Artificial intelligence is already changing how students learn and how teachers work - and education systems are largely unprepared for it. That's the central warning from Stefania Giannini, former Assistant Director-General for Education at UNESCO and now President of Government Relations at Efekta Education, writing about the state of AI literacy in schools and universities.
Giannini draws on her eight-year tenure at UNESCO, which saw two defining shocks to global education. The COVID-19 pandemic closed schools for 1.6 billion learners, exposing both technology's power to sustain learning and its capacity to widen inequality. Then AI arrived in classrooms - not as a tool that supports existing tasks, but as a system that generates content, shapes information, and influences how students access knowledge.
That distinction matters, she argues. A teacher can explain the reasoning behind a conclusion. An AI system often cannot.
"This is why AI demands a different level of scrutiny," Giannini writes. "It requires new competencies, new governance frameworks, and renewed attention to the values that have always underpinned education."
A framework for AI literacy
When Giannini and her team asked education ministers worldwide what they needed, the same question surfaced: how can schools and universities help learners and teachers engage with AI critically and ethically?
Existing policy frameworks offered little guidance on transparency, accountability, or teacher preparedness. In response, UNESCO developed AI competency frameworks for students and teachers - the product of that consultation process. The frameworks are now available for governments to embed in curricula and national policy.
For education professionals, the immediate priority is simpler: give teachers and learners the confidence to use AI where it adds genuine value, and the judgement to avoid it where it doesn't. Over time, AI literacy should become part of curricula, teacher preparation, and national education policy.
The teacher's changing role
Public discussion often focuses on whether AI will replace teachers, but Giannini suggests a different question: what human capabilities matter more when machines handle routine cognitive work?
Students need ethical judgement, responsible information practices, and an understanding of how algorithmic systems influence decisions and opportunities. The traditional classroom - one curriculum, one pace, one measure of success - wasn't designed to teach those skills. AI creates the possibility of adapting content and pace to individual learner needs, while maintaining common goals. Giannini argues this makes teachers more important, not less.
"Teachers remain the designers of meaningful learning experiences and the guides who help learners navigate complexity," she said.
The 2019 Beijing Consensus, agreed by more than fifty governments, already reflected this principle: AI should augment, not replace, human capabilities, and teachers must remain central to education. Progress since then has been uneven. Many systems still struggle to prepare teachers for AI's risks.
The relationship between teacher and learner remains the core of education. Technology should reinforce that relationship, not displace it.
Inequality risks
UNESCO estimates the world needs 44 million additional teachers by 2030. Overcrowded classrooms and shortages already limit learning for millions of children. AI could help close the gap - or could widen it, if access becomes another marker of privilege.
Giannini warns that the benefits of AI depend on deliberate policy choices. Data privacy must be protected. Children must be safeguarded. AI access can't become a privilege.
"We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of previous technological revolutions by allowing unequal access, or by treating safeguards as an afterthought," she writes.
Why this matters for education professionals
Teachers and administrators should treat AI literacy as a core job skill, not a future one. The economist's benefit of AI in education is tracked: in AI literacy training and in AI Learning Path for Teachers, which covers practical classroom applications and ethical boundaries.
The quality of learning will depend on decisions made now. AI is a quick tool - it will do what it does. Whether it works for - or against - students depends on whether schools adopt it scientifically and inclusively, and whether teachers are equipped to manage it.
"AI will help shape the future of education," Giannini said. "Equally, education will shape the future of AI. Ensuring that both serve humanity may be one of the defining responsibilities of our time."
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