AI and humanoid tutors set to transform Aussie education

Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to transform Aussie classrooms over the next five years, and parents might finally be freed from helping with homework, according to a leading futurist.
Dr Catherine Ball is an associate professor at The Australian National University’s College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics and has appeared on Nine’s docuseries Do You Want To Live Forever?
Speaking with 9honey, the businesswoman and futurist, who focuses on environmental science and technology, said some of the biggest changes to classrooms and the way Nine, the businesswoman and futurist who focuses on environmental science and technology, said some of the biggest changes to classrooms and the way children learn would be the result of AI.
“The biggest change in the next five years for schools will be the need to adopt basic AI skills and programs now,” Dr Ball said.
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“Some could save eight hours a week off a teacher’s workload, potentially reducing burnout and staff turnover.”
While she said the education sector is “already showing a digital divide between the haves and have-nots when it comes to digital technologies,” she predicted “this gap will close” as hardware and software becomes cheaper and more accessible.
“Schools will have dedicated digital-free time, and phones will still be banned or controlled; the assets will be school-owned and specific,” she said.
“A huge change will be actually in the homework and out-of-school study hours with AI-enabled personal tutors and ‘friends’ providing an alternative form of education and training,” Dr Ball said.
“Imagine that AI can develop humanoid tutors that tailor things to an individual’s learning style and lifestyle.”
She said that to create a “pathway to personal humanoid robots” by the 2040s, the trick is to get people “working with an AI from birth.”
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Dr Ball also predicted “the role of schools and universities in their communities will change” in order to stay relevant.
“We will seek knowledge and information in new and increasingly data-hungry ways, and so as places of learning and community, the education sector will need to remember why it exists and how it can best serve the country,” she said.
Dr Ball is not the first to predict major changes to education.
In 2023, Tracey Follows, ranked by Forbes as one of the top 50 female futurists in the world, predicted technology would play an integral part in the future of education.
In her report, The End Of School As You Know It: Education in 2050, which was commissioned by EdTech provider GoStudent, she said the “back-to-school rush” that marked the start of each new school year would disappear along with school terms and even schools themselves.
“In fact, by the time the current student body are themselves parents, and grandparents, it is likely that the concept of term times will be assigned to history,” she said.
She said AI would see major changes to how students learn.
“Learning will become continuous rather than episodic. Term times will no longer exist, and the scheduling of classes will become obsolete,” Follows said.
“The traditional academic calendar will no longer apply because technology has made it possible to integrate so many aspects of learning and education into other areas of life.
“The physical classroom as we know it will no longer exist.
“Instead, the classroom will be distributed across the learners’ lives. ‘School’ will now be accessed at work as part of an employment skills program and throughout social and leisure time.
“That’s because knowledge will be instantly available via virtual training spaces for whatever, whenever and wherever someone would like to learn.”
Follows said teachers would move “from a facilitating role to a personal coaching role” to guide the learner and act as a “co-pilot alongside AI-assistance.”
“Additionally, they will take on the responsibility of nurturing the mental and emotional well-being of students,” she said.
Follows gave a decade by decade account of how education would change.
“This decade will see AI enter the education sector and, initially, it will be used primarily for assistance,” she said.
“Our communications are transformed away from the written word to a more ‘image-based’ and oral-communication style.
“AI-automated content and AI-prompting will also alter learning methods.”
Follows said the 2030s would see education move to “autonomous systems.”
“The AI that entered the previous decade will now act in an agent role, working on behalf of people to carry out tasks and communicate what we don’t have time to do as humans.”
By the 2040s, she said “immersive virtual reality” would reshape education.
“Immersive learning technology is already in motion but this is the decade where multiple worlds, made real by computer code, will create fully immersive experiences for education.”
By the 2050s, Follows said “brain computers” would deliver immediate knowledge.
“As a result, knowledge will be accessed more directly and immediately — perhaps by merely downloading it directly to one’s brain,” she said.
“In ‘hive mind’ mode, knowledge no longer resides with one individual but across the group, delivering greater knowledge more immediately.”