Aila cuts primary teachers' lesson preparation time by about a quarter

In a 2025 trial in 108 English primary schools, teachers given Aila spent about 2.5 hours a week preparing lessons against 3.3 hours for others. Reviewers judged that quality was no worse.

  • 1 a person

    Teachers in the Aila group saved 0.8 hours, or 48.6 minutes, a week on preparing lessons and resources.

  • 1 an organization

    Schools in the Aila group got lesson resources of no worse quality for about a quarter less preparation time.

Depth runs from 1, a convenience or time saved, to 5, a life or a livelihood preserved.

Status
Reported benefit.
Evidence

foundstudiedreportedclaimed

An independent assessment report supports the benefit.

Compared with

Teachers in schools assigned not to use Aila. Measured.

Without the system
3.3 hours a week
With it
About 2.5 hours a week
The system’s part
Schools were randomly assigned to an Aila group or a comparison group, and both groups could use other generative AI tools. The time difference reflects Aila use together with the guidance that teachers received.
Limits
Not yet checked.
Costs and harms
Not yet checked.
Later
Not yet checked.

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Benefit type
Reduced Task Time
System
Aila, Oak National Academy's AI lesson assistant
Made by
Oak National Academy (built on OpenAI's GPT-4o)
Used by
Teachers of Years 3 to 6 in 108 primary schools in England, in a trial funded by the Education Endowment Foundation and evaluated by NFER
Where
England, United Kingdom
Stage
In a pilot
Date
Kind
Aggregate result
Broad benefit
Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work, Training and Teaching Others
Collections
Scrutiny and findings
Last revised
31 October 2026

Sources

  1. Assessment report, by authors with no tie to the system.

    Roy P, Poet H, Staunton R, Aston K, Thomas D, Styles B. Lesson planning using AI lesson assistant, Aila. A Teacher Choices Trial, evaluation report. National Foundation for Educational Research for the Education Endowment Foundation, October 2026.

    The lesson and resource preparation time spent by the Aila group was 76% of the time spent by the non-Aila group during the ten weeks of the trial.

Details

AI system

Reported configuration

GPT-4o

Workflow

Teachers received guidance on their assigned condition, including dos and don'ts. Aila drew first on Oak National Academy's own lesson content through retrieval-augmented generation.

Follow-up

Conditions for replication

Teachers check and adapt Aila's outputs before using them in class. Teachers have lessons to plan for which they lack existing resources.

Entry details

Sector

Education.

Purpose

Oak National Academy built Aila to help teachers in England plan lessons and create resources aligned to the national curriculum.

References

Other identifiers

Osf: fwp5z.

Not yet checked: model, provider, role, configuration, inputs and outputs, autonomy, human oversight, beneficiaries, reach, distribution and access, duration, every measurement question, every money question, ownership and control, dependencies, cross-border connections, geopolitical implications, replication attempts, availability, institutional decision, grounds, action and result, success criterion, every evidence question, observed or intended, alternative assessments, related entries, category mappings.

Cite this record

Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Aila cuts primary teachers' lesson preparation time by about a quarter (AIBD-0723). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 31 October 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-0723.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 4.0)

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