Built by Teachers: The State of AI Tutors in 2026

This report draws on 100,000+ AI Tutors built on Toddle, 1,345 submissions to Toddle’s AI Tutor Awards 2026, and surveys and interviews with educators using AI Tutors in their classrooms. Across different ages, subjects and countries, the same thread kept appearing: in a teacher’s hands, AI Tutors are doing what no teacher could do alone.

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Built by Teachers: The State of AI Tutors in 2026

We’ve always known what great education looks like. Now, for the first time in decades, it feels possible to bring more of it to every child.

Benjamin Bloom showed how much better children learn with one-to-one tutoring. John Dewey argued that learning is deepest when children can do, question and work things out for themselves. The ideas are not new. The difficulty has always been making them possible in a classroom of 25 learners, with 25 different needs, in the same hour.

AI Tutors are beginning to change what can happen within that hour.

In one primary classroom, 24 lines of inquiry unfolded at once, from black markets to the economics of Lionel Messi. Year 4 learners questioned a convict preparing to board the First Fleet. Physics students designed maglev transport for Mars. A student with dyslexia received support without being separated from her peers. An Egyptian student interviewed an Islamic scholar in Arabic.

In each case, the teacher remained responsible for the design of the learning: the goal, the source material, the guardrails, and what happened next.

What are teacher-built AI Tutors?

Unlike general-purpose chatbots, teacher-built AI Tutors are designed for a particular class, topic, learning goal or student need. The teacher decides what the tutor knows, how it responds and when it should question, hint, challenge or hold back.

Five key findings

1 | AI Tutors helped teachers meet individual learner needs like never before
Four in five teachers said AI Tutors helped them meet individual learning needs better than they could before.

2 | Teachers were better able to support multilingual, neurodivergent, and anxious learners
AI Tutors played to the strengths of students with ADHD, dyslexia and dyscalculia, while giving multilingual and anxious learners a safe space to express themselves, build confidence, and exercise agency over how they participated.

3 | Teachers designed experiential learning across subjects
Student engagement deepened as learners questioned historical figures, tested scientific systems, designed solutions, and defended decisions.

4 | Critical thinking, creativity, and metacognition grew stronger when teachers set the guardrails
Teachers built tutors that challenged unsupported claims, offered hints instead of answers, and asked students to explain, test, and revise their ideas, helping students grow future-ready skills.

5 | Teachers gained better visibility into student thinking
85% of teachers reported that AI Tutors surfaced understanding they would not otherwise have seen, from a hidden misconception to a quiet student’s real reasoning.

The teacher remained the constant.

Across all five findings, teachers decided the purpose of the lesson, what the tutor should know, where it should challenge, or hold back and what to do with what it revealed.

The numbers tell only part of the story. Read the report to step inside the classrooms behind them and see what teachers are making possible.

Built by Teachers: The State of AI Tutors in 2026

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About Toddle

Toddle is the world's first AI-powered teaching and learning platform built for teachers by teachers and tailor-made for progressive schools. Used by 2,000+ progressive schools worldwide, Toddle empowers teaching teams to work together and better and streamlines all your work so you can focus on what matters most - your students.

Learn more about Toddle here.

Built by Teachers: The State of AI Tutors in 2026

What are teacher-built AI Tutors?

Five key findings

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About Toddle