The tech problems that derail AI in live workshops almost always fall into four categories: slow responses, surprising outputs, access failures, and display issues. Knowing these in advance means none of them catch you off guard.
The Four Most Common Problems
First: slow responses. AI tools like Claude and ChatGPT occasionally take 10–20 seconds to respond, which feels like an eternity in a live session. This usually happens during high-traffic periods or with longer prompts. The fix is to have a bridging phrase ready — “While it’s processing, let me ask you…” — and keep the conversation moving. The pause becomes invisible.
Second: unexpected or off-topic outputs. AI sometimes misreads your prompt and returns something irrelevant, overly long, or factually iffy. This is the most common source of facilitator embarrassment. The fix is pre-testing your prompts before the session (never show a prompt you haven’t run yourself), and knowing your one-line recovery: “Not quite what I was after — let me refine that.”
Third: access failures. Expired sessions, browser glitches, or sudden outages can lock you out of the tool mid-session. The fix is to stay logged in before the session starts, have the tool open in a pinned browser tab, and know your manual backup for each AI moment.
Fourth: screen-share lag. Sometimes the AI tool loads and responds on your screen, but students see a delayed or frozen version. The fix is to read AI outputs aloud as they generate, rather than waiting for students to read them on-screen. This also improves accessibility.
What This Means for Educators
None of these problems are catastrophic. Each one is manageable with 60 seconds of prep — a backup phrase, a tested prompt, a pinned browser tab. The educators who look most competent with AI in live settings aren’t the ones who never have problems; they’re the ones whose problems are invisible because they’ve already planned around them.
The Simple Rule
Before every live session that uses AI, run through this four-point check: tool is open and logged in, prompts are tested, backups are written, read-aloud habit is active. That’s your entire pre-flight.