This paper investigates the acceptance of AI-based tools in teaching and non-teaching school staff in Milan and the metropolitan city in 2024.

The recent spread of AI tools in many fields has also impacted schools, which are responsible for preparing students for further school levels and university, enhancing their digital skills.

Thanks to the cooperation with the School Office of Milan, we started our work as an early exploration of the theme and administered to Milan schools a survey, based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM2), to shed some light on the acceptance of AI-based technology at school. The survey was tailored to the respondent's role to allow for relevant and meaningful responses, based on their respective points of view.

The survey sections included questions useful to outline the respondents’ profile and also to explore the main constructs of the model for AI-based tools: Intention to Use, Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Subjective Norm (person’s perception of other people’s approval), Voluntariness (absence of social constraints), Image (internal and external attribution of competence), Job Relevance, Output Quality, Result Demonstrability (evaluation of results).

The emerging themes considered in this paper, elicited by the over 3000 answers, focus on using AI-based tools at school, and attitude towards this emerging technology: enhanced personalization of the learning experience, reduction of repetitive tasks workload, and achieving fundamental skills for digital citizenship.

Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Schools, Milan, Principals, Teachers, Education, AI Awareness.