Turnitin Clarity’s AI assistant was built entirely for learning, helping students become stronger writers and build AI skills without sacrificing what matters most: critical thinking.
Developed from global educator insights, our LLM-powered tool provides formative feedback tied directly to assignment instructions and rubrics, while maintaining strict guardrails so it never does the actual writing on a student’s behalf.
Because modern classrooms require a framework for responsible AI use, we are moving past the restrictive binary on/off switch. Today, we launched configurable settings for Turnitin Clarity to give instructors the flexibility they need to align technology with their unique pedagogical goals, all while supporting learning integrity.
What you need to know
- Granular control: Instructors can define how the AI assistant interacts with students, ranging from initial brainstorming to sentence-level proofreading.
- Tailored reading levels: Select between Foundational, Standard, or Advanced response modes to match students' specific grade level and academic maturity.
- Zero-guesswork previewing: Preview examples of the AI guidance and prompts students will experience before officially publishing an assignment.
How are Turnitin Clarity’s AI assistant configurations expanding for educators?
Turnitin Clarity’s built-in LLM will not do a students’ work for them. Now, instructors can also specify its level of helpfulness by toggling four optional areas of AI intervention during assignment setup in Turnitin Clarity, allowing them to match the assistant's boundaries to their current assignment or course needs.
This shift addresses findings from our Learning Integrity Insights Report from Q1 2026, which revealed that educators were asking for flexibility and agency with the AI assistant. Managing AI shouldn't mean choosing between extremes: a restrictive technology block or an unguided free-for-all. This new, flexible setup instantly adjusts the AI prompts visible to students, establishing firm guardrails for ethical, formative feedback throughout the composition pipeline.
Default capabilities in the Turnitin Clarity AI assistant
- Asking questions to help students reflect on their ideas
- Giving feedback on assignment and rubric alignment
Optional AI support configurations
Depending on their assessment goals, educators can also enable any combination of the following core modalities:
- Planning and ideas: Supports outlining and brainstorming to help students get started
- Illustrative examples: Introduces approaches or structures without writing full responses
- Revisions: Offers limited sentence-level rewrite suggestions
- Proofreading: Identifies grammar or style issues without rewriting text
Turnitin Clarity has built-in guardrails to help students learn to collaborate with AI rather than letting it write for them. Now, educators can tailor that collaboration to meet their instructional needs.
How do configurable reading levels within Turnitin Clarity enhance student writing?
While the system prompt for Turnitin Clarity’s built-in AI chat is already tuned to adjust its responses based on the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale, our new Turnitin Clarity AI settings introduce three distinct reading levels designed to match the unique vocabulary and academic maturity of an educator’s specific classroom or lecture hall:
- Foundational: Responds in simple sentences and language, with an explanation of terms
- Standard: Responds in standard sentence structures and academic terms
- Advanced: Responds using advanced academic language and discipline-specific conventions
By adjusting the terminology and structural complexity of the AI's responses, educators can deliver tailored, actionable feedback that matches their student demographics.
A secondary school student and a graduate researcher require fundamentally different styles of academic engagement. Turnitin Clarity can effortlessly calibrate its syntax to prevent comprehension barriers.
Tailored readability supports automated feedback that inspires confidence rather than confusion.
How can you support the responsible use of AI with Turnitin Clarity’s AI assistant?
Turnitin Clarity is integrated directly into your existing Turnitin Feedback Studio interface with no extra IT steps required. Advanced configuration tools are included within Turnitin Clarity and can be accessed now.
Turnitin is dedicated to designing and improving educational tools with educators that give them the flexibility they need to navigate the new realities of AI’s impact on education. Technology should adapt to the teacher's voice, rather than forcing the teacher to adapt to the software.
Want to bring more transparency to the student writing process?
Join our upcoming webinar on June 3 to learn how to shift from AI detection to authentic student growth with trackable drafts that make the writing process visible.
About the author
Marlen Rattiner is a seasoned edtech leader with deep expertise in product management, AI, and student success technology. As VP of Product Management at Turnitin, Marlen drives innovation in academic integrity, leading the team behind Turnitin Feedback Studio—including the Similarity Report, grading and feedback tools, integrations, and new innovations like Turnitin Clarity.
With over 15 years in edtech, Marlen has held various leadership roles in the industry shaping impactful learning technologies that support educators and institutions worldwide. Marlen holds a Masters degree in educational technology and instructional design from NYU and is a passionate advocate for leveraging technology to enhance education.