Artificial intelligence is one of the leading technologies today, which is rapidly spreading into all spheres of human activities including education. In 2023, GPT chat was ranked fourth in the Top 100 Tools for Learning rating, which demonstrates the powerful potential of artificial intelligence tools for the development of innovative processes in education. Accordingly, educators need to understand what artificial intelligence is, its features, and how it can be used to replace the routine activities of both teachers and students in teaching and learning. The authors conducted a survey of primary school teachers about their understanding of this notion, ways to use it as their assistant, advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence, and prospects for its development and application in all areas of human activity. The level of respondents' knowledge and skills in artificial intelligence, its features and functions was determined. The professional standard of a primary school teacher and the types of activities, through which the teacher's labor functions are realized and for which it is advisable to use artificial intelligence tools, are analyzed. The development of primary school teachers' competencies can be positively influenced by the use of artificial intelligence in their professional activities. The authors describe digital artificial intelligence tools that will be useful for primary school teachers and classify them according to the types of their pedagogical activities. The areas of activity in which artificial intelligence can act as a teacher's assistant, as well as areas that are currently beyond the capabilities of artificial intelligence, are identified. It is concluded that primary school teachers need to be trained to use artificial intelligence in their professional activities and to transfer knowledge about artificial intelligence to pupils, as well as ways to teach pupils the features of artificial intelligence, methods of its application for teaching pupils and for their own professional development.