Iceland’s AI Pilot in Education – What it really means for teachers?
Following the recent press release by tech company Anthropic, announcing ‘one of the world’s first national AI education pilots in Iceland’, this case has drawn considerable media interest within the education community and has been presented as a leading example of AI adoption in the education sector. As inaccurate and misleading descriptions of this initiative have been circulating in the headlines, ETUCE believes it is essential to provide a clear explanation of the program’s real goals and scope to correct the confusion around it.
In contrast with the narrative presented in Anthropic’s press release suggesting a systemic, nationwide change towards the use of AI in education, official information from the Directorate of Education and School Service and insights from the Icelandic Teachers’ Union (KI) clarify that the initiative is actually a small-scale, experimental, six-month pilot including around 7% of primary and secondary teachers in Iceland.
The initiative, led by the Educational and School Services Centre (MMS) in collaboration with the Icelandic Teachers’ Union (KI), has a limited duration of 6 months, running from October 2025 to April 2026. Its purpose is to support teachers, counsellors, and school leaders in exploring how artificial intelligence might help with lesson planning and teaching in the specific Icelandic educational context. The initiative will provide a selected group of around 300 teachers (5%) from primary and lower secondary education across Iceland access to Google’s Gemini and about 260 teachers (14%) in upper secondary and vocational education access to Claude.edu from Anthropic. The initiative includes training materials, educational resources, and a dedicated support network.
This pilot is not a full implementation of AI in Icelandic schools, as the Directorate of education underlines on its website, ‘this is only a pilot project intended to evaluate the potential impact before any decision is made about whether, and how, such tools should be used in the future’. Teacher participation is voluntary and flexible, teachers can use the tools as much or as little as they wish, and there is no obligation to attend courses or training. The only requirement is to complete a short survey every few weeks to share feedback. In this way, the pilot has been designed as an opportunity for professional development, rather than a structural change.
The involvement of the Icelandic Teachers’ Union (KI) in this initiative has been pivotal in ensuring the initiative remains rooted in educational needs rather than corporate ambitions or governmental goalsetting. The union played a proactive role by facilitating direct communication with teachers and establishing mechanisms for social dialogue and cooperation with the Ministry of Education during the design phase of the initiative. KI actively advocated for the inclusion of teachers’ interests, helped recruit participants, and promoted realistic expectations for the project.
Guðjón Hreinn Hauksson, Chair of the Upper Secondary and Vocational School Teachers’ Association, is pleased with the project so far. “The group of upper secondary teachers has really become an increasingly active learning community, where people share their experiences and ideas and don’t hesitate to ask tough questions. And these questions aren’t just technical — they often have to do with teaching approaches, ethics, and data-privacy concerns, just to name a few. The group is very diverse, from real experts in using AI to complete beginners. The group leaders are practicing teachers who previously had nothing to do with Anthropic or the Directorate of Education, but who are now an important link between the teachers and the Directorate/Anthropic. I’m part of the group myself, so I follow it both as a teacher and as the chair of the association, which is both a union and a professional body. It’s a really exciting and interesting project,” says Guðjón.
Reflecting on the European implications of AI initiatives, ETUCE Director Jelmer Evers said “The proactive involvement of the Icelandic Teachers’ Union in this initiative is a powerful example of social dialogue in action. The Icelandic pilot proves that decisions about AI in education must begin with evidence and the professional voice of teachers—not technological hype. Yet, the misleading narrative from Big Tech exposes a deeper imbalance: profit-driven interests are pressing at every level, from the classroom to European education governance and policy initiatives. These are not isolated challenges—they are systemic, European-wide pressures that risk undermining democratic control over education. ETUCE will not allow education to be left to profit-driven interests. Education is a public good and a human right, and technology must serve pedagogy, not corporate profit. This is why the Icelandic case matters beyond its borders: it shows that education unions must join forces, deepen cooperation across Europe and worldwide, and set shared AI standards and practices that protect quality, equity, teachers’ professional autonomy and the public mission of education.”
