How can AI accelerate human potential?
As technology continues to evolve, how can educators explore the potential of AI to personalise education and foster lifelong learning habits?
In this TED x PwC film, we follow educational innovator Amanda Slavin on her mission to empower students to take charge of their learning journey. By offering highly personalised experiences, her AI-led platform cultivates essential skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration—equipping students to excel in an interconnected world.
Organisations need to really emphasise the importance of lifelong learning. It's not just a tomorrow problem. The future is here now.
How will AI change the way students learn? Scott Likens: Being able to use AI effectively is already a vital skill for work or learning, so students need to start now. The output is usually what we evaluate students on- the essay or the answer. Maybe now we have to focus to the process they took to get there. Even if they used AI, what was the critical thinking? What steps did they take? What challenges did they overcome? Those are the skills they’ll need in the real world.
How can we build trust with students, parents and teachers? Brenda Vethanayagam: Out of the gate, there was a lot of fear about students using AI to write essays, as well as privacy and equality concerns. So, of course, with AI we need strong ethical and security guardrails, as with anything in education. But just like in business, we need to fundamentally pivot. Instead of focusing on the ‘what ifs’, we need to add the ‘what if we don't do something?’ What if we don’t adopt AI? Because that risk is equally critical. Communicating the transition to AI with parents and teachers – and showing the value – that will ultimately build the trust.
Let’s think about the output and evaluate students on the critical thinking they took to get there. That’s the creativity they will need in the real world.
Can AI help the education sector become more productive – and how will teachers’ roles evolve? Joe Atkinson: AI is making a difference across almost all value chains, in all industries, and education can definitely benefit. For example, we're seeing lots of ‘efficiency pops’ – using AI to handle time-consuming tasks, like emails and summarising documents. These targeted applications then improve the quality of the work elsewhere, giving you more time to do what adds real value. In education, that might mean faster marking or syllabus setting, letting teachers engage more and think about the lessons. So, to be clear, we’re not saying AI should replace the teacher – it should help them become the 'human teacher’. We can all remember those teachers who impacted us because of how they inspired and stretched us – and this role becomes even more important in a world where everything's moving so quickly. Ultimately, AI can help teachers find more time to do what they love – helping students see their opportunities to grow.
When we talk about education in a business context, how important is upskilling in the AI era? Scott Likens: The speed of change is so fast – the term ‘prompt engineer’ came and went within 12 months, proving how fast skills evolve. Industries, services, work – now's the time for upskilling, which is a huge opportunity for individuals and businesses. Don't sit on the sidelines, someone with AI skills is ultimately much better at their job – in almost any industry and role – and organisations with AI-skilled people are unlocking this value at scale. In fact, PwC’s recent 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer revealed that professionals with AI skills command a 56% wage premium – up from 25% last year. We tell our clients, it’s not just a responsibility to upskill their people – it’s a business priority. Understanding the right way to use the tech will define success in the coming era.
PwC’s recent 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer revealed that professionals with AI skills command a 56% wage premium – up from 25% last year.
How should organisations fill their skills gaps? Can agentic AI help with this? Bret Greenstein: Given this reduction in the ‘half-life’ of skills, education and workforce training need to adapt at the same speed. So we need to radically rethink upskilling – looking at it more in terms of constant, lifelong learning. Agentic AI will be transformational for this. This is AI that can take action, so when you give it the ability to personalise your learning – according to your background, experience, goals and the job you want – it won’t just generate a plan for you, it creates targeted content to help you achieve your goals. The more we create these personalised educational maps – combined with cutting-edge new ways of learning – the more instinctive and effective lifelong learning will become, keeping people ‘always relevant’.
How can a culture of learning help leaders overcome hesitation, in themselves and their employees? Joe Atkinson: Our research with the World Economic Forum shows that adoption—not just implementation—is what drives value. Employees already know how AI is impacting the world so, first and foremost, we tell our clients to be really transparent about why AI is being introduced. When people understand the “why,” they’re more likely to lean in. That means being really transparent about how the capacity that’s opened up can be redeployed to create value. AI is not just about productivity and efficiency. It's important, but really it's ultimately about opportunity and growth – you have to capture hearts and minds – creating a culture that’s not just open to AI—but actively curious about it.
How can you maximise AI adoption across different ages and career stages? Pete Brown: Many organisations have four or five generations in the workforce. So we tell leaders, there's no one-size-fits-all in terms upskilling. Those digital natives – the younger ones who've grown up with technology – they come with an expectation of having the best tools to unlock data and do amazing things. So give them the exposure and allow them to experiment. For others who bring experience and business insight, the focus should be on relevance and reassurance. Position AI as a complement to their expertise—not a replacement. Showcase how it frees them up to focus on higher-value, strategic work they enjoy. The key is to connect the two groups- so they both learn from each other.
How can leaders embed AI to transform business? Pete Brown: AI has huge amounts of intelligence, but it’s the people who ask better questions who are getting the most out of that intelligence. So we tell our clients to encourage people to experiment and be curious about AI – be fearless and use their critical thinking. We're seeing it pop up in very surprising, hugely impactful scenarios – and many of these are delivered by experimentation. As long as it's done in a responsible way, it’s good to make mistakes – you learn from those mistakes and develop the best approaches. Then AI moves from a technology asset to something that truly changes the way your business evolves.
there's no one-size-fits-all in terms upskilling
How do organisations create more value with AI? Are they embracing it fast enough? Joe Atkinson: With AI, the tech is the easier part of the investment. It’s the people, how they use the tech in more thoughtful, impactful ways – that’s where you unlock the real value. Your people on the front line know where value gets created and where time is wasted – they want to do things faster and better. So if you empower them with the right tools and guidance, they'll lead you to value creation. Doing pilots in various parts of the organisation can help you scale with more certainty – finding efficiencies and actually creating more value for your customers. Is it the R&D function you want to focus on? Is it a certain product area? The hardest part is the AI models are moving much faster than organisations are. That's why it’s vital for us to have adaptive, agile organisations and upskilling programmes, so we can take advantage of the new models and tools – and the next generation of AI natives. The potential value of AI is massive and growing all the time.
How do you get the balance right between acceleration, adoption, value creation and robust responsibility? Brenda Vethanayagam: Everyone now has all the knowledge of humankind in a phone, in their pocket, or on the computer they're using. So safety and responsibility have to be the number one priority. Having that information at your fingertips is powerful, but only if you know how to use it. Can you translate that into action? Can you translate that into judgment? Can you translate that into valuable decisions? We have to be really careful as we're making those decisions, that we keep humans in the loop – humans making that final judgment with that superintelligence next to us.
Very confident - I actively follow and adapt to AI changes
Somewhat confident - I stay informed but occasionally need to catch up
Neutral - I follow AI news occasionally and feel neither ahead nor behind
Somewhat uncertain - I find it difficult to stay updated with AI developments
Very uncertain - I often struggle to keep up with AI advancements
