Poor learning outcomes, a widening skills-jobs mismatch, and questions over what higher education is for in the 21st century – can AI be used to provide some answers, and if so, how should it be built?
Starting with the problem, not the technology
Too often, AI adoption starts with the technology before working backward to find a use for it. A training atDigital Learning Week2026, gathering participants from over 20 countries, flipped that order.
Mapping out the stakeholder groups and the problems those groups face surfaced issues of poor learning outcomes in elementary schools, mismatches between skills and jobs, the purpose of higher education in the 21st century, and the risk that AI could erode the authority and expertise of teachers.
This sequencing matters. Naming the problem first makes clear where AI complements other non-technological interventions rather than replacing them, and where AI might not be the answer at all. It also gives policymakers an informed view of the risks up front, and the chance to build in mitigations, rather than adopting AI first and discovering the risks later.
Putting ethics before deployment
The second essential aspect for AI deployment is that ethical review works best before a system is built, not after. Using UNESCO’sEthical Impact Assessment methodology(grounded in UNESCO’sRecommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, participants ran a simplified assessment against the very problems they had just identified, describing each proposed AI system in detail and mapping the procedures for mitigation of the risks before deployment.
The exercise reframed ethics as a key design element rather than a compliance checkpoint: a way of evaluating the ethical implications of the proposed AI system from the outset, rather than retrofitting safeguards once problems appear.
UNESCO’s broader work on AI, education and the public sector
These two principles — defining the problem before technology, and ethics before deployment — underpin UNESCO’s wider effort to help governments regulate AI for and by people, in ways that are ethical, inclusive, and human rights-based. UNESCO has developed AI competency frameworks forcivil servants,students, andteachers, and hastrained over 35,000 civil servants from 190 countrieson designing public services integrated with AI while upholding its ethical governance.
UNESCO Programme on AI for the Public Sector
UNESCO’s AI for the Public Sector Programme has trained over 35,0000 civil servants from 190 countries on the ethical, inclusive, and human rights-based use of AI. This includes its flagship MOOC on AI and Digital Transformation in Government, the Digital Competency Framework for Civil Servants, and the SPARK-AI Alliance with over 50 schools of public administration representing 116 countries.
UNESCO Programme on AI in Education
UNESCO supports Member States in harnessing AI to advance the Education 2030 Agenda (SDG 4), guided by the core principles of inclusion and equity. Within the framework of theBeijing Consensus, this includes its flagship guidance documentArtificial Intelligence and Education: Guidance for Policy-Makers, and theAI Competency Frameworks for Students and Teachers.
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