In late January 2026, the UK’s Departments for Education and Science, Innovation and Technology announced they are running a tender for the tech sector to co-create AI tutoring tools with teachers.
The desired outputs are “safe AI-powered tutoring tools” that will provide “personalized, one-to-one learning support” for up to 450,000 children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Senior Principal Technologist for AI at Red Hat.
With disadvantaged children on average lagging behind their peers (just one in four are currently achieving a pass in English and mathematics at GCSE at grade 5 or above, compared with over half of their peers), one-to-one tutoring, which can accelerate learning by around five months on average, is seen as a key solution.
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But access to tutoring is highly unequal.
The UK Government's recognition that AI-powered tools, complementing face-to-face teaching, could be a solution to this challenge is powerful. This is just one example of the power of AI for good within education, but it touches on a wider conversation.
AI will no doubt help transform education for the better, but it’s critical that children are also taught how to use AI tools effectively, innovatively and ethically. This is for their own benefit, but also for the good of the future workforce and society.
The £400 billion AI adoption opportunity
AI has rapidly become integral to business operations and shows no signs of slowing down. Yet this fast pace of change is causing challenges for businesses - technology departments in particular.
A recent survey uncovered that 62% of IT professionals said there was an urgent AI skills gap, with agentic AI skills most in demand (55%). If solved, analysis cited in the Government's AI Opportunities Action Plan suggests effective AI adoption across sectors and careers could inject £400 billion into the economy by 2030.
Rapid AI upskilling of the working adult population is an immediate requirement in this environment (as seen by the Government’s free AI foundations training available for all UK adults).
Reflecting this need further, new research from Randstad unveiled that job ads requiring ‘AI agent’ skills grew by 1,587% throughout 2025. But we can’t just focus on the now. Investment into the future workforce is also critical for the UK’s long-term success, and upskilling cannot start at the point of employment.
Early AI education, widened opportunities
As many will have seen in their own workplace, younger employees who have grown up with technology are more agile and can learn on the fly. But AI can also set their career path in flux, making them feel like they’re fighting the change rather than progressing naturally.
The fastest way to overcome this hurdle is to show how AI can help them level up more quickly. Businesses have a responsibility to invest in upskilling junior staff, but I believe AI capability should also be prioritized much earlier.
Supporting children to develop their AI skills at school can lower barriers to access and understanding, and benefit their future careers accordingly. Outcomes of this can be better digital literacy overall, enhanced adaptability and flexibility, and even the creation of brand new job roles as new skills enter the workforce and drive innovation.
Basic skills and AI ethics (such as effective prompting, applying critical thinking to evaluate AI responses and ensuring a ‘human in the loop’ when delivering AI outputs) are important to develop, but so too are AI innovation and creativity.
Providing children with real-world problems to solve through AI can be an effective way to inspire and nurture future talent, encouraging them to engage with innovative technologies and explore their potential.
Events like the Teens in AI International Women's Day Global Techathon last year is an example of this, encouraging applicants to apply emerging AI technologies to challenges referenced in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Teaching critical thinking alongside AI
A counterargument to developing early AI skills is that it could impact children's ability to develop critical thinking and emotional intelligence. Namely, if children use AI to solve problems they won’t learn how to do so themselves.
In my view, however, there’s no reason why these skills couldn’t be developed alongside AI understanding. In fact, encouraging children to question, fact check, and challenge AI responses can help make them more resilient, critical thinkers across every part of their lives and careers.
If we’re serious about the long-term impacts of AI technology, we have to go further than deploying tools: we must teach children how to use AI effectively, ethically and critically.
If we do this correctly, AI in education won't replace teaching or diminish thinking. It will sharpen it. By embedding critical thinking into how we teach children to use AI, we protect and strengthen core skills like reasoning, fact-checking and resilience, while preparing young people for a labor market already reshaped by AI.
That's how the UK realizes the full economic and societal benefits of responsible AI adoption: not just by deploying the tools, but by developing the minds that know how to question them.
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