By now, you’ve probably heard about the benefits of AI in education. But what are the actual AI tools on the market that universities can start using today? And more importantly, what can they help streamline when it comes to administrative tasks, faculty workloads, or student experience?
In this article, we’ll round up 15 AI tools for education that are worth exploring. You’ll get a quick overview of what each tool does, who it’s built for, and how it can help simplify daily work across your institution.
Let’s begin!
1. Capacity – AI for scalable student support
Student support is one of those areas that quietly consumes huge amounts of time, staff, and budget, especially if your systems are outdated or overloaded. That’s where investing in chatbots for higher education can make a real difference.
One such tool is Capacity’s AI for Education. It uses AI to take pressure off your student support teams by handling repetitive questions, scheduling, and even course-specific guidance, giving students instant help while your staff focuses on more complex needs.
Key features:
- AI helpdesk and chatbot: Delivers 24/7 support through AI chat and voice agents that handle routine student questions.
- Knowledge base for staff and students: Organizes institutional knowledge in a self-updating knowledge base for fast, consistent answers.
- Cross-platform integration: Connects with your SIS, LMS, and portals to provide real-time, personalized responses.
- Course-specific assistants and scheduling: Offers virtual learning support and easy access to appointment booking and coaching tools.
- Analytics and insights: Helps you track engagement trends and optimize support with built-in analytics tools.
What customers say 💬
“Partnering with Capacity was not only the right decision for us—it was one of the best decisions that’s been made by this university.”
— Mark Lombardi, PhD, President, Maryville University
2. Coursebox – AI for rapid course and training content creation
If your institution is venturing into online course delivery, you might want to consider Coursebox. It’s an AI-powered platform that helps you turn existing materials like videos, documents, or even basic outlines into interactive, ready-to-launch courses in minutes.
Key features:
- AI course designer: Automatically generates course structure and draft content from your inputs.
- AI quiz and assessment builder: Creates quizzes and auto-grading tools aligned to your learning goals.
- AI chatbot tutor: Supports learners with 24/7 assistance based on your course content.
What customers say 💬
Marcia, who works in education management, shared:
“Excellent tool for rapid development of courses. The tool can be used to create online or instructor-led courses. Excellent support service.”
3. Otter.ai – AI for automated meeting notes and action items
It’s no secret that universities run countless meetings across departments, committees, faculty teams, and administrative groups. But keeping track of what was discussed and who’s responsible for what can be a challenge. Traditionally, this task falls to a secretary or assistant taking meeting minutes.
If that rings true at your institution, you might want to check out Otter.ai. It’s an AI tool that automatically records meetings, transcribes the conversation, and generates clear summaries and action items, so meeting outcomes are documented consistently without relying on administrative staff to take notes manually.
Key features:
- AI Meeting Agent: Automatically joins Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to capture and summarize meetings.
- Action item tracking: Uses AI to identify key tasks and assign next steps to the right people.
- Otter AI Chat: Lets users ask questions and generate follow-ups, like emails or updates, based on meeting content.
What customers say 💬
One user, Erick, noted:
“Being able to multitask during a meeting that I’m not necessarily needed for is absolutely invaluable to my productivity. If I miss something, I can always refer to the live transcription without needing to ask someone to repeat themselves—the accuracy is amazing.”
4. Gradescope – AI for faster, more consistent grading and assessments
Grading exams, problem sets, and code submissions can take hours. Not to mention consistency across large classes is always a challenge. Gradescope helps educators save time and improve grading quality by using AI to group similar answers, apply feedback in bulk, and generate detailed analytics. It supports everything from paper-based exams to programming projects.
Key features:
- AI-assisted grading: Groups similar answers for faster feedback and grading at scale.
- Flexible assignment support: Works with handwritten, digital, and code-based assessments.
- Detailed analytics and rubrics: Tracks student performance question-by-question and improves grading consistency.
What customers say 💬
One user, Faisal, says:
“What I like best about Gradescope is the ability to annotate a paper submission, even if it’s handwritten. It also gives students the opportunity to resubmit papers, as long as it falls within the allowed timeframe.”
AI tools educators can use at an individual level
While institution-wide platforms can drive large-scale transformation, many educators are also turning to AI tools they can use independently. These tools help with day-to-day tasks like lesson planning, grading, content creation, and communication, and they don’t require any special setup.
There are also student-facing tools that educators can confidently recommend to help learners stay organized, improve their writing, and study more effectively.
To make it easier to navigate, we’ve grouped these tools into four categories.
For productivity
These general-purpose AI tools can help with writing, research, planning, and everyday productivity, no matter your role on campus.
- ChatGPT: A popular generative AI tool that can help with things like writing, lesson planning, summarizing, and more.
- Claude: An AI assistant known for its long memory and structured responses, great for complex tasks.
- Canva (Magic Write + AI image generation): A creative platform that helps design presentations, visuals, and written content using AI.
- Perplexity: A research-driven AI tool that answers questions with citations and live web references.
For faculty and staff
If you’re looking for tools to support instruction, grading, and curriculum development, these are the tools that can save you time:
- Curipod: A lesson planning assistant that generates interactive slides, polls, and activities in minutes.
- Eduaide: A teaching tool that creates rubrics, worksheets, and scaffolding resources based on your topic.
For students
If you’re looking for tools to recommend to your students so they can stay on top of assignments and produce better work with less stress, the options below are a great place to start.
- Slidesgo: A presentation builder with AI-powered templates to create professional-looking slides quickly.
- Grammarly: A writing assistant that improves grammar, clarity, and tone in real time.
- Quiz Gecko: A quiz generator that turns lecture notes and materials into practice questions.
- Student AI: An AI-powered study assistant offering 200+ tools to help students tackle homework, write essays, prepare for interviews, and manage every part of academic life.
- Consensus: An academic search engine that uses AI to extract and summarize key findings from research papers.
Wrapping up
You don’t need a full tech overhaul to start seeing the benefits of AI tools for education. Even a single well-used tool can save time, cut down on admin work, and improve the experience for both staff and students.
If your institution is feeling the pressure of rising student support demands, like managing requests, responding to questions, or expanding services, check out Capacity’s AI for education solutions.
Not sure where to start with AI?
FAQs
AI tools in education are used to automate repetitive tasks, improve learning outcomes, and make daily work more efficient for both educators and students. For instance, universities use AI to answer student questions, support admissions, build courses, grade assignments, and send reminders. Faculty might use AI to create content, plan lessons, or give feedback faster. Students use it to research information, summarize academic materials, and prepare for exams more effectively.
The best AI tool for studying ultimately depends on what you’re trying to learn and which aspect of academic work you need help with. Tools like Grammarly help with writing, Quiz Gecko turns notes into practice questions, and Consensus summarizes research papers. For general help across subjects, ChatGPT and Perplexity are flexible tools that can answer questions, explain concepts, or help students think through ideas more clearly.
It depends on what you need it for. Claude is better for working with long documents and structured responses. Perplexity is great if you want real-time, source-backed research. Google Gemini offers strong integration with other Google tools. But for general use, like writing, planning, or brainstorming, ChatGPT is still one of the most versatile options out there. The “best” AI often comes down to your specific task and workflow.