Degrees of Change

Chapter 3How AI Is Changing Education

—Juan M. Lavista Ferres, Microsoft

When we think about the diffusion of technology, education has always been at the center—and it is the main reason education is a top priority for the AI Economy Institute. From the spread of electricity to the rise of the PC and the Internet, education has consistently shaped how quickly and broadly these innovations transformed society.

At the intersection of AI and education, two distinct challenges stand out. First, we must equip people with the skills needed to use AI effectively—a critical step for ensuring its widespread diffusion. Second, and more profoundly, we must understand how AI itself is reshaping education as a whole. In this chapter, I begin with the second point, because the way AI transforms education will influence every aspect of learning, including how people acquire new skills. In the next chapter, I will then turn to the importance of building AI literacy.

The Reshaping of Education

The notion of formal education stretches back more than 5,000 years. Historians often point to the Sumerians as the first known civilization to establish organized schools. Their classrooms already contained the elements we still recognize today: structured lessons, teachers guiding instruction, and systems of assessment.

Over the centuries general-purpose technologies (GPTs) have repeatedly reshaped education. Technologies such as the printing press, electricity, and access to PCs and the Internet ...