How AI is introduced in a classroom shapes more than what students learn. It influences whether they feel capable, trusted, and connected, or monitored, confused, and disengaged. It also shapes whether students build the soft skills the future job market demands: problem-solving, self-agency, creative collaboration, and communication. WPS Institute is exploring how AI can support three research-backed conditions for student motivation: autonomy, competence, and belonging, grounded in Self-Determination Theory. We are studying this with Crafting Tomorrow, a Babson Generator AI lab initiative, and Boys and Girls Clubs, where students use AI on real community problems. Participants audit classroom cases through the three-part lens and leave with a design lens, a redesigned AI use case, and a way to evaluate AI use in schools. WPS methodology has documented results: a 50% reduction in chronic absenteeism in Salem and an effect size of 1.78 in self-directed learning (Harvard GSE).