It is on the agenda at every conference, across industries - and probably already part of your school’s daily work, even if nobody has officially called it an “AI project” yet.
We are using it to translate parent letters in seconds, draft emails or one step further to see what it could mean for planning, communication and decision-making.
Some are curious. Some are cautious. Most are somewhere in between.
For Music and Art schools, AI is no longer a distant future topic. It is becoming part of the everyday digital landscape - just like online registration, digital communication and automated workflows once did.
So the question is no longer: Should we engage with AI?
The better question is: How do we give it direction, so it supports our schools, people and values?
That was the starting point for our recent SpeedAdmin Inspirational Webinar with AI consultant Magnus Elgaard Petersen.
Here are the key takeaways - translated into the everyday reality of music and art schools.
Many people have already tried AI. Some use it to rewrite emails, translate texts, summarise documents or get started when the blank page is staring back.
That is a good beginning.
The next step is to move from random use to purposeful use. Use it with intent. For school leaders, the important question is not whether AI will enter the organisation. It already has.
The question is how to guide it, so it supports the school’s work in a clear, responsible and useful way.
AI can do many impressive things. Some are creative, some are technical and some are mostly entertaining.
But for music and art schools, the most useful starting point is often much simpler:
Where do we lose time on repeated work?
Parent letters, translations, meeting summaries, FAQs, internal guidelines, teacher information, course descriptions, funding applications and policy drafts are all good examples.
Tools like NotebookLM can be useful when schools need to work with large amounts of information. A long document can be summarised, turned into an audio explanation, reshaped into a study guide or adapted for different learning needs. Some students understand best by listening. Others need a clearer structure or a more visual overview.
For everyday tasks, tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Le Chat, Perplexity or Copilot can help structure ideas, organise tasks, prepare first drafts or turn rough notes into something usable.
That is where AI becomes relevant: not as something flashy, but as something practical.
It can reduce the daily administrative noise around the school.
Good AI results do not happen by magic. They happen when people learn how to give clear instructions.
The better the context, the better the result. Garbage in – garbage out.
Prompting is basically talking with AI. But it is not only asking questions. It is the bridge between human intention and AI capability.
Some additional things one should consider when prompting to get not generic results:
Who is the text for?
What should it help them understand?
Should the tone be formal, friendly, short, reassuring or practical? What information must be included?
What should be avoided?
Because staff who know how to brief AI properly will save more time, get better results and feel more confident using the tools.
AI raises important questions about data protection, especially in schools working with children, families, payments and personal information.
Magnus came with some clear examples and explanations.
One important example is the US Cloud Act. It means that American authorities can, under certain conditions, request access to data from American tech companies, even if the data is stored on servers in Europe. This is not only about AI. It applies to many cloud services schools already use.
That is why agreements matter.
A Data Processing Agreement, or DPA, is the agreement that explains how a provider may process your data, how long it is stored, and whether it can be used to train AI models. Many schools already have this kind of agreement in place with providers they use every day, a good example will be Microsoft package.
So the question is not only: Which AI tool are we using?
It is also: Are we using it under the right agreement AND with the right settings?
In many AI tools, you can turn off that your inputs are used to train or improve the model. In some cases, this is also possible in the free version. But you usually have to actively go into the settings and switch it off. That is why schools need clear guidance, so staff do not just start using tools with default settings that may not be suitable for school data.
AI can support, structure, translate, summarise, draft and suggest. It can help remove repetitive work and make information easier to access.
That is valuable.
As Magnus indicated "AI is a tool, not a replacement for human judgement." But no algorithm can replace the human touch at the heart of music and art education.
It cannot see the nervous student before a concert. It cannot understand the small breakthrough in a lesson. It cannot encourage a child in exactly the right way. It cannot build trust with a family or understand the culture of a local school.
AI should help people spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time on the moments that truly need human judgement, creativity and care.
AI will keep changing, and new tools will come and go. But the ability to understand, guide and use AI well will become an important advantage for schools.
At the same time, the heart of music and art education will stay the same: people helping people grow. Schools that use AI with intention will not become less human. They will create more time and space for the human work that matters most.
Watch full recording of our webinar here.