An Artificial Intelligence in Education Community of Interest Event (January 22, 2026).
AI is no longer a future concern for tertiary education — it is a present reality. AI is already changing what students learn, how they learn, and what happens after graduation. From automating tasks to reshaping entire job markets, artificial intelligence is accelerating demand for advanced digital skills, critical thinking, and the ability to work alongside intelligent systems. It is a shift that’s forcing post-secondary institutions worldwide to move faster, collaborate differently, and rethink how they prepare learners for an unpredictable world of work.
This sense of urgency framed the sixth session of the AI in Education Global Community of Interest, organised by the World Bank and EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory. Participants came together to explore what AI means in practice for tertiary education and students.
Explore insights and discussion questions from this special Community of Interest (COI) session held on January 22, 2026 to learn more about this critical topic.
Watch the Webinar Here
Featured Speakers ?
- Ekua Nuama Bentil, Global EdTech Lead and Senior Education Specialist, World Bank
- Moderator – Roberta Malee Bassett, Global Lead for Tertiary Education + Senior Education Specialist, World Bank
- Jason Morphew, Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering Education, Purdue University
- Jesús Rosario, Senior Partnerships Director, Coursera
- Seiji Isotani – President, International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society and Faculty Director of the Learning Analytics and Artificial Intelligence MSEd program, University of Pennsylvania
- Daniel Plaut, Learning Lead, EdTech Hub
Key Takeaways ?
Here are four key takeaways from the discussion about AI for Tertiary Education and Students, the demand, the integration, equity and sustainability.
1. AI fluency must be holistic: including skills, literacy, and ethics
AI literacy, applied skills, and ethics are inseparable. Jason Morphew emphasised that teaching these elements in isolation risks producing confident users without real understanding. He noted, “You can’t have literacy without having some basic understanding of how the tool works. And you can’t talk about applying a skill without thinking about the ethical implications.”
Post-secondary institutions need to integrate conceptual understanding, practical skills, and ethical reasoning to prepare learners for meaningful participation in a rapidly evolving AI world.
Seiji Isotani reinforced the importance of integrating ethical and social considerations in AI design, especially in low-resource contexts, noting that AI must be designed for the community it serves.
Competency must be flexible by discipline. Morphew believes, “An engineering student is going to need to know more about how to build this tool than an English major, but both need ethical awareness and foundational knowledge.”
2. Learners and employers are outpacing higher education
The demand for AI skills is moving faster than traditional university curricula can adapt. Some instructors are embedding AI quickly, while others are more conservative, highlighting a wide spectrum of adaptation within higher education itself.
“This shift is faster and wider than previous industrial revolutions,” shared Jesús Rosario. “Two out of three employers surveyed said they wouldn’t be hiring in the future without AI skills.”
Students are seeking online platforms and short courses to fill gaps, signalling that institutions must rethink both curriculum and faculty readiness to stay relevant. It is critical that these institutions embrace applied, meaningful AI skills and competency development for their students and consider dynamic shifts to their curricula to ensure they do not lag behind real-world demands.
3. Users should attempt to also build AI resilience
Beyond understanding how AI tools work and how to use them, the speakers also argued that users should build AI-related resilience: the ability to adapt to new tools and innovations. This is needed at both student and faculty levels to keep pace with evolving technology. Education systems and programmes must prepare learners to adapt to change, not only master today’s tools. Experts warn that AI changes over time, and teaching a fixed AI curriculum in two or five years would be outdated. Tertiary education can foster this by encouraging experimentation, continuous learning, and reflective teaching practices—building skills and mindsets that endure across technological shifts.
4. Equity and sustainability must guide AI adoption
Across speakers, a recurring theme was that equity and sustainability cannot be afterthoughts of AI tool development and use. This requires considering social, economic, and environmental implications and ensuring that innovation benefits all learners and doesn’t exacerbate existing inequalities.
As noted by Jason Morphew, equity should go beyond purely ensuring access, considering questions such as, “Who gets to develop what the tool does? Whose voice does the AI tool represent? Who pays for the computation, and whose natural resources are being used to power AI tools?”
Questions ??♀️
The following questions were posed by community members. We are sharing to help stimulate further discussions and knowledge exchanges. Please note that some questions may have been edited for spelling or clarity.
Policy, Investment and System Readiness →
- Considering the digital infrastructure gaps in Sub‑Saharan Africa, what policies and investments can be made to ensure higher education institutions/ tertiary education institutes in the region can effectively leverage AI technologies?
- What are the trends and insights on how university policies on acceptable uses of AI are evolving, based on related experiences and learnings over the past three years?
Employability, Workforce Futures, and Human Value →
- As AI becomes more capable of performing tasks traditionally carried out by humans (e.g., the virtual tutors/ assistants etc), how can tertiary education institutions ensure graduates remain employable and human roles are not displaced?
- What are the short-term and long-term labour and inequality implications of AI? How is data from students being used to inform models, as well as AI policies?
Learning Design, Assessment, and Academic Integrity →
- Given AI agents can now simulate learner activity and complete many academic tasks, how are tertiary institutions and course providers like Coursera redesigning learning and assessment to ensure an authentic demonstration of human skills, beyond what an AI can easily produce?
Opportunity ?
Help us strengthen our work at EdTech Hub! As part of our commitment to continuous learning and improvement, we invite you to share your feedback on your engagement with us. Your responses will remain confidential and will directly inform our future planning and collaboration. We greatly appreciate your time and encourage you to be open and candid—your insights are essential to helping us do better.
Resources ?
? The following resources were shared by community members and participants. These have not been reviewed by the World Bank nor the EdTech Hub but are useful indicators of what conversations, evidence, and methods are being explored in the sector.
Resources from the World Bank
- Tertiary Education Overview
- Artificial Intelligence Revolution in Higher Education: What You Need to Know
- 100 student voices on AI and education
- Tertiary Education and Skills | Context | World Bank
Resources from EdTech Hub
- The EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory & Action Lab
- Inside the AI Literacy Conversation: Approaches for Pre-Tertiary Learners
- How Is AI Being Used by Education Ministries to Improve Service Delivery in Low- and Middle-Income Countries?
- Teachers Survey Chatbot
Resources from Coursera
Resources from Purdue University
- Engineering in the World of AI
- Challenges of Blended Learning in Refugee Camps: When Internet Connectivity Fails, Human Connection Succeeds
Resources from International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society
This is part of an ongoing series hosted by the World Bank and EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory and Action Lab. The AI Observatory is made possible by support from UK International Development. Please follow along and join the conversation on LinkedIn!
