Role of AI in Modern Education System

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reconfiguring the institutional landscape of modern education — reshaping pedagogical relationships, redefining teacher and student roles, and introducing new axes of social inequality. While much of the existing literature approaches AI in education from a techno-functionalist standpoint, this paper adopts a sociological lens, foregrounding questions of power, identity, equity, and institutional transformation. Drawing on qualitative methods — including in-depth interviews, ethnographic observation, and critical discourse analysis — conducted across seven country contexts, this study develops a grounded theoretical account of how AI technologies are experienced, negotiated, and contested by students, teachers, and institutional actors.
The analysis reveals four dominant sociological dynamics: the reproduction of digital inequality through differential access to AI tools; the reconfiguration of teacher professional identity under technocratic pressure; the emergence of algorithmic power as a new form of institutional surveillance; and the transformation of student subjectivity through personalised learning architectures. The paper argues that AI in education cannot be understood as a neutral technological upgrade but must be analysed as a socially embedded intervention that carries the imprints of the broader social structures within which it is designed and deployed. The paper concludes with a set of structurally-informed recommendations for policymakers, educators, and technology developers committed to equitable and emancipatory educational futures.