitly reported that the time saved by using Aila had a positive impact on their mental wellbeing, such as reduced stress and more time at home.

Teachers specifically reflected on time saved when creating lesson plans and resources from scratch, where they have no pre-existing resources.

Saving time on creating bespoke resources or tailoring content to their class using Aila freed teachers up to spend time on other activities such as marking and professional development. Some teachers said that Aila gives them more time to focus on making lessons better through doing additional research or creating more resources.

"I’ll actually put a bit more time into what we’re doing… because it’s already got the structure of something I’ll spend a bit more time researching or I’ll spend a bit more time looking into finessing the lesson or putting more into the additional resources." Classroom Teacher, primary state school

Aila can help both new and experienced teachers critically engage with the lesson planning process

Over half of surveyed teachers stated that Aila is making them think differently about how they plan lessons,⁸ such as including checks for understanding, incorporating misconceptions and inspiring them with fresh ideas about how to teach lessons.

"I like the fact that when I pulled out something to do with a practical lesson, it suggested a practical that I’ve never done before. 26 years I’ve been a science teacher and my practicals are fine but I like the appeal that it can come up with other things." Lead Practitioner, secondary state school

Those delivering teacher training shared that Aila has demonstrated the potential to encourage trainees to focus on the pedagogy of lesson planning and delivery, whilst removing some of the time burden involved in the planning process.

"When I introduce Aila to support planning, it's about letting [Aila] do the basics of coming up with ideas and then you can be the critical teacher that can view the planning critique here. Thinking about what works and why and whether the plan is fit for purpose in their class." Teacher Educator, University

Aila has potential for even greater impact

Given that Aila is still in beta, we’re continually refining and improving the tool, and this research has been instrumental in identifying key areas to focus our efforts.

One key insight was the importance of the quality of our curriculum plans and teaching resources. Teachers noted a clear difference in lesson quality when content was more closely tied to our existing resources. This reinforces how vital it is to maintain and expand a robust, high-quality collection of expert-created lessons. We’re regularly adding new lessons crafted by expert teachers, which will continue to enhance Aila’s capabilities over time.

Teachers also provided thoughtful suggestions for improvement, with one of the most requested features being the inclusion of images in slide decks. We’re excited to share that we’re already working on this feature. Since conducting this research, we’ve also rolled out several updates, including the ability to download additional materials, save lessons for easy access later, and use new "modify" buttons to simplify content editing.

At the heart of all our work is a commitment to accuracy, quality, and safety. Looking ahead, we’re eager to build on this research to explore how the approach we have taken with Aila can make a meaningful impact—not just for individual teachers but across the teaching profession and the broader education sector. This is only the beginning, and we can’t wait to see how Aila evolves with the continued feedback and support of the teaching community.

Your feedback

Have you used Aila to support your lesson planning? If so, we would love to hear how it is impacting your lesson planning and workload so far. Let us know by filling out this survey.

If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to explore Aila, why not take a look and see how it could help you today.

Acknowledgements

This blog was based on research conducted by John Gribbin.

You might also be interested in:

• Aila’s safety guardrails explained
• How do we ensure our AI-generated resources are high-quality?
• Understanding the 'Ai' in Aila
• Webinar recording: How to harness the potential of AI in your school
• Webinar recording: How to plan high-quality, personalised lessons with Aila