For example, as students read text aloud, AI-driven tools can provide real-time assessment and feedback on their reading skills—prompting students, correcting them when they get words wrong, and even encouraging them like an actual teacher would.

Robin Getsee, a language-arts special education teacher for grades 6-8, has seen the impact of an AI-based reading tutor on one of her students who was on the autism spectrum.

“He read painfully slowly right before COVID,” she recalls. “He was reading probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 words per minute.”

Getsee didn’t see this child for a few months once learning shifted online. When face-to-face learning resumed, she called on him to read.

“He was a totally different student. I could not believe how well he was reading,” Getsee says. “I called his mom that afternoon, and I said: ‘What have you done?’ This was not a (result) of my teaching, this was something that was going on at home.”

The child’s mother told Getsee that he had been using an AI-based reading tutor. “It was absolutely amazing to see what he’s done,” Getsee says. “His comprehension has gone up from an early first grade level to an early third grade level—(and) his confidence has improved.”

AI-driven technologies aren’t designed to replace teachers, but they can support personalized reading instruction when teachers can’t. In essence, they extend a teacher’s presence and ensure that every student has a personal reading tutor.

At a time of enormous challenges, schools need help. Technology offers a solution. Even as schools face daunting staffing shortages, these hurdles don’t have to prove detrimental to reading instruction. With AI, we can extend the reach of every teacher, making it possible to scale personalized learning across an entire school or district—closing the gaps in reading skills and giving students the foundation they need for success in all subjects.