AI, education and the skills we’re not teaching

Oct 29, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Mar 8

Dr Adam McCartney explores the need for curriculum change to embed AI skills that are currently not being taught in schools. He discusses the wider impact on identity and our society.

With all the buzz about the pros and cons of AI on employment, it is surprising how little we hear from education.

The impact is already here. A recent Forbes article stated that Microsoft now automates up to 30% of its coding through AI. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, estimates that 20% of people in the US could be unemployed within five years. This would largely be due to the loss of entry-level tech roles and other white-collar jobs becoming automated.

So, what will the entry-level jobs of tomorrow look like after this technological revolution settles? And what are we doing as a society to prepare the next generation for this cloaked, shifting workspace?

Why the curriculum must change

The idea of AI as a universally accessible productivity booster is misleading. While anyone can technically use it, only a few can truly control it. Tech giants such as Meta, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI could, if they chose, tier or restrict access to AI, granting more capability to those they deem virtuous. It is a structural risk, and it connects directly to curriculum design.

Curriculum is the framework through which teachers educate. The National Curriculum shapes the exams children sit, and therefore the structure of most school lessons. These are subject-based and rely heavily on information recall. But here is the problem. No child will ever be able to memorise more information than a competent large language model. Their real value will be in using, adapting, optimising and, crucially, critiquing AI outputs. These are not rote skills. They are analytical, imaginative and sceptical. They require foresight and an ability to assess whether an AI-generated action aligns with personal, societal and organisational values. So, how do we educate children to develop these skills? And why should we care beyond the usual arguments about productivity or economic growth?

The wider stakes: identity and social cohesion

In Western democracies, political landscapes are more polarised than ever. It is too simplistic to blame social media, economic downturns or poor political decision-making in isolation. The causes are intertwined and cumulative. A 20-year-old today has lived through repeated brushes with recession. They have grown up in a fragmented media landscape, with constant online interaction, self-validation via likes and follows, and role models unfiltered by PR. Economic prospects are lower, higher education no longer guarantees high earnings, and saving does not always lead to home ownership.

Growing up in the age of AI will be equally formative and potentially more destabilising. Identity will no longer be shaped solely by human interactions. AI’s feedback can influence how we present ourselves online or how we evaluate our own work.

The risk is that constant validation from AI, without reciprocal emotional engagement, could narrow our perspectives.

Curiosity about others’ viewpoints may diminish, leading to fractured human relationships. Without shared understanding, social cohesion suffers, and with it, economic stability and quality of life.

Building shared identity in schools

To counter this, education must explicitly teach collaboration and conflict resolution. Shared identity, a sense of belonging to a group with common values, is vital for resilience and wellbeing. Wenger’s Communities of Practice framework shows how shared goals strengthen group identity. Shaun Gallagher’s Interaction Theory highlights the importance of embodied, interactive engagement in understanding others. When young people grow up in collaborative environments that value mutual understanding, they are better equipped to resist harmful ideologies, whether that is extremist online movements or manipulative AI applications.

Practical approaches: reflective teaching and enquiry-based learning

One school I work with developed an identity-based curriculum. Each week, a different culture was introduced and celebrated, often reflecting a child’s own heritage. British values were included alongside this. Over time, children grew proud of their cultures, became curious about others and developed comfort in celebrating differences. Despite their diverse backgrounds, they built a shared identity rooted in mutual respect. This approach can prepare children to resist exclusionary narratives later in life. But expecting all teachers to adopt reflective, identity-based teaching immediately is unrealistic, especially if they have not experienced reflective practice themselves. Here is where enquiry-based learning bridges the gap. It allows the traditional curriculum to be delivered while embedding community-based, collaborative elements.

Examples of enquiry-based learning for the AI age

Game theory lessons – Students explore how individual decisions affect the group. For example, allocating limited resources such as hint cards among team members to achieve the best shared outcome.
Identity-linked research tasks – Building on the reflective lessons above, children research cultural topics, collaborate to find answers and then share their findings. The reflection is as important as the content, considering how collaboration sped up or improved the result.
AI collaboration challenges – Instead of working alone, peers jointly prompt AI to create images, videos or even apps. The process of refining prompts together exposes them to perspectives they would not encounter solo.

The key is that students experience, repeatedly, the benefits of working with others, both with and without AI.

The Endgame: a tyranny-resilient generation

It is vital for students to feel accepted in their learning community. It is even more important that they understand, through lived experience, the power of that community.

If we embed shared identity and collaborative problem-solving into the curriculum now, we can prepare the next generation to flourish in an AI-saturated world economically, socially and culturally.

The AI revolution is here. Education must wake up to it. AI is a tool, but interaction shapes identity. Identity that is shared and reflective might be the best safeguard we have.