Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Jason Palmer, Co-Founder & President at Socrait; Heather Anichini, President & CEO at The Chicago Public Education Fund; Jim O'Neill, President, Core and Supplemental Solutions at HMH; Jodi Feikema, Chief Academic Officer and Provost at American College of Education; Megan Mitchell, Teacher & EdTech Consultant at ABC Unified School District and Mitchell Method Consulting; and Mahnaz Charania, Chief of Transformation at TNTP.

For decades, the magic of teaching—mentorship, relationships, and instructional judgment—had been increasingly crowded out by administrative burden, fragmented tools, and unsustainable expectations. As AI reshaped work across every sector, this session examined a defining question for education: whether technology can finally return time, focus, and humanity to educators, or deepen the strain.

The speakers explored how teaching can evolve into a more sustainable, high-impact profession by redesigning the work itself. District leaders, degree-granting programs, funders, and builders examined how AI-enabled systems, new operating models, and educator-centered design can reduce operational friction, strengthen instructional presence, and improve student-teacher relationships. Rather than replacing teachers, these approaches aimed to decouple routine tasks from the core work of learning, allowing educators to focus on judgment, connection, and craft.

Moving beyond the burnout narrative, panelists shared how schools and organizations are rethinking recruitment, development, and day-to-day practice to build a profession designed for longevity and purpose. The conversation explored what it takes to move past vacancy-filling and toward a future where teaching is once again a role of influence, growth, and deep human impact in an AI-enabled world.