Exploring what AI means for education and the next generation

As AI transforms how we work, live and learn, higher education is more than another player - it needs to lead the way.

Higher education must strike a balance as it prepares the next generation for a world being reshaped with AI. It needs to teach students new and necessary AI skills, while staying true to the mission that's guided it for centuries: cultivating critical thinking, communication and human values.

And it needs to do all this faster.

These are central messages from a new book, "Degrees of Change: What AI Means for Education and the Next Generation," by Juan M. Lavista Ferres, who leads Microsoft's AI Economy Institute and is director of the company's AI for Good Lab.

"First, we must equip people with the skills needed to use AI effectively - a critical step for ensuring its widespread diffusion," Lavista Ferres writes. "Second, and more profoundly, we must understand how AI itself is reshaping education as a whole."

Here are four ways Lavista Ferres and the book's contributors - dozens of authors and scholars - say higher education can and should lead in the age of AI:

AI literacy isn't an elective; it's now a core requirement

AI is rapidly becoming ubiquitous, helping people with everything from paying bills to riding public buses. That means colleges and universities must teach students technical AI skills because AI literacy, and ultimately AI fluency, will be required for work and life. The job market is already making this clear. Early data shows that AI proficiency already carries a 23% wage premium.

This learning can't happen in a vacuum. AI literacy must be embedded into teaching at institutions and within curricula that remain grounded in higher ed's competencies, including ethical reasoning, breaking down and analyzing problems, communication and collaboration. Here, instructors are at the frontline of the AI economy.

Higher education must adapt quickly and stay true to its mission

As AI accelerates routine tasks and reshapes how people solve problems, human agency must remain at the center of higher learning. Educators need to integrate generative AI thoughtfully into courses, training, degrees and infrastructures to support this learning without eroding institutions' long-standing mission.

As important, schools must move faster, even as they embed AI skills and ethics literacy into curricula, making comprehensive AI education accessible to all students.

Literacy cuts both ways

Developers need to understand AI's impact on society and ethical concerns, while educators, policymakers and the public must learn how AI works. Success depends on this dual literacy, where each group understands the other's work.

The payoff will be huge and the price for inaction will be steep. Workers who outsource routine work to AI so they can focus on oversight, creative work and complex judgments will lead responsible innovation. But without dual literacy, regulation and adoption will lag, hindering progress.

Professors and deans can't do this alone

Success in the age of AI hinges on universities, industry and policymakers working together. Amid this teamwork, faculty and institutions must play a leading role by supporting students who are at the forefront of the age of AI. They can do this by balancing the need for academic agility with a mission to broadly prepare graduates for today and the future.

This means higher education institutions must set clear standards for AI technical credentials that will be recognized by employers, provide the financial and structural support needed to integrate AI skills and readiness into degrees and courses, and ensure inclusivity and accessibility for diverse learners.

"Degrees of Change: What AI Means for Education and the Next Generation" is available now from Wiley and online booksellers.