Helping mission-driven education leaders navigate the promise and complexity of AI
Too often, we as developers, non-profits, researchers, and educators find ourselves working in reactive siloes, rushing to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology rather than shaping its role in service of more meaningful educational futures. Unprecedented technological advancements offer us an invitation: to leverage the potential of AI and build technology that innovates towards a liberated educational experience, rather than replicate what isn’t working in our current system.
This is an opportunity for each of us, in our own corners of the field, to lead with vision and help shape a future worthy of the students we serve.
Collective Insight for Impact
Over the past 15 years, iF's Education team has explored emerging technologies and led learning sessions for key philanthropy and social impact leaders. We've shaped strategy for funders making bold investments in solutions for impact at scale. As COVID-19 emerged, we quickly briefed leaders on the state of online learning and the possibilities for a new normal. Three years ago, when ChatGPT launched, we were called to create comprehensive resources on AI in EdTech. Our clients trust our expertise, creativity, and relationships as we tackle significant problems and ask, What's possible if...?
Standing at the intersection of strategy, pedagogy, emerging technology, and design, our team has a passion for the power of cross-sector collaboration. Along with our partners, we know that solving some of the most persistent problems requires collective action and convening voices across a full range of perspectives.
Introducing the iF AI Education Collaborative
We're proud to introduce the iF AI Education Collaborative: an invitation to expand our collective imagination about the future of education and technology. Through this initiative, iF will center key questions; convene practitioners and funders to co-create a ‘north star’ for education and technology across the field; and offer consulting, technical assistance, and actionable tools.
This collaborative draws from Intentional Futures' established expertise in strategy and emerging technology in education, including partnerships with Microsoft, the Gates Foundation, and AERDF. With our partners, we purposefully design innovative futures that drive meaningful change.
"At Intentional Futures, we see AI not as an inevitable force to react to, but as a tool we can engage with intention and imagination. The AI Education Collaborative invites leaders across education to dream bigger than fixing the old system—to design entirely new possibilities for students, educators, and communities. Together, we can build futures that are more just, human-centered, and visionary."
Join the Movement
This initiative is a call to action for existing clients, new partners, and collaborators who want to use this moment to lead the way and create meaningful, mission-aligned change.
Over the next months, we will:
Partner with iF: Client Offerings
The AI Education Collaborative is a platform for client partnerships that explore and accelerate AI's role in education. We offer:
- AI Readiness and Opportunity Assessments: Identify your organization's strengths, gaps, and potential use cases for AI.
- Mission-Aligned AI Strategy Sprints: Define a north star, ethical guardrails, and a practical roadmap for adoption.
- Future-of-AI Briefings and Market Landscapes: Understand where the field is headed—and where your organization can lead.
- Tech-Enabled Futures: Explore future potential through demos or user journeys of existing AI and EdTech tools that bring to life what’s possible with the right vision, investment, or design decisions.
- Responsible AI Rubrics and Frameworks: Co-create decision-making tools to guide ethical and impactful AI use.
Who We Are
Intentional Futures is a strategy and design studio that partners with visionary leaders to tackle the hard problems that matter most. We help people imagine solutions at the intersection of design, technology, and deep inquiry. In education and beyond, we believe better questions spark deeper understanding, that technology can amplify human potential, and that thoughtful, student-centered design can unlock bold new futures for learners, leaders, communities, and beyond.
Edited May 13th, 2025: This announcement has been revised from an earlier version to clarify and originalize certain descriptions.