Addressing attendees at the ASU+GSV AI Show in San Diego this month, Matt Winters, Utah’s AI education specialist — the first state-level position of its kind in the U.S., he said — summarized this work as a reaction that turned proactive. He said the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) created his role to address the rapid rise of generative AI and guide schools through its implementation.
“Because that exponential technology is doubling in capacity so quickly and getting more and more ubiquitous over a short period of time, it’s getting more and more part of our society, and we’re having sometimes less and less time to navigate the minutiae,” he said. “So that’s why it’s so important for someone like me in statewide education to step in and help navigate that with our schools.”
In April 2024, USBE released a statewide AI framework to help localities develop their own policies and practices. More than half of public districts in the state now have an AI policy in place, Winters said.
That August, Utah launched one of the country’s first statewide RFP processes for school AI tools. Through this process, any publicly funded school in the state can apply to join the statewide RFP and receive low-cost, vetted AI tools through state-negotiated contracts. While this process is normally time-consuming, Utah was able to put it together in just five months, Winters said.
Beyond tools, Utah has invested in training and professional development. The state held six free AI summits in September 2024, bringing in nearly 700 educators from all of the state’s school districts, plus many charter schools and higher-education organizations, for hands-on professional development. Summits included opportunities to demo AI tools, talk with industry experts and provide feedback on future state initiatives.
Another state initiative in Utah offers teachers a $200 stipend to complete AI training and submit lesson plans, which are being compiled into an open source library to support peer learning, Winters said. The goal is to create scalable subject- and grade-specific examples of how AI can support instruction.
Winters said that participants in Utah’s AI professional development programs showed significant growth.
“All the teachers, every single step of the way, went up by an order of magnitude,” he said. “They grew their ability in artificial intelligence.”
INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDS MOMENTUM
Utah’s momentum didn’t appear overnight. The state has spent years building the infrastructure and collaborative culture that made this level of coordination possible, Winters said.
Thanks to long-term investments in the Utah Education Network, every public school in the state can have access to high-speed Internet for free. A recurring $20 million digital teaching and learning grant has helped districts secure devices, coaching and ed-tech tools. Initiatives like these are an important starting point for rolling out AI at scale, Winters said.
“Without any of those, even one of those components missing, I wouldn't have been able to be where I’m at,” Winters said. “If we wouldn’t have had the devices in classrooms, we wouldn't really have the ability to do AI. If we don't have the speed on the Internet and speed at home, we wouldn’t be able to do things in classrooms with this kind of technology.”
On the legal and policy side, the Utah Legislature established the Office of AI Policy in 2024, housed under the Department of Commerce. The office advises on legal and regulatory issues, writes mitigation plans when existing law lags behind AI use cases, and conducts original research on high-impact areas such as mental health bots and deepfakes.
“This has been invaluable for me in the state of Utah, because not only do they have an incredible team that I can go talk to and ask tons of questions, very technical in nature, but also they've been helping me understand the law around education and write some regulatory mitigation plans for districts around AI in the classroom,” Winters said.
WHAT'S NEXT
With the framework and infrastructure in place, Utah is now focused on scaling its efforts. Current funding is enough to cover professional development and the lesson plan program for about 10 percent of Utah's teachers, or 2,600 total, and Winters said the goal is to reach 50 percent through additional grant funding.
The open source lesson plan library is set to launch this fall to provide specific examples of AI integration.
“My teachers can see this. They can see the value here,” Winters said. “But they can’t see how this works in eighth grade science or 10th grade math. So, as we’re working with our teachers to develop these lesson plans, the goal is to then show these off to the teachers and say, 'Here's a possible path,' and to consistently improve that over time.”
The state is also building AI literacy modules for grades K-6 and working with higher-education institutions to develop AI-aligned career and technical education courses. The state hopes to have complete course pathways in AI engineering, for example, available to students by 2027.
The University of Utah is also planning a collaborative event called Hack the Future, set for May 22 and 23, to bring together education, policy and tech leaders to draft long-term plans for how Utah wants AI to function across sectors.
For education agencies looking to replicate Utah’s work, Winters stressed the importance of cultivating a culture of innovation and expertise.
“Do you have a historical trend of innovation, or can you start that? Do you have a robust, collaborative community? Do you also have, or can you find, deep expertise?” he asked. “Those are the three things that have allowed me to do what I do in the state of Utah, and really excel, and I would encourage you in other communities to really look for those three things to help build that up.”
