5 powerful AI tools for school administrators

Managing budgets and class schedules, handling parent communications and staff coordination… the to-do list of your typical school administrator is a constantly growing beast.

What if artificial intelligence (AI) could help?

There’s a whole host of purpose-built AI tools to which you can offload time-consuming administrative tasks — all so you can focus on the human side of leadership.

Below, I dive into five powerful AI tools for school administrators based on my own hands-on testing.

What is AI and how does it support school administration?

What are AI agents in the context of school operations? An AI agent is like a virtual extra set of hands. It can analyze data, draft documents, and streamline communication with a balance of speed and accuracy. Used well, the benefits of AI are obvious: a lighter workload, better efficiency, and more time and energy for high-value work like strategic leadership.

The best AI models can tackle a whole range of common administrative duties:

• Automating data entry
• Generating detailed reports
• Scheduling complex meetings
• Personalizing parent communication

A K-12 school, for example, could use an AI system to automatically track student attendance and notify parents of unexcused absences. In a higher ed setting, AI can optimize course scheduling and classroom allocation. This is school workflow automation in action.

How to integrate AI tools into your school workflow

Bringing AI-powered school tools into your daily operations may sound like a big undertaking, but with a deliberate approach, you can ensure a seamless transition.

The first step is to assess your school’s readiness: Identify the most repetitive and time-consuming administrative tasks, where school admin automation could make the biggest difference in your day-to-day.

Once you have a clear picture of your needs, it’s important to get your data in order. AI systems are data-hungry, so ensuring your school’s information is accurate, organized, and accessible is crucial. That may mean consolidating disparate spreadsheets or cleaning up your student information system (SIS).

When evaluating education automation tools, look for pre-built integrations with any software you already use, including your SIS and learning management system (LMS). This will make sharing data a lot easier.

The best AI tools for school administrators

Here it is: my handpicked list of the five best AI tools for school administrators. I’ve spent time with each of these platforms to give you a firsthand look at how they can transform your school’s administrative workflow.

1. Jotform AI Agents: Best for automating communication with parents, students, and staff

With Jotform AI Agents, you can create your own custom School Administrator AI Agent to interact with parents, students, and staff.

I found this to be one of the most practical digital tools for school principals that I tested. You can create one conversational AI agent to answer common parent questions about enrollment, for example, another to help students with IT support, and another to handle staff requests for resources — all without writing a single line of code. It’s a powerful tool for automating frontline communications.

Jotform AI Agents stands out for its focus on creating interactive, conversational experiences. It’s built on a user-friendly platform and is easy to connect with your data. Plus, it’s suitable for both K-12 and higher ed use cases.

• Key features: Create specialized AI agents for different tasks and audiences without coding; deploy agents across various channels, including your school’s website and SMS; train AI agents on your school’s specific documents and policies
• Pros: Easy to customize agents to fit specific school workflows; integrates seamlessly with Jotform’s powerful form-building and data-collection tools
• Cons: Doesn’t integrate with other third-party AI agents; primarily focused on communication, and specifically online interactions — may not be the best fit for data analysis, curriculum development, or other needs.
• Plans/pricing: Jotform offers a free plan with limited agents and conversations, as well as several paid tiers and a custom enterprise-level plan
• G2 rating: 4.7/5

2. Panorama Solara: Best for a secure, customizable, and data-integrated K-12 AI platform

Panorama Solara is a district-wide AI platform designed specifically for K-12 education. It securely integrates with existing systems (like your SIS and Panorama’s own Student Success platform) to provide AI-powered support for both administrative and instructional tasks.

Solara is also incredibly versatile. Administrators can use it to streamline the creation of documents like individualized education programs, attendance nudge letters to families, and even college recommendation letters. The platform provides district-level analytics on how AI is being used, which is great for governance and wider adoption.

Unlike generic AI tools, Solara is built with the specific needs and safety requirements of K-12 districts in mind. Its ability to connect student data allows it to provide highly personalized and context-aware assistance.

