Elementary school students take music classes using AI‑powered smart pianos, Hangzhou Yucai Experimental School, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/CGTN]

AI is increasingly part of school life. At Hangzhou Yucai Experimental School, east China's Zhejiang Province, AI is woven into daily teaching.

Take Chinese class, for example. Grading 40 essays used to take a long time. With AI, it takes just over ten minutes. It provides suggestions for improving language while generating detailed analysis reports to help students see how to improve their work.

Traditional essay grading is often limited by teachers' time and energy, making it hard to give every student precise feedback. Chinese language teacher Yue Baiyu says the AI system assesses writing on supporting materials, structure and language. It flags spelling, punctuation and word-choice errors, then generates detailed reports, giving each student personalized guidance and helping them see their strengths, weaknesses and where to improve.

But AI can flatten creative expression, so teachers' judgment must staycentral. Their feedback and emotional support are irreplaceable. After AI's first pass, teachers review and revise each report, accounting for each student's level and style, so the final feedback fits.

This division of labor means teachers are freed from repetitive grading and can focus on different learning needs.

In PE, long jumps, rope jumps and physical fitness were once hard to grade. Now AI records them automatically, and teachers use the data for one-on-one guidance.

At Yucai, AI is meant to help students write better and think better, not to replace their thinking. The school bans students from using AI-generated work.

Hangzhou now offers AI literacy courses at every grade level, with at least 10 class hours a year. The city has also built platforms like "Leading Science in Hangzhou," used by nearly 180 schools.