When Teachers Leave: AI Dependency and the Future of the Teaching Profession

Written by

Dr. Fariha Gul

Researcher, Academician, Consultant

Imagine a future where teachers are given financial incentives to abandon the profession. Not just symbolic bonuses or early retirement plans, but real, life-altering offers to exit education and pursue other careers. Now combine this with an educational climate where students are increasingly dependent on artificial intelligence, unable to compose a sentence independently, read with comprehension, or engage in critical thinking. In such a world, how many teachers would stay?

The idea is not entirely hypothetical. A growing number of educators are already expressing frustration over deteriorating student engagement, widening learning gaps, and the diminishing respect for their professional role. The arrival of generative AI tools has only amplified this crisis. Recently, a teacher shared a painful confession—they left the profession after realizing their students could no longer write or read independently and relied solely on AI for all academic tasks. Is this an isolated incident or an omen of what lies ahead?

The Exit Incentive: A Thought Experiment

What if governments or corporations began offering teachers monetary compensation to leave the classroom permanently? This thought experiment exposes a fundamental truth: for many, teaching is no longer a sustainable career. Overburdened by administrative demands, disillusioned by institutional politics, and now challenged by a generation immersed in automated learning, educators are quietly burning out.

One might assume that those who stay do so purely out of passion or moral commitment. But can goodwill alone sustain a system that no longer values professional judgment, expertise, or even human connection?

AI in the Classroom: From Support to Substitution

Artificial Intelligence was introduced into classrooms with promises of personalization, efficiency, and inclusivity. Initially hailed as a supportive tool for differentiated learning, AI has now evolved into a substitute for thinking. Students routinely use generative tools to produce essays, solve problems, and even participate in discussions—with little to no understanding of the content.

The teacher who left because students were "unable to read or write a single sentence" is not exaggerating. In many classrooms today, educators are confronting blank stares, AI-generated assignments, and an almost total disengagement from the learning process. This isn't just a technological shift—it's an epistemological crisis.

Mockery or Alarm?

Does this scenario mock the role of teachers, rendering them obsolete? Or is it a wake-up call for policymakers, curriculum designers, and educational leaders?

Arguably, it’s both.

It mocks the hollow rhetoric that elevates teachers as “nation builders” while offering them poor working conditions, low pay, and no voice in decision-making. At the same time, it should alarm everyone invested in the future of knowledge and learning. If AI becomes the sole medium of education, the classroom loses its essence: the messy, human process of questioning, debating, failing, and trying again.

Teaching in the Age of AI: A New Vision Needed

This is not a plea to ban AI from schools. Instead, it’s a demand to reclaim the space for human intelligence. Teachers must be reimagined not as deliverers of content but as mentors, facilitators of inquiry, and curators of critical literacy. Students must be taught not just how to use AI tools, but when, why, and with what ethical considerations.

If we continue on the current path—where AI replaces effort, and teacher expertise is undervalued—the question won’t be "how many teachers will leave," but "will teaching as a profession even survive?" The exit of passionate educators is not just a loss for schools; it is a societal failure.

We must decide whether to mock the profession into extinction or respond to the alarm it raises. Because without teachers, there is no education—only automation.