---
title: "The Impact of AI on Education \u0026 What It Means for Work"
description: "New research shows AI's dramatic impact on education: 74% boost in STEM learning outcomes \u0026 95% effectiveness as an intelligent tutor. Key data for the future of work."
categories: ["AI","education"]
keywords: ["AI in education","ChatGPT","intelligent tutoring","STEM learning outcomes","personalized learning","AI impact on work","higher-order thinking","AI coaching","Tomasz Tunguz","Theory Ventures"]
ai_summary: "AI significantly enhances education and work efficiency, boosting STEM learning and higher-order thinking through intelligent tutoring."
date: 2025-05-10
lastmod: 2026-07-30
canonical_url: https://www.tomtunguz.com/ai-transforming-education-nature-research/
author: "Tomasz Tunguz"
---

The blocky charts. The ability to solve a hard test problem. The hidden game of Snake. My graphing calculator was a 7th grade miracle.

AI is this generation's graphing calculator. With about 2 years' of studies, we can draw some conclusions on its impact. A [meta-analysis published in Nature](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-025-04787-y) showed a medium to large impact on students.

*ChatGPT's Select Impact on Higher-Order Thinking*

| Condition/Scenario                          | Effect Size<sup>1</sup> | Significance (p-value) |
| :------------------------------------------ | :----------------------- | :--------------------- |
| **Overall Effect** | 0.457                    | < 0.001                |
| Type of Course: STEM and related            | 0.737                    | < 0.001                |
| Learning Model: Personalized learning       | 0.718                    | < 0.001                |
| Learning Model: Mixed                       | 0.719                    | < 0.001                |
| Duration: 4-8 weeks                         | 0.654                    | < 0.001                |
| Role of ChatGPT: Intelligent tutor          | 0.945                    | < 0.001                |
| Role of ChatGPT: Intelligent learning tool  | 0.428                    | < 0.001                |
| Area of Application: Tutoring               | 0.478                    | < 0.05                 |

The higher the Effect Size, the greater the Effect. 0.3-0.5 is considered a medium sized effect. Above 0.5 is considered a large effect.

As a tutor creating lessons & a personalized teacher answering questions to meet a student, AI improves higher-order thinking materially. This analysis supports the intuition behind AI as a personal Socrates.

Not every effect is strong in the study : longer use of AI reduces the Effect Size by half (still an effect of 0.332).

If this is true within education, the need for AI at work is more acute. 

Elevating colleagues' time & focus on higher-order thinking should provide a strong business competitive advantage. This effect might  be short-lived - a jump start provides an early advantage - that is mitigated as more of the industry adopts AI. 

The study suggests at work AI can function as a coach helping us improve how we sell, how we market, how we run companies. AI can help us learn about our industry, amalgamating insights across media & internal documents, & learn new skills.

And more familiarity with tools should enable compounded learning.

---
<sup>1</sup>See more about [Hedges' G](https://www.statisticshowto.com/hedges-g/)