• Key features: Connects with your district’s SIS and other data sources to provide personalized, context-aware AI assistance; administrators can create and publish custom prompts and templates for use across the district; provides clear visibility into how AI is used across the district, helping to track trends and ensure widespread adoption
• Pros: Designed specifically for K-12 with a strong focus on data security and privacy; AI tools are informed by real student data, leading to more personalized and effective outputs
• Cons: Pricing isn’t transparent and likely requires a district-level commitment; the deep integration, while powerful, could be complex to implement
• Plans/pricing: Contact Panorama Solara for information on plans and pricing
• G2 rating: 3.8/5

3. MagicSchool: Best for specialized AI tools in one platform

MagicSchool is a comprehensive platform that serves as a one-stop shop for AI in education. It boasts a massive suite of over 80 tools, including a dedicated AI assistant named “Raina,” a rubric generator, and communication features. I was genuinely impressed by the sheer breadth of what it offers, which enables it to help administrators with a huge variety of tasks.

The communication tools can help you draft emails to both staff and parents, assessment tools can help standardize evaluation criteria, and it can even generate letters of recommendation. Raina serves as a great overarching AI agent, too.

• Key features: 80-plus tools for everything from lesson planning and assessment to communication and student support; conversational AI chatbot trained on educational best practices to help with a wide range of tasks; rubric generator to create customized, high-quality rubrics for any assignment or evaluation
• Pros: Enormous selection of specialized AI tools, robust free version available for educators
• Cons: Can be overwhelming for new users
• Plans/pricing: Free plan available for educators, contact MagicSchool for information on custom district- and institution-wide enterprise plans
• G2 rating: 4.7/5

4. SchoolAI: Best for using AI and real-time data to improve student achievement

SchoolAI is an AI-powered platform focused on creating personalized learning experiences to improve student outcomes. I tested the new SchoolAI 2.0 Beta (pictured in the screenshot) and found it incredibly intuitive and simple to pick up.

While its primary user base is teachers and students, its powerful data and analytics features are a goldmine for administrators. SchoolAI provides these professionals with a real-time dashboard of student progress, making it easy to identify learning gaps and make informed, data-driven decisions. It can also help design personalized student support and academic interventions at a school-wide level.

• Key features: AI-created individualized learning journeys for every student, up-to-the-minute view of student progress and school performance, AI-powered interventions to help educators identify and provide targeted support to struggling students
• Pros: Free for teachers, strong focus on improving student outcomes through personalization and data
• Cons: As a newer platform, it is still evolving; more focused on instructional leadership than on general administrative tasks
• Plans/pricing: Free for teachers, contact SchoolAI for information on custom team- and district-wide plans
• G2 rating: 5/5

5. SLT AI: Best for a dedicated AI assistant that supports administrative and leadership tasks

SLT AI is a specialized suite of AI tools developed by school leaders, for school leaders.

This platform is a workhorse for AI for administrative tasks. During my trial, I was impressed by the dedicated tools for documents like school improvement plans (SIPs) and self-evaluation forms (SEFs). It also excels at day-to-day tasks like drafting parent newsletters, generating meeting agendas, and even writing minutes.

Unlike general-purpose AI, SLT AI’s laser focus on education-specific content makes the output super relevant and reliable.

• Key features: Writing and refining SIPs and SEFs across all key school areas; comprehensive reports; tools for drafting newsletters, letters to parents, and simplifying communications for families where English is an additional language 
• Pros: Specifically designed to meet the unique needs of school leadership, continuously updated with the latest educational policies and research
• Cons: Heavy UK focus may not be a fit for international use, no free plan
• Plans/pricing: Individual plans include unlimited use of all AI features and start at £10 per month for one user; team plans start at £85 per user per year for 2–5 users or £75 per user per year for 6–10 users, and custom plans are available for more than 10 users
• G2 rating: N/A