Access is Not Enough: Human Support Improves Engagement with AI Tutoring

Carly D. Robinson, David Gormley, Ana Trindade Ribeiro, Susanna Loeb

Date

06/2026

AI Overview

Why it matters

AI tutoring platforms offer a promising path to scale personalized instruction, but only if students actually use them.

Study at a glance

Question: Does human support focused on engagement increase elementary students' use of an AI literacy platform and reading achievement?
Setting and data: Elementary school students; sample size and location not stated in the abstract.
Method: Two randomized controlled trials

Key findings

Working with human tutors increased elementary students' engagement by 71% to 80% and raised average weekly platform use by 1 to 4 minutes.
Nearly half of students assigned to use the platform independently never used it, and those who did averaged only 2 to 5 minutes weekly.
Overall platform usage remained low despite the intervention, and having human support did not improve student reading achievement.

Summary drafted with AI from the paper’s abstract and may contain errors. See the full paper for details.

AI tutoring platforms offer a promising path to scaling personalized instruction, but only if students use them. We report findings from two randomized controlled trials in which elementary students were assigned to use an AI literacy platform independently or with an in-person tutor focused on engagement, not direct instruction. Despite dedicated session time, nearly half of students in the control group never used the platform, and those who did averaged only 2-5 minutes per week. Working with human tutors increased average weekly platform usage by 1 to 4 minutes and engagement by 71-80%. However, usage remained low, and the intervention did not improve reading achievement. Findings suggest that access alone is insufficient; implementation and human support matter for promoting meaningful engagement with AI-based learning tools.