Every Tuesday, I dig into a tool that teachers might find useful in their classrooms. Sometimes the tools are well-known; other times they’re newer and still finding their way into schools. My goal is always to share something practical, something that saves time, and something that keeps the focus on student learning. This week, we’re taking a closer look at Khanmigo. It is an AI-powered teaching and learning assistant developed by Khan Academy.
What is Khanmigo?
Khanmigo is Khan Academy’s AI tutor and teaching assistant, built in partnership with OpenAI. If you’ve used Khan Academy before, you know it’s full of high-quality instructional content in math, science, humanities, and more. Khanmigo takes that foundation and layers artificial intelligence on top, allowing students to interact in a conversational way and teachers to get time-saving supports for planning, grading, and feedback.
It’s like having a co-teacher in your pocket, except this one doesn’t need coffee to function before 8 a.m.
How Can Teachers Use Khanmigo?
Here are some of the most practical classroom applications:
- Lesson Planning: Teachers can prompt Khanmigo to generate a lesson outline, warm-up questions, and even differentiation suggestions for diverse learners.
- Socratic Tutoring: Students can use Khanmigo as a tutor that asks guiding questions rather than just providing answers. This style of learning nudges students toward critical thinking instead of copy-and-paste shortcuts.
- Writing Help: In English classes, Khanmigo can provide students with feedback on drafts, suggest ways to strengthen arguments, or help brainstorm ideas.
- Math Support: Students can upload or type in problems, and Khanmigo walks them through step-by-step, emphasizing reasoning over quick answers.
- Classroom Feedback: Teachers can use Khanmigo to draft rubric-based feedback for student work, saving time while still personalizing.
AI Behind the Tool
Khanmigo is powered by OpenAI’s GPT models but is fine-tuned and carefully controlled by Khan Academy. Unlike general-purpose chatbots, Khanmigo has guardrails in place to make it safe for K–12 environments. It avoids inappropriate content, limits shortcuts that would encourage cheating, and emphasizes process over product.
In other words, it’s not trying to be everything. It’s trying to be the right kind of AI for the classroom.
A key distinction here is pedagogical intent. Khanmigo is designed to mimic the Socratic method: instead of telling students the answer, it asks questions that lead students to discover the solution themselves. This is a different approach from many AI tools that simply spit out finished products.
Classroom Example
Imagine you’re teaching a 7th-grade math class on solving linear equations. Traditionally, you might demonstrate examples on the board, assign practice problems, and then work the room to help students who get stuck.
With Khanmigo, a student who raises their hand might instead pull up the tool and type: “I don’t understand how to isolate the variable in 3x + 5 = 20.”
Instead of saying, “Subtract 5 from both sides,” Khanmigo might respond:
“What happens if you take away 5 from both sides of the equation? Can you try writing that out?”
The AI doesn’t hand them the answer. It nudges them toward discovery, while freeing you up to support students who need more hands-on help.
The Upsides
- Time Saver: Teachers report that Khanmigo helps cut down on repetitive tasks like drafting rubrics, writing exit tickets, or designing quick checks for understanding.
- Equity of Access: Students who may not feel comfortable raising their hand can ask Khanmigo questions without fear of embarrassment.
- Personalization: The AI adjusts its responses to a student’s level of understanding, providing scaffolding when needed.
- Trustworthy Source: Because it’s built on Khan Academy’s content library, the tool avoids some of the accuracy issues that plague general AI chatbots.
Things to Watch Out For
No AI tool is perfect. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Overreliance: Students may lean on Khanmigo too heavily if not guided, so clear expectations about its role are key.
- Access: Not all districts have adopted or approved Khanmigo yet, and availability can depend on your school’s technology policies.
- Teacher Training: Like any tool, it’s most powerful when teachers understand its strengths and limits. A short PD session on effective prompts goes a long way.
- Equity: While Khanmigo is offered at low or no cost to many schools, consistent access to devices and Wi-Fi is still a challenge in some communities.
Ethical Considerations
Khan Academy has been transparent about its AI usage. Data privacy is a big focus, student conversations with Khanmigo are stored but anonymized, and they’re used to improve the system, not to target ads or sell products. Teachers and districts can set additional controls to monitor usage.
This makes Khanmigo one of the safer AI bets in a field where data privacy can often feel like the Wild West.
Final Thoughts
Khanmigo represents the kind of AI integration that feels truly teacher-centered. It isn’t about replacing educators or automating creativity; it’s about enhancing what teachers already do best.
If Gemini is the broad, multi-use AI tool for all of Google Workspace, Khanmigo is its more focused cousin: built specifically for education, with teachers and students at the heart of its design.
As with any tech tool, the magic doesn’t come from the software, it comes from how you, the teacher, use it. The best results will happen when Khanmigo is blended thoughtfully into lessons, not tacked on as an afterthought.
Takeaway
Khanmigo is worth exploring if you’re looking for an AI tool that:
- Supports student learning without giving away answers,
- Saves you time on planning and feedback, and
- Respects the unique role of teachers in the classroom.
If your district offers access, it’s definitely a tool to try out this school year.
Paula Johnson Tech 
Leave a comment