At the end of January, Estonia’s nationwide AI Leap education program began rolling out a learning-supportive AI application to 10th- and 11th-grade students across the country. The goal of the program is to ensure that AI strengthens learning and teaching rather than replacing them.
AI Leap builds on Estonia’s tradition of digital innovation. In the 1990s, the Tiger Leap initiative connected all schools to the internet and laid the foundation for Estonia’s digital society. Today, the country is taking its next step: integrating AI into education through a coordinated, research-based approach.
Nationwide Approach
The AI Leap pilot year began in August 2025 and includes all 154 upper secondary schools in Estonia. Approximately 20,000 students in grades 10 and 11 and about 4,900 teachers are participating in the program.
Student access to the AI Leap learning application followed a structured teacher preparation phase. In August 2025, a national support program for upper secondary teachers was launched. Teachers were given access to ChatGPT and Gemini, and more than 60% now use these tools weekly. Over the past year, the number of teachers using AI tools has increased by 20 percentage points.
Schools established Professional Learning Communities where teachers learn how to use AI tools, share experiences, and develop subject-specific approaches for integrating AI into teaching.
Since late January, upper secondary students have gained access to the AI Leap learning application. Developed in collaboration with Estonian researchers and OpenAI, the application is based on ChatGPT but is designed to guide thinking rather than provide ready-made answers. It follows Estonian communication norms and answers only in Estonian, except in language classes.
Implementation follows each school’s own academic schedule. As of March 2026, 7,700 students have activated their accounts, and 47% of them use the application weekly.
AI Leap CEO Ivo Visak, also the former principal of Saaremaa Upper Secondary School, emphasizes that decisions about how and how often to use the application remain with teachers and students.
“Our goal is not to increase students’ AI use,” Visak said. “Our aim is to provide a pedagogically guided alternative to widely used commercial AI models.”
The AI Leap pilot year is supported by a €4 million investment, co-funded equally by the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research and private sector partners (Telia, Skaala, Smart Future Fond, etc). The program spans three years. In the next phases, it will expand to vocational education, support lower secondary teachers, and integrate validated solutions into the national education system.
A legislative amendment adopted in December 2025 provided Estonian schools with the legal basis to introduce AI applications into formal instruction.
Guiding Thinking, Not Replacing It
Even before AI Leap came along, 64–90% of Estonian students were using commercially available AI tools in their schoolwork — often to complete school assignments more quickly. By international comparison, Estonians ranked among the most active users of LLMs in Europe. Research shows that such rampant use of technologies not designed for the education system can hinder the healthy development of critical thinking, focus, creativity, and self-management.
“Generative AI can also further increase the educational gap, where smart students get even further ahead,” Visak said. “At the same time, for those who may not have clear learning skills early on, delegating their learning to a machine would make the result even worse.”
The ChatGPT-based application customized for Estonian students takes a different approach. “This learning app supports the growth mindset and planning skills,” Visak said. When a student, for example, asks the app to write an essay about Greek gods, instead of spitting out a perfectly polished essay, the app starts by asking the student questions: Are you pressed for time right now? What is this essay for? The student inevitably has to start thinking about what they’re doing and why.
This simple change in the dynamics of the conversation is crucial, as it shifts the focus from passively obtaining a response to triggering the learner to think.
Early data show a positive student response. From October to December, AI Leap piloted the application with 900 upper secondary students. Students reported that they appreciated the tool’s question-based approach and found the interaction engaging and motivating.
“Students embraced the tool because they felt it supported their learning and valued the fact that their data is not used for training. In cooperation with OpenAI, the model can also detect certain risk patterns and guide students to appropriate Estonian support services,” Visak added.
At the same time, some students have raised broader questions about the environmental impact of AI technologies, reflecting an active and critical engagement with the role of digital tools in society.
Does it Really Work?
“Estonia has always approached education not as something static, but as a system we continuously improve,” said Associate Professor Jaan Aru of the University of Tartu.
With AI becoming part of that picture, the big question is how to measure its long-term impact on learning. To address this, the University of Tartu is conducting a large-scale impact study in collaboration with Stanford University and OpenAI.
“Students are keen to be involved in the development process, and many want to learn how to support learning with AI. It feels like a real turning point, and we’re excited to contribute methods that other education systems can reuse and build on,” Aru said.
The study aims to examine how and under what conditions the learning application influences student development. The results will provide insights not only for Estonian schools but also for the international education community on how to learn effectively with AI. Findings will be published in a peer-reviewed international journal and shared through AI Leap’s channels later this year.
Launched in 2025 initiated by President Alar Karis and the Ministry of Education and Research, AI Leap positions Estonia among the first countries in Europe to introduce AI literacy into the national curriculum. Its long-term goal is to help schools adapt to the age of AI by strengthening students’ learning habits and supporting teachers in adopting new tools responsibly.