MIAMI, May 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- 5W, the AI Communications Firm, and HL Real Estate Group, the luxury brokerage founded by Haute Living, today released The NYC & LA Private School AI Study 2026, a joint research report auditing the top private K–12 schools across New York City and Los Angeles on their institutional commitment to teaching artificial intelligence and on their visibility inside AI search engines.

The study finds that across the two most competitive private-school markets in the United States, only three institutions meet the bar for what the report defines as Tier A: institutional commitment, a named faculty owner of the AI program, a public framework, and AI courses formally in the catalog.

The Tier A schools are Harvard-Westlake in Los Angeles; The Dalton School on Manhattan's Upper East Side; and Horace Mann School in Riverdale. Harvard-Westlake has built a multi-year AI integration across its Studio City and Holmby Hills campuses, with named faculty leadership and AI courses sequenced into the upper school catalog. Dalton extends its century-old Dalton Plan into AI-era pedagogy with a published framework and accountable program ownership. Horace Mann pairs its AI curriculum with one of the most institutionally consistent public postures of any East Coast independent school.

The geographic concentration of the three Tier A schools maps directly to the highest-value residential corridors in both markets: Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Holmby Hills, Pacific Palisades, and Studio City for Harvard-Westlake; Carnegie Hill, the Upper East Side, Tribeca, and the West Village for Dalton; and the Upper East Side, Riverdale, and the inner Westchester ring of Bronxville, Scarsdale, and Rye for Horace Mann. HL Real Estate Group has transacted across every one of these corridors.

"This is the second installment in 5W's AI Visibility research series applied to private K–12 education, and it confirms what the Florida edition first surfaced," said Ronn Torossian, Chairman of 5W AI Communications. "AI search is replacing the old discovery funnel for every category we measure — and private education is now one of them. The institutions that show up when a parent asks ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity which NYC or LA school is best for an AI-curious child are the institutions that will fill their classes for the next decade. Harvard-Westlake, Dalton, and Horace Mann have done the curricular work. The retrieval work is the next race — and it has not been won yet by anyone."

The study also documents a visibility gap: even the three Tier A schools are inconsistently surfaced, and frequently absent, when prospective families query AI engines for the best NYC or LA private school preparing students for the AI economy. The curricular work is being done at the institutional level, the report concludes, but it is not being indexed in the search layer that now mediates UHNW relocation decisions.

"For nearly twenty years at Haute Living, and now at HL Real Estate Group, we have helped UHNW families relocate to New York and Los Angeles, and we have watched the order of their questions change," said Seth Semilof, Co-Founder of Haute Living and HL Real Estate Group. "Two years ago, the school question came after the address question. Today it comes first — and it has a sharper edge. Parents want to know which school is preparing their child for the AI economy. Harvard-Westlake, Dalton, and Horace Mann are the three answers the study identified. Our partnership with 5W on this work lets us give those families a clear answer, and lets the schools see what their AI-aware admissions funnel actually looks like."

The full NYC & LA Private School AI Study 2026 is available at no cost. Editorial coverage and analysis are running concurrently in Haute Living and Everything-PR. The broader 5W research series is available at 5wpr.com/research.

About 5W

5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research to help clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research. Founded in 2003, 5W is recognized as a Top U.S. PR Agency by O'Dwyer's, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, honored as a 2026 Top Place to Work in Communications by Ragan, and named to Digiday's WorkLife Employer of the Year list. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors — Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit — and B2B specialties including Corporate Communications, Reputation Management, Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing across Social, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. Learn more at 5wpr.com.

About HL Real Estate Group

HL Real Estate Group is the luxury real estate network founded by Haute Living, connecting top-producing agents with ultra-high-net-worth buyers across the most competitive residential markets in the United States. HL Real Estate Group operates at the intersection of editorial authority and luxury brokerage, with editorial reach across HauteLiving.com, a 186,000-follower Instagram audience at @hauteresidence, a 120,000-reader luxury newsletter, and AI search visibility across ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Learn more at hauteliving.com/realestate.

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SOURCE 5W Public Relations