OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic have partnered with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to create a center focused on training educators in AI tools.

The initiative, named the National Academy for AI Instruction, was announced on July 8, 2025, and will offer free AI training workshops and seminars to K-12 educators across the United States.

The academy aims to support 400,000 educators over the next five years. It is supported by US$23 million in funding from the partnering companies, with Microsoft providing the largest contribution.

A physical facility for the academy will open in Manhattan, New York, with plans to expand to additional locations.

This initiative aligns with a broader movement in the US to incorporate AI into education.

Tech companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, have been increasingly active in this area.

Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, highlighted the need for AI to enhance education rather than disrupt it. The AFT has described the academy as a resource to assist teachers in adapting to technological advancements.

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🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The US is playing catch-up in a global AI education race

This partnership reflects the United States’ efforts to accelerate AI adoption in education amid global competition.

Countries like China, South Korea, and Singapore have already implemented comprehensive national strategies for AI in education, with South Korea mandating AI coursework in its national curriculum by 2025 and allocating approximately $0.74 billion specifically for teacher training 1, 2.

Meanwhile, China has rapidly scaled AI-powered personalized learning through companies like Squirrel AI, which operates 2,000 learning centers across 200 cities serving over a million students 3.

The global AI education market is projected to exceed $20 billion by 2027, driven by government initiatives to integrate AI into curricula worldwide 4.

This new academy represents a strategic response to ensure American educators don’t fall behind in an increasingly competitive global education landscape where AI literacy is becoming fundamental to workforce development.

2️⃣ Teacher training emerges as the critical bridge between AI technology and classroom implementation

The $23 million investment in teacher training addresses a fundamental challenge identified across education systems globally: the preparation gap between educators and AI technologies.

Research shows a significant adoption disparity – while 27% of students regularly use generative AI tools, only 9% of instructors do, highlighting the urgent need for teacher preparation 5.

This initiative mirrors successful approaches in countries like South Korea, where the Ministry of Education recognized that transforming teachers from knowledge transmitters to AI-empowered learning facilitators requires substantial investment in professional development 2.

The academy’s goal of training 400,000 K-12 educators reflects the scale needed to meaningfully integrate AI across the education system rather than in isolated pockets of innovation.

By focusing on teacher preparation rather than just providing AI tools to schools, this initiative addresses a critical implementation factor that has limited the impact of previous educational technology initiatives.

3️⃣ Public-private partnerships emerge as the dominant model for AI education transformation

This collaboration between a major teachers union and leading AI companies represents an emerging global pattern where educational transformation relies on structured partnerships between educators, government, and technology providers.

Similar collaborative models have proven effective in countries like Singapore, where the “Smart Nation” strategy aligns government policy, educational institutions, and technology companies around shared AI education goals 1.

The AFT partnership strategically includes three companies with different strengths – OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s educational infrastructure, and Anthropic’s safety-focused Claude – providing complementary capabilities rather than a single vendor approach.

This multi-stakeholder model addresses a key finding from global AI education research: successful implementation requires alignment between those developing AI technologies and the educators who must integrate them into teaching practices 6, 7.

The initiative also reflects President Biden’s executive order calling for public-private partnerships, demonstrating how government policy increasingly relies on corporate participation to advance educational technology at scale.

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