Barriers to AI Adoption in Education: Insights from Teacher's Perspectives

Artificial intelligence in education is capable of offering significant benefits in the form of content generation, personalized learning, assistance in administration, and analytical reports. Despite the benefits, the integration of AI in education faces several challenges hindering its integration. The barriers to AI adoption in education are critical to explore, as they affect the incorporation of innovative educational technologies. The study aimed to explore the perceived barriers to suggest practical recommendations to enable educators to embrace innovative AI technologies for teaching. This study employed a qualitative research design with a descriptive research approach. A purposive sampling method was applied to select public and private sector educators from schools, colleges, and universities in Pakistan. Data were collected using an open-ended questionnaire designed using Google Forms. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to recognize and categorize patterns and themes in responses, gaining a thorough understanding of the key barriers to AI adoption. The insights revealed that integrating AI in education inherits barriers in user experience, technological, and skills limitations, content reliability, privacy and security concerns, and overdependence on AI a risk to reduce creativity and learning. To overcome the barriers, clear ethical guidelines and policies, a balanced integration of AI with pedagogy, AI literacy training, and support to enable teachers to effectively use AI in education are recommended.