What’s The EdTech Leadership Blueprint For 2025?

As 2025 approaches, edtech leaders face unique and growing pressures. And they’re not entirely unfounded. EdTech leaders are trying to balance human connection with tech advancement, causing concerns about how edtech will support learning.

While education values accuracy, compliance, and proven teaching methods, they don’t always align with the experimental nature of edtech. Ironically, edtech is now bringing its own challenges, leaving leaders in new, untested territory. This fear of the unknown can make it hard for them to take even calculated risks.

 

Critical Concerns EdTech Leaders Face in Shaping the Future of EdTech

Here are six of the most critical considerations for edtech leaders as they go about shaping the future of edtech:

1. Are We Relying Too Much on Artificial Intelligence?

EdTech’s AI adoption mirrors the quick adoption of digital learning during COVID. Just as the sudden shift online brought mixed results for students, the quick embrace of AI now prompts similar concerns.

Research shows that while remote learning sustained education during the pandemic, it widened the learning gap. Everyone’s skeptical about new tech in education since its long-term impacts are uncertain. Above all, AI is still maturing and lacks transparency and accountability. This leaves room for both remarkable advancements as well as unforeseen pitfalls, especially as regulations around AI continue to evolve.

Many edtech leaders are already aware of this. Here’s how they are balancing ambition with caution.

1. Leaders are working closely with educators to align AI with real classroom needs rather than disruptive edtech solutions.

2. To address academic integrity, leaders embed AI tools with ‘guardrails’ that set clear expectations for their role and operations.

3. Additionally, they are setting up strict internal policies around ethical AI use and data security for internal AI model development.

4. Some are even helping districts adopt AI more responsibly.

This careful groundwork will help shape AI into a force that brings genuine value to education while minimizing risks.

2. Are We Able to Reinforce the Human Connection?

If you’re a tech company, it’s usually clear how your product benefits society — often replacing manual tasks with automation. But for edtech, that’s far from what should define their product, especially when research shows that positive teacher-student relationships lead to better academic achievements.

When using technology in classrooms, many people find it difficult to untether themselves from the technology. In 2020, Paul Emerich France, an author, instructional coach, and former elementary school teacher coined the phrase ‘edtech minimalism’ that helped tutors adopt a no-frills approach. Four years later this approach resonates with many edtech developments. How? By helping edtech product leaders focus on what matters most in education — connection. Depending on the platform, this plays out in different formats:

1. Today, platforms are creating spaces for genuine connection, like virtual “tables” where students can have group discussions during online classes. They can pause and discuss as they watch recorded lectures together.

2. To encourage teacher-student relationships, platforms give teachers digital reflection tools that send prompts and questions via video, audio, or text.

3. Others integrate welcoming features, like personalized avatars or interactive polls, to make students feel more connected.

In the end, the best edtech solutions are those that, at their core, mimic the essence of human connection, reminding us that the heart of edtech is in the relationships it enables.

3. Are We Able to Meet Real Inclusivity Needs?

Stepping into 2025, educators have realized that “accessible” edtech does not always equate to inclusion. Compliance-based design can overlook how students interact with edtech.

For instance, in her LinkedIn post, Louisa Rosenheck, director of pedagogy at the game-based learning platform, Kahoot, describes what makes edtech inclusive for neurodiverse students. But for edtech leaders, this pressure to prioritize “legal minimums” over “real impact” is especially challenging under tight deadlines and budget constraints. Many leaders are exploring innovative actions such as:

1. Native user testing, where actual students, educators, and diverse users help test for product inclusivity from day one. This provides real insights into how a product functions in diverse environments, going far beyond automated checks.

2. They are training staff on accessibility standards to keep them up-to-date so that product decisions align with accessibility best practices.

Lastly, as you go about edtech development, here are a few questions you can ask:

1. How can we use equity principles to influence the pedagogy of our edtech tools?

2. How can we diversify funding sources to be more equitable for students?

3. How can we conduct codesign to meet the goals of truly empowering youth and creating better learning experiences?

4. Does the Current Resource Pipeline and Development Allow Us to Sustain in the Long Run?

It’s true that the edtech funding boom isn’t what it was during the pandemic. The market is flooded with new startups, but funding levels have hit new lows. Many challenges that edtech startups set out to solve are still present, and the demand for innovative solutions remains. However, with funding now under greater scrutiny, edtech leaders fear that short-term pressures are pushing them to sacrifice long-term product quality.

The key point to understand here is that even investors are looking for a steady approach.

1. For instance, even investors agree that leaders must return to foundational principles, aligning product development with goals that matter for the long term, rather than simply reacting to immediate market pressures.

2. To align expectations with investors, leaders must communicate a long-term vision that proves sustained investment will result in lasting quality.

5. Is Our Data Completely Secure?

Earlier, I mentioned how edtech is implementing cybersecurity to protect sensitive information; these efforts are not a passive approach. With the vast datasets generated, tech scrutiny around data privacy has only intensified. In fact, 55 percent of K-12 school data breaches between 2016 and 2021 were carried out on ed-tech vendors. That included attacks on large, well-resourced districts, such as New York City public schools. Amidst security breaches, data security is one of the biggest priorities for education tech leaders.

1. EdTech products must maintain backups that are immune to ransomware, build robust firewalls, and implement continuous monitoring. These aren’t just basic steps. High-availability firewalls, for example, safeguard against unauthorized access, while continuous monitoring detects issues early. In the event of data loss or corruption, reliable backups ensure that recovery is efficient.

2. They are also adopting hyper-converged infrastructure, which combines storage, computing, and networking into a single, manageable security system.

3. To minimize risks, leaders are simplifying data center operations and automating user access management. By automating account setup, maintenance, and removal, they reduce human error and strengthen security.

With these measures, edtech leaders are helping to build a foundation of privacy and trust.

6. Are We in Tandem with Market Trends?

Staying ahead of the curve is no easy feat. As new tech emerges, there’s always the risk that established players could be caught off guard.  While some teams are heads-down on perfecting their current product, others are actively developing innovations that could disrupt the market overnight. It’s a race where today’s competitive edge can be tomorrow’s obsolete feature.

To stay relevant:

1. Leaders must invest in research and development to create genuine innovation.

2. Improvements shouldn’t just look good but actually benefit educators and students.

3. Lastly, they must engage closely with educators. It’s the only way to foresee their needs and challenges and deliver effective products.

These concerns are a constant reminder that in education, every step forward brings both opportunity and risk. While we manage these challenges with strategy and care, they underscore an essential truth: meaningful innovation in edtech isn’t just about keeping pace — it’s about making decisions that genuinely serve students, educators, and communities. This balance is what makes edtech both challenging and deeply rewarding.