​Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a buzzword in tech circles; it is becoming a real game-changer in education. From streamlining school operations to reshaping how students learn in the classroom and are assessed, AI is proving to be more than just a futuristic idea. It’s already here, and it’s already making a difference.
In this post, we will examine how AI is driving positive change for schools and students alike, supported by peer-reviewed research and real-world case studies.

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​Making School Operations Smarter
Running a school is no easy feat. Between scheduling, grading, and endless paperwork, teachers and administrators often spend more time on logistics than on meaningful teaching. AI is helping to flip that balance.

• Automating The Boring Stuff: AI-powered grading systems can instantly assess assignments and provide feedback. That means less time spent marking and more time spent teaching.
• Better Scheduling: Advanced algorithms can optimize timetables, allowing classrooms and staff to be used more effectively.
• Data-Driven Insights: Instead of guessing what works, AI enables educators to analyze student performance and pinpoint areas where additional support is needed.

As a study by Zawacki-Richter, put it, schools that lean on AI for operations can “redirect valuable human resources from repetitive tasks toward activities that enhance teaching and learning.”
  
Elevating the Classroom Experience
If school operations are the engine, then classroom learning is the heart and AI is making it beat stronger.

• Personalized Learning: Every student learns differently, and AI can adapt lessons in real time to fit each learner’s pace and style. Adaptive platforms ensure that struggling students receive additional support, while advanced learners remain challenged.
• AI Tutors At Your Fingertips: Intelligent tutoring systems can walk students through tough problems, provide instant feedback, and offer explanations. It is like having a personal tutor available when you need them.
• Smarter Resource Use: AI helps schools determine which tools and materials are actually effective. Instead of wasting money on unused resources, AI recommends what’s most effective.

Research consistently shows that students benefit from this kind of personalized, AI-assisted learning. In fact, hybrid human-AI tutoring models in U.S. schools have been linked to measurable improvements in performance, especially for students who were struggling the most.
 
Real-World Success Stories

• Australia’s St. Mary MacKillop College rolled out AI-powered feedback tools. The results were impressive: students improved the quality of their writing by nearly 50%, and more than 90% of teachers reported that AI strengthened learning outcomes.
• Urban schools in the U.S. have tested AI-assisted tutoring with promising results. Students, particularly those in underserved communities, demonstrated gains in proficiency, showing that AI can be a powerful equalizer.

 
The Challenges We Can’t Ignore
Of course, AI in schools isn’t all sunshine. There are significant challenges we need to work through:

• Equity and Access: Not every student has the same access to devices and the internet, raising concerns about a widening digital divide.
• Privacy and Security: With the advent of AI comes the need for robust protection of student data.
• Teacher Training: Educators require proper support to effectively integrate AI.
• Ethical Use: AI should enhance learning, not replace critical thinking or human connection.

 
Looking Ahead
AI is far from perfect, but its potential in education is undeniable. By reducing administrative headaches, personalizing student learning, and optimizing resource utilization, AI can help schools focus on their core mission, teaching and learning. As researchers point out, the key is balance: leveraging the strengths of AI while keeping equity, ethics, and human relationships at the center of education. The future of schooling is not just about smart boards or tablets. It is about intelligent systems that help educators and students advance together.
 

​When we think about police work, it's easy to picture high-speed chases or major investigations. Yet one of the most compassionate and often time-consuming roles officers perform is helping lost and vulnerable people find their way home.

This work is especially critical for children, elderly individuals with memory loss, and people with cognitive or communication challenges. For them, even a short period of being lost can be frightening, dangerous, and disorienting. Some challenges in getting these individuals home are simply identifying who they are, where they live, and who to contact. When officers are not able to identify a lost and vulnerable individual, getting them back reunited with their family can turn into a long, drawn-out process that relies on factors that are outside the control of the officers, ties up multiple resources, and leaves the lost individual scared. 

If an officer can identify the person, where they live, and who to contact immediately, regardless of the individual's ability to communicate their information, families are reunited faster, fewer resources are tied up, and the lost individual experiences less trauma. With the current system, the process from initial contact to reunification can take as little as an hour, and according to past data, it can take years.

