8 AI Books Every Educator Needs On Their Shelf

Forget the AI panic. Forget the AI plagiarism wars. The smartest voices in education have broken free of the breathless hype-cycle and entered into something much more useful. That is practical wisdom.

After two years of defensive policy making, hasty implementations and heated debates about whether it’s right for students to touch AI, there has been the arrival of nuanced and practical works by thought leaders around the world.

Regardless if you’re a classroom teacher who has to work out how to make AI work for your students, an administrator struggling through governance minefields, a parent who is not sure what’s happening in schools, it’s worth your while to pick up these eight books.

Before we dive into these books, click here to check out our #1 bestselling books on AI in the classroom, AI strategy in schools and practical guides.

Reshuffle: Who Wins When AI Restacks the Knowledge Economy

By Sangeet Paul Choudary

Peter Shea, assistant dean of AI integration at Middlesex Community College, described this as:

The most important book on AI and Education of the year

It's easy to see why. Choudary’s central claim is that we’ve misunderstood the real power of AI. It’s not a tool for doing tasks faster through automation, but as the missing mechanism for remaking entire economic systems by radically augmenting coordination. Less “smarter brain” and more “better glue.”

Through vivid storytelling, Choudary connects technology, behavior and economic architecture in ways that will change how educators think about building students who are ready for the workforce.

AI Optimism: A Guide to Redefining Artificial Intelligence in Education

By Becky Keene

Don't confuse it for naive techno utopianism. Keene’s perspective is rooted, innovative, and in many ways a breath of fresh air in focusing on pedagogy rather than tools. Employing the trusted SAMR implementation model, and with plenty of real life examples from classrooms, this book illustrates for educators how AI can facilitate human creativity and judgement instead of overriding it.

Yes, generative AI can grade quizzes and write worksheets. But Keene contends its real promise lies in helping us reimagine what’s possible. This is the practical playbook for teachers who are prepared to leap from curiosity to confident implementation.

The Awkward Questions in Education

By Al Kingsley MBE

Even if they seem awkward, some questions are worth asking. With 35 years of experience, Kingsley addresses the problems that many in education have been steering clear of: declining attendance, recruitment struggles, the legitimacy of outside monitoring, and yes, the use of AI in classrooms.

A review of interviews with school leaders, policymakers, teachers and governors, this book addresses important discussions that must become essential for genuine, sustainable change. It is, as Professor Sugata Mitra says:

…a much needed dose of honesty and insight

Raising Dreamers: Why Imagination is the Key to Preserving Humanity in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

By Wylde Scott

What if our survival as a species rests not on our intelligence but on our imagination? Futurist and researcher Wylde Scott says that as machines get smarter, human beings are confronted with a challenge that algorithms can’t meet.

Using neuroscience, psychology, and education theory, he investigates imagination as both biological and social function, one that can be purposefully encouraged in children and adults both. For parents, teachers and leaders who feel technology should serve that human potential, not replace it, it is a manifesto for upholding what makes us uniquely human.

Teaching and Learning in the Age of Generative AI

By Joseph Rene Corbeil and Maria Elena Corbeil

Professor Jason Gulya of Berkeley College explained to me that:

These days, I find myself gravitating towards edited volumes rather than single-author books, because of the mix of voices and focuses. This one had a wide variety of angles: some theoretical and some practical; some far-reaching and some very focused; some optimistic and some more pessimistic in tone.

Alongside an examination of the historic trajectories of AI in education, this book pairs analyses of the long term implications of AI technologies with practical implementation in the classroom with a frank recap of advantages and potential perils. If you would like a text that gathers expert perspectives from many perspectives in one place, this is the one.

AI Bias in Education: Performing Critical Oversight

By Victoria Hedlund

If you’ve ever asked yourself how you might make sure AI works for all students, Hedlund’s book makes sure you consider the implications and solutions to step forward with intention. It’s the sector’s equity focused analysis.

Utilizing case studies, frameworks and strategies from leading voices in AI education, Hedlund provides educators with the insights to spot, challenge and respond to AI outputs in order to safeguard fairness in learning. The book is also balanced, welcoming the promise of AI to enhance education, while cautioning that haphazard implementation could exacerbate prevailing gaps.

Experimenting with AI: Activities, Discussions, and Prompts for the Classroom and Beyond

By Stacie Chana

Sometimes educators need less philosophy and more “what do I do Monday morning?” Chana delivers exactly that. This book features dynamic experiments and discussion guides that encourage critical thinking and innovation while also instilling the foundational concepts in AI literacy.

This is a great little toolkit for K-12 teachers who want to transition from simply grasping AI to actually using it ethically, creatively, and confidently across grade levels and disciplines.

AI and the Art of Being Human

By Jeffrey Abbott and Andrew Maynard

How do we begin to rediscover our value in an AI world? Abbott and Maynard examine how to embrace your full humanity at a time when machines are increasingly able to mirror your every move.

It’s a philosophical exporation as much as a practical guide, 21 applied tools and fictional stories that articulate lofty principles. Thupten Jinpa, translator to the Dalai Lama, described it as:

…a profoundly human book on one of the defining questions of our time.

A Reading List To Get You Ready for 2026

What unites all of these eight books is the acknowledgment that the question is no longer whether AI will transform education. It already has. The true question, the one that every educator now has to answer, is whether educational providers will use it to support the status quo or whether they will embrace reimagining what learning can mean.