AI use is already widespread across education. According to Microsoft’s 2026 AI in Education report, 92% of surveyed students and education leaders and 88% of surveyed educators reported using AI for school-related purposes.¹ Experimentation is no longer the question. What comes next is: whether AI can move from individual productivity gains to something an entire institution can rely on, across teaching, learning, research, and operations.
That shift is particularly challenging in education. A single institution may support instruction, assessment, advising, financial aid, research, safety, and IT, each with different systems, records, and access requirements. Add student privacy obligations and academic integrity expectations, and a general-purpose AI experience may lack the context and controls required for institutional use.
Closing that gap requires both relevant institutional context and safeguards for how information is accessed and used. Microsoft 365 Education is designed to bring those elements together, helping institutions move from isolated AI experimentation toward practical, governed use.
Agentic classroom support #
Consider what a week actually looks like for an educator. Planning, differentiation, and assessment each live in different places, and none of those systems were designed to talk to one another. The result is repetitive, operational work that piles up between a teacher and their students.
This is where agents change the equation. Rather than another tool to open, classroom agents work across the systems an educator already uses, helping streamline planning, differentiation, and assessment as connected work rather than separate tasks. Drafting differentiated versions of a lesson for different reading levels, assembling materials aligned to a unit, and pulling assessment results into a picture of who needs help, become part of one flow.
The measure of success isn’t the automation itself. It’s what the automation gives back: time for educators to spend on instruction and with students, which is where their impact is greatest. That’s the promise of AI built for teaching and learning, grounded in real instructional workflows rather than generic productivity.
Connecting the student experience #
Fragmented information can also create challenges across the student journey. A student navigating advising, financial aid, accessibility services, and academic support may need to repeat information across several offices. Each additional handoff can add friction at a point when timely, coordinated support matters.
With shared context across student services, support can feel more connected throughout the student journey. Students encounter fewer handoffs and receive help that reflects where they are, from orientation to moments when they may need additional support to continue their studies. Behind the scenes, staff have the context to coordinate a more timely response, helping the institution reduce administrative friction while better supporting each student.
The outcome institutions are after here isn’t operational efficiency alone. The broader objective is to reduce administrative friction and help staff provide more coordinated, timely support throughout the student journey.
The foundation: Intelligence, governance, and trust #
A capable AI model is only one part of an institution-ready experience. Relevant context, governance, and clearly defined human oversight also matter.
**Intelligence **provides relevant context for AI experiences. Microsoft IQ is the intelligence layer across Microsoft’s AI capabilities, and Work IQ draws on the Microsoft 365 data, relationships, and workflows a user is permitted to access. This context can help Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents surface relevant information from sources such as files, email, messages, and meetings within the institution’s Microsoft 365 environment.
Governance comes from the Microsoft 365 platform your institution already administers: identity, permissions, compliance, and data protection, applied consistently to Copilot and to agents. The institutional knowledge this intelligence draws on is your data. It stays yours, under your control and governance.
Trust is what makes the first two usable in a school. Microsoft 365 permissions and governance controls help limit access to information a user is authorized to use. Institutions should configure, monitor, and review Copilot and agent experiences in accordance with their privacy, security, and academic-integrity requirements.
Together these deliver what education asks of AI: that it be built for teaching and learning, that it work in the flow of education rather than in a separate destination, and that it provide a trusted academic experience institutions can stand behind.
Matching capability to readiness #
Institutions begin from different levels of AI readiness. Microsoft 365 Education offers several ways to get started and expand use over time, based on an institution’s priorities, licensing, governance, and technical readiness.
** Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat** is included in Microsoft 365 and is where many institutions begin, offering educators and staff a secure, everyday AI experience.
provides a richer, more relevant experience by bringing AI into the Microsoft 365 apps where teaching, learning, research, and operations already happen. It also enables institutions to delegate multi-step work to agents, choosing the capabilities that best fit their needs and readiness.
Microsoft 365 CopilotThat progression matters because it lets institutions invest where capability is needed most, adding as governance and readiness mature rather than committing everywhere at once.
There’s a similar logic behind how we approach models. Model choice is another consideration. In supported Microsoft 365 Copilot experiences, organizations may have access to different models for different types of work, subject to availability and administrator controls. The more useful question is not simply which model is newest, but which supported experience best fits the task, the institution’s requirements, and the applicable data-processing terms.
Where to start #
None of this requires a large rollout to begin.
Start with what’s already in place.Copilot Chatis included in Microsoft 365, which means most institutions already have a secure place to begin.Pick one workflow. Choose a single sequence where the cost is visible such as an educator’s planning time, a student handoff that loses momentum, or an administrative process that consumes staff effort, and start there rather than everywhere.Let governance grow with usage. Expand capability as your controls and confidence mature, rather than committing across the institution at once.
Education’s complexity is not something to design around. It is the reality AI must be designed for. Microsoft is focused on bringing together relevant context, institutional controls, and flexible ways to begin, so schools can explore AI on terms that reflect their needs and responsibilities.
¹ Microsoft, AI in Education: A Microsoft Special Report, 2026.