Abstract
As artificial intelligence (AI) tools become increasingly integrated into educational settings, teacher training programmes face new demands to equip future educators with the skills and ethical judgment required for meaningful AI use. This study investigates how structured exposure to AI technologies affects pre-service primary teachers’ digital competence, pedagogical awareness, and attitudes toward AI integration. A mixed-methods design was implemented at Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University (Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan), engaging 120 students in a pedagogically embedded AI course that combined conceptual modules with applied tasks. Pre- and post-intervention data, drawn from surveys, interviews, and classroom observations, revealed significant gains in AI literacy, increased confidence in instructional applications, and reduced anxiety related to teacher replacement. The study also highlighted the importance of ethical scaffolding and context-sensitive instruction. By focusing on future educators in a region underrepresented in global EdTech research, this work offers new perspectives on how AI can be meaningfully embedded in teacher education, while reinforcing the need for human-centred pedagogical frameworks in the age of intelligent systems.