A typical encounter begins with the initial contact, which can last up to 30 minutes. This is when the officer encounters a lost child or vulnerable adult and is focused on safety and reassurance. Here, they will move them away from busy streets, unsafe areas, or bad weather and try to offer comfort items like blankets, water, or snacks to ease their fear. For a scared child or a senior with dementia, those initial minutes can set the tone for the entire process and be a challenge.

Next, the officer will attempt to identify the vulnerable individual. This can take hours, days, or even longer because they may be unable to communicate clearly due to age, disability, or medical condition, have no identification on them, or be disoriented, providing inaccurate or no information at all.

Police use multiple tools to expedite the process, for example, by checking for medical alert bracelets, school IDs, or caregiver contact cards that only work if the items are on the person. They also utilize fingerprint databases that only work if the individual is in the system and may require transporting them to a station. They may try contacting schools, nursing homes, adult care facilities, or shelters to see if anyone recognizes them or review nearby CCTV footage to retrace movements. None of these systems is a guarantee; many can take a long time, and even if they provide a result, they do not offer a pathway to contact to the individual's family and reunite them.

This is the first step that LANA aims to change, which will immediately enable officers to identify qualified individuals, provide contact information, and offer a direct path to reunite them with their families without tying up other resources or relying on contacting other agencies.

After the officer has identified the individual, they must still locate the family or determine their address. This can take as little as 30 minutes in an ideal scenario or up to several hours, or sometimes even days. Just because they have been identified, the officer still has to address the challenge of finding and confirming the right point of contact. Sometimes families can be reached within minutes; in other cases, especially when contact information is outdated, it may take several hours or require cross-agency cooperation.

Again, LANA is looking to change that. After providing a faster way of identification, the system will offer a simple path to reuniting families by providing contact information and a direct route to reconnect them with their verified loved ones, without tying up other resources or relying on contacting other agencies.

This is all done to get to the reunion, because that is all that matters. Reunions are often emotional, and for many officers, these moments of seeing relief and joy on a loved one's face are among the most rewarding in their careers.
The problem that LANA aims to address arises because there is a more straightforward and more effective way of identifying these lost individuals and reuniting them with their families. This is important because in 2022, a non-verbal autistic teenager was found riding a city bus alone. Officers had to work with local disability services to identify his caregiver, taking over three hours to identify the child. In 2024, a 74-year-old man with Alzheimer's was located 6 miles from home after wandering for hours. Unfortunately, his medical ID bracelet was outdated, and it took almost an entire day to reunite him with his family.
 
 Statistics Show

• Children: About 90% of missing children are found within 48 hours, but those first hours are critical for safety and emotional well-being. However, even if they are found, the reunifications can take hours or even days, as police locate, identify, and contact families.
• Elderly with Dementia: 6 in 10 people with Alzheimer's will wander at some point.
• People with Developmental Disabilities or who are nonverbal: Communication barriers can increase identification and reuniting times by several hours compared to the general population.

 
 
Why Does The Timeline Vary So Widely?
First, there is no universal system in place to address these issues. Second, numerous external factors can introduce variables into the process, but these variables can be controlled with the LANA platform. Issues such as language barriers, memory loss, or speech impairments can slow down the process. Relying on current identification documents, such as an ID card, a reunion can occur within a few hours, provided the information is correct and on the person, and without one, the process is longer and requires additional steps and resources. The family response time is crucial in the process. Sometimes, relatives respond immediately; other times, they may be unreachable for hours, making it difficult for an officer to obtain the extra information they may need to verify or determine where to go. The outdated tools and systems fail to leverage technology to eliminate barriers and expedite the process.  

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Ultimately, helping lost children, the elderly, and vulnerable individuals find their way home is one of the most human aspects of police work. While some cases are resolved in under an hour, others take several hours or even days—and every minute matters for the safety, dignity, and well-being of those at risk.
By combining compassion, investigative skills, and the use of platforms like LANA, the system can reduce the time of separation, provide a clear path to contact and reuniting, and utilize fewer resources in the process.