As the 2025-26 school year approaches, K-12 public school systems are rapidly acquiring a variety of artificial intelligence (AI)-related goods and services. This market is poised for long-term growth, as many school systems have only just begun to consider their AI roadmaps.
The K-12 sector will also see an extended period of purchasing volatility before it approaches maturity. The rapid evolution of AI technologies will make it difficult for buyers to settle on products and solutions with confidence that they have purchased the best option. This means that vendors will enjoy ample opportunity to introduce themselves, and potentially displace competitors as school systems move up the knowledge curve on AI.
Currently, this market is dominated by the widespread use of generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, by educators for all sorts of day-to-day tasks. A March 2024 report by the Center for Democracy & Technology found that the percentage of K–12 teachers who reported using a generative AI tool for personal or school use jumped 32 percentage points, to 83 percent, between the 2022–2023 school year and 2023–2024.
Looking at public sector spending data in K-12 school districts, it’s clear that the majority of adoption of AI tools is happening at the teacher level through individual subscriptions. According to Purchase Order data in GovSpend, more than 850 unique school districts have collectively purchased over $5M in AI tools within the last 6 months. However, only a handful of those districts have put forth formal RFPs to procure those services at the district level.
Regarding student use of AI, GovSpend’s Meeting Intelligence finds that quite a few districts (such as the MSD of Warren Township, IN) are still implementing policies regarding appropriate use. This is generally a good lead indicator that the district will soon be seeking tools for detecting AI use in student assignments.
As school systems, such as Poquoson City Public Schools (VA), move up the maturity curve and begin implementing AI roadmaps, strategies will coalesce around several categories of tools, highlighted below with examples from the GovSpend platform:
- Student-Focused: Including adaptive tutoring, automatic writing evaluation, and curriculum-oriented chatbot engagement
- Richmond (VA) Public Schools has a system-wide contract with Mojo for an AI-powered teaching assistant that turns assignments into interactive activities and real-time performance data for teachers.
- Teacher-Focused: Including student assessment, lesson planning, and resource curation
- Seminole County (FL) Public Schools have aligned on a widely used teacher-focused tool from Magic School, Inc. that can tie into backend systems and allows for tailored, system-wide, policy-compliant implementation.
- Institution-Focused: Including scheduling, e-mail safety scanning, and identifying at-risk students
- The Toledo Public School System (OH) holds a master contract for a solution, PowerSchool’s Connected Intelligence K-12, that creates data lakes from school data, laying the foundation for artificial intelligence analysis and machine learning for district-wide performance measurement.
This market will be a “wild west” for some time to come, especially given the current administration’s desire to deter AI over-regulation and limit federal intervention in local education policy. State education departments and individual districts will be feeling their way forward as they gradually assemble the right mix of AI vendor partners to improve educational outcomes.
The K–12 AI market is moving fast — don’t let your competitors get there first. With GovSpend, you can spot emerging opportunities before they hit the RFP stage, connect with decision-makers, and position your solution at the right time. The Beyond the Bid: Industry Insights That Win – EdTech webinar demonstrates real, replicable searches specific to identifying early EdTech buying signals. (Don’t have time to watch the webinar replay? Read the recap instead.)
Request a Demo to see the GovSpend platform in action, or, if you’re already a customer, connect with your Relationship Manager or email support@govspend.com to start uncovering your next big win.
About the Author: Chris Dixon
