Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has a wide range of potential applications in education and comes with plenty of risks. At Bellwether, we bring deep research, viewpoint diversity, and pragmatism to help practitioners, policymakers, and funders make sense of this rapidly changing technology. Our only agenda is ensuring that AI does as much good as possible for young people, particularly those furthest from opportunity.
Our Work
We evaluate how AI is poised to reshape the education sector by doing what we do best: digging into the nuances, identifying patterns, and distinguishing signal from noise. Our goal is to ensure AI delivers meaningful benefits while surfacing concerns that need attention.
Our focus areas include:
Research and Insights: Our team conducts research, convenes experts, and releases field-facing publications to help ensure education leaders understand how AI is evolving and key issues to watch.
Advising: We partner with nonprofits, ed tech providers, systems, policymakers, and funders to make sense of AI and develop a coherent strategy from vision through implementation. We help organizations think about how AI will impact their work leveraging the best of what our cross-functional team of experts has to offer.
Our Impact
Artificial Intelligence Funder Collaborative: From 2023 through 2025, Bellwether convened a cohort of national education funders in a learning series that explored the trends, opportunities, and challenges of AI in education. This funder collaborative led to multiple publications including our three-part Learning Systems series that takes a holistic approach to help leaders make decisions about incorporating AI, a deep dive on how we can maintain the “productive struggle” of learning in the age of AI, and an overview of how we measure AI in education.
Artificial Intelligence Cohorts: We convene cohorts of mission-aligned organizations — including nonprofits, charter school networks, and others — to help leaders develop an actionable AI plan, pilot high-potential use cases, and build skills on AI usage for their teams.
Our Team
Amy Chen Kulesa
Senior Associate Partner
Mark Baxter
Partner
Evan Coughenour
Partner
Andrew J. Rotherham
Co-Founder and Senior Partner
Juliet Squire
Senior Partner and Head of Emerging Approaches
Daniela Torre Gibney
Senior Associate Partner
Christine Wade
Senior Associate Partner
Mary K. Wells
Co-Founder and Senior Partner
Our Insights
Get in Touch
We partner with a wide range of clients — from large-scale foundations to school districts to nonprofits to mission-driven companies. Let’s work together to transform education.
To learn more, contact Amy Chen Kulesa, who leads our artificial intelligence work, at amy.chenkulesa@bellwether.org.
