Introducing IgniteAI: Instructure’s integrated, education-first approach to AI

Why AI, and why now?

Artificial intelligence is changing how we teach and learn, but it’s also raising big questions. What’s safe? What’s useful? What actually saves time instead of adding to it?

At Instructure, we’ve heard these questions firsthand. In a recent survey of global education leaders, 72.2 percent said fairness, ethics, and institutional risk were their top concerns when it comes to AI. That’s why we built IgniteAI: to help educators explore what’s possible with tools that are secure, reliable, and made for education from the start.

As Chief Product Officer Shiren Vijiasingam shared at InstructureCon, our approach is simple. AI should assist educators, not replace them. That principle runs through every part of IgniteAI, from how we design features to how we show exactly where AI is being used inside our products, allowing educators and institutions to maintain agency.

What is IgniteAI?

IgniteAI is Instructure’s education-first AI offering, built directly into Canvas. It’s designed to help educators save time, surface insights, and personalise instruction without giving up control.

This isn’t a chatbot added to the side of a platform. Instead, IgniteAI is a coordinated ecosystem of AI-powered features and trusted partner integrations surfaced exactly where educators need assistance. It helps institutions streamline workflows, improve teaching and learning experiences, and manage AI use with confidence.

Partnering with OpenAI to bring education‑aligned AI into Canvas

One of the most significant developments in IgniteAI is our global partnership with OpenAI. Educators can now build interactive, chat-based learning experiences—known as LLM-enabled assignments—directly within Canvas.

All interactions stay within Canvas and never train external models without explicit permission. Institutions retain ownership of their data, and educators remain in full control of what learners experience. These learning experiences are designed to align with instructional goals, provide real-time feedback to learners, and give educators meaningful insights into progress. 

Educators can use OpenAI-powered tools to create chat-based assignments that scaffold learning, guide student thinking, and surface insights in Canvas analytics and the Gradebook. These experiences are grounded in providing authentic learning experiences and give teachers the ability to quickly and easily respond to the needs of their learners.

What can you do with IgniteAI today?

IgniteAI includes a growing set of tools that are already available in Canvas. They include: 

For educators:

• Automatically summarise discussions
• Use smart search with filters and context
• Translate inbox messages and discussion posts
• Quickly generate reassessment items
   

For administrators:

• Use Ask Your Data in Intelligent Insights to get answers from your data faster
• Align standards during quiz conversions
   

With partners:

• OpenAI
• Google Gemini LTI
• Grammarly
• Microsoft
• Praxis AI
• Claude LTI (Anthropic)
• …and more

IgniteAI is designed to feel seamless and familiar inside Canvas.

Coming soon: what’s next for IgniteAI?

We’re just getting started, but institutions around the world are already seeing how IgniteAI can support their work. 
“Not another tool, but an initiative to enhance existing workflows.” — Admin at Singapore University of Social Sciences

Educators in our early adopter program are currently testing:

• Rubric generation based on assignment parameters
• Accessibility remediation tools
• Studio caption translation and review features
• IgniteAgent, a premium add-on designed for deeper workflow support
   

Additional features currently that are part of our upcoming roadmap include grading assistance, quiz generation, and Turnitin integration. If you’re interested in helping shape what comes next, we’d love to hear from you.

How to get started

Visit the IgniteAI page to learn more and sign up for updates. If you’re curious about what’s included in the core experience versus premium offerings, IgniteAgent is the only premium add-on at this stage.

To stay in the loop, you can also fill out the “Stay in the know” form on the site.

Upcoming webinars: get hands-on

Want to see IgniteAI in action or hear how others are using it? We have two upcoming webinars specifically for APAC: 

• Introducing IgniteAI: Led by Melissa Loble, Instructure’s Chief Academic Officer, this session will cover challenges around AI in education, our approach to thoughtfully integrating AI into our ecosystem, and a peek at IgniteAI.
• IgniteAI in action: Farrah King, Global Growth Product Marketing Manager, will show all the ways educators and admins can use IgniteAI today with a live demo. 
   

Sign up now on our Events page to attend live or receive the post-event recording. 

We’re excited to build this future together, with transparency, care, and a strong belief in the importance of educator-led innovation. Explore IgniteAI today and see what’s possible when AI starts with education.