---
title: "Will AI Replace Elementary School Teachers?"
description: "BLS rates elementary school teachers' exposure to AI as high. What that means, which parts of the work AI touches, and the 2025–2035 outlook (-0.4%…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/will-ai-replace-elementary-school-teachers"
last-updated: "2026-10-15T08:19:32.066Z"
---

# Will AI Replace Elementary School Teachers? (2026)

**Short answer:** The job is exposed and shrinking. BLS rates the exposure as high and projects employment to fall, so expect fewer roles and more AI in the ones that remain.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics places elementary school teachers in its high AI exposure category, above the middle of the pack: a substantial share of the work overlaps with what AI can do. BLS projects employment to fall by 0.4% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 87,500 openings a year.

| Measure | Value | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| BLS relative AI exposure | High | BLS Employment Projections, AI exposure categories |
| NueCareer AI-resilience score | 51/100 | NueCareer analysis of O\*NET 31.0 Database |
| Projected employment change | -0.4% | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Openings a year | 87,500 | BLS EP 2025–2035 |
| Median annual wage | $63,970 | BLS OEWS May 2025 |

## Exposure categories

| BLS category | Occupations |
| --- | --- |
| Low | 203 |
| Moderate | 194 |
| High (this job) | 190 |
| Very high | 199 |

Exposure means AI could be or has been used to assist with or complete some of the work. BLS says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains, automation probability or wage effects. Method: https://www.bls.gov/emp/publications/ai-exposure-categories.htm

## What holds up

- Assisting and caring for others: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Face-to-face discussions: 4.9/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Coaching and developing others: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Training and teaching others: 4.5/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## What AI reaches first

- Email: 5.0/5 (O\*NET work context)
- Working with computers: 4.1/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Scheduling work and activities: 3.8/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)
- Getting information: 3.6/5 (O\*NET work activity importance)

## O\*NET tasks

- Instruct students individually and in groups, using teaching methods such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.
- Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among the students.
- Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
- Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
- Observe and evaluate students' performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.

## FAQ

**Will AI replace elementary school teachers?**

The job is exposed and shrinking. BLS rates the exposure as high and projects employment to fall, so expect fewer roles and more AI in the ones that remain. BLS defines exposure as AI being able to assist with or complete some of the work, and says it does not imply job loss, productivity gains or wage effects. BLS projects employment to fall by 0.4% over 2025–2035, against 3.5% for all occupations, with about 87,500 openings a year.

**How exposed are elementary school teachers to AI?**

BLS sorts 786 occupations into four relative categories: low, moderate, high and very high. Elementary School Teachers are in the high category, alongside 189 other occupations. The categories combine five public measures of where AI could be or already is used, and they compare occupations with each other rather than giving an absolute risk.

**What parts of an elementary school teacher's job can AI do?**

In O\*NET's description of the work, the parts that overlap most with what AI handles well are email, working with computers and scheduling work and activities. The parts that hold up best are assisting and caring for others, face-to-face discussions and coaching and developing others. These come from O\*NET ratings of how important each activity is to the job, read through NueCareer's AI-resilience method.

**Is being an elementary school teacher a safe career from AI?**

On NueCareer's AI-resilience score, built from O\*NET work activities, elementary school teachers score 51 out of 100, higher than 63% of the occupations we score. The job pays a median of $63,970 a year (BLS OEWS, May 2025). No job is fully safe from technological change, but the federal exposure category and the projected openings are the two numbers worth weighing.

Full profile: https://nuecareer.com/careers/elementary-school-teacher.

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology