Reclaiming Time for Human Connection: How AI Transformed My Work and Renewed My Purpose in Education 

By Victoria Moore, Speech-Language Pathologist, Sheboygan Area School District 

The Bureaucracy Problem in Education 

Across the country, educators are united by a shared frustration: endless paperwork that takes time away from the work that truly matters—connecting with students. We enter this profession because we are passionate about helping children communicate, learn, and grow. Yet, too often, our days are consumed by compliance tasks, repetitive documentation, and inefficient systems that drain our energy and creativity. 

I have always loved my work as a speech-language pathologist, but a couple of years ago, the administrative demands became overwhelming. Around that time, I was also diagnosed with a rare cancer. While I am healthy and active today, that experience profoundly shifted my perspective. I can no longer spend my evenings glued to a screen, formatting documents. Life is too short to let paperwork steal our passion. 

Mindlessly completing forms and reports left little room for joy, curiosity, or authentic connection. Eventually, I left my district position, exhausted and disheartened, believing I could no longer sustain the work I loved. 

But that was not the end of the story. 

A Return and a Reframe: Eliminate, Delegate, Automate 

A few months later, I was asked to return to my district to help fill two speech-language pathologist vacancies. I agreed—on one condition: I could not go back to “copy and paste” work. Together, my director and I designed a new model. I was given clerical support and empowered to rethink how my role could be structured. 

I adopted a new mindset: eliminate, delegate, automate, and do only the tasks that only I can do. 

This philosophy became the foundation for everything that followed. I began examining each part of my day through that lens: 

• What could I eliminate because it didn’t add value? 
• What could I delegate to support staff or technology?
• What could I automate so that I could focus on the uniquely human work of helping students communicate and connect? 

Rediscovering AI: From Skepticism to Transformation 

When I first explored AI tools last fall, I wasn’t impressed. I asked for help writing an IEP goal, but the output was too wordy and impractical. I thought, “How am I supposed to take data on that within a session?” 

Months later, I gave AI another chance—and this time, I was intrigued. I fed it raw STAR assessment data, formatted inconsistently and full of columns that typically required 30 minutes of retyping. In seconds, AI organized and reformatted the data so I could insert it directly into my report. That simple task saved me half an hour and gave me a glimpse of AI’s potential to return time to educators. 

From Data Entry to Data Insight 

Soon, I began applying AI to more complex parts of my work. During one evaluation, I recorded a Google Meet session with a multilingual student and used AI to transcribe and analyze the 20-minute conversation. The system couldn’t yet separate my speech from the student’s, but it generated detailed data on the number and types of questions asked, the level of abstraction, the types and amount of scaffolding I provided, and the student’s accuracy. AI calculations revealed not only the student’s accuracy toward their goal but also the amount and level of scaffolding required to achieve success. 

While my live, in-session data collection closely matched the AI-generated results—a validating reminder that objective tools can support professional judgment—it was my real-time observations that allowed me to provide immediate scaffolding and instructional support, something AI cannot do. The analysis also gave me insight into my own instructional approach that I might have missed while focusing solely on data collection. 

This process reassured me that my recommendations were grounded in evidence, not emotion, and provided our team with a clear view of the student’s current skills and response to therapy—enabling decisions that were both student-centered and financially responsible. 

Beyond Compliance: Reclaiming Curiosity and Connection 

AI has not made my work impersonal; it has made it more human. When I am not spending hours copying text into data platforms, I can spend more time connecting with students—listening, laughing, and helping them discover their voices. 

Automation has opened space for curiosity. Before, asking deeper questions meant more manual data collection. Now, AI can calculate, summarize, and visualize results instantly. That freedom allows me to ask better questions and design more engaging, personalized therapy activities. 

I’ve come to see AI as a partner that handles the bureaucracy so I can focus on what only humans can do: build relationships, read emotions, scaffold learning, and spark curiosity. 

Lessons for Leaders 

My experience has taught me lessons that extend beyond speech-language pathology: 

A New Chapter 

AI will undoubtedly reshape education, but I hope it does so in a way that re-centers humanity. If automation can handle the bureaucracy, educators can return their full attention to students—the heart of our profession. 

The future of education doesn’t have to be one of exhaustion and compliance. It can be a future of connection, curiosity, and creativity—if we use technology wisely. AI cannot feel the splash of water on a child’s hands or the thrill of them laughing and shouting “More!” the first time they play a water-based lesson like “car wash.” It cannot know the warmth, the joy, or the spark of connection in those moments. But I can use AI to analyze a child’s strengths and interests to help me design engaging lessons. Only I can implement the activity, notice what excites the child, and respond in real time. Freed from paperwork, I can be fully present—attentive, alive, and truly connected—when those fleeting, magical moments unfold.