Episode 26: From AI Disorientation to Traction: Hamit Hamutcu on the Six-Month Shift in How Educators Are Thinking and Talking About AI

In this conversation, Jason Gorman talks with Hamit Hamutcu, founder of AIx Ed, an event and community platform that brings together K-12 teachers, university leaders, ed tech founders, and policymakers to make sense of what AI means for education. They discuss the striking leap in maturity he observed between the November 2025 and May 2026 AIx Ed conferences, the danger of siloing conversations by sector, and why education is making more progress on how we teach than on what we teach. Hamit also shares lessons from co-founding a data science skills taxonomy, offers practical advice for professionals drowning in AI news, and predicts a calmer near future where AI becomes embedded in workflows rather than remaining the dominant topic of conversation.

• The maturity of AI conversations in education jumped dramatically in just six months.
• There is far more progress on how we teach than on what we teach.
• Cross-sector conversations are more valuable than sector-specific silos.
• AI skills must be integrated into subject context, not taught in isolation.
• Taxonomies help professionalize a field but must be ready to be thrown out.
• Durable skills like problem structuring and evaluation outlast any specific tool.
• Keeping up with AI daily creates anxiety; a monthly wavelength is enough.
• Individual initiative is driving more change than organizational policy right now.
• The real next step is tinkering with AI in your own workflows, not reading about it.
• In two to three years, AI will feel more like business as usual than a disruption.

From AI Disorientation to Traction: Hamit Hamutcu on the Six-Month Shift in How Educators Are Thinking and Talking About AI

From AI Disorientation to Traction: Hamit Hamutcu on How Educators are Finding Their Footing