Artificial intelligence is not waiting for public policies or promises of change from educational institutions. It is already in our homes, cell phones, video games and educational apps. However, school systems advance without a clear adoption strategy, while 55% of young people learn about AI in social networks (Merriman & Sanz Sáiz, 2024).

 

The distance between what happens inside and outside the classroom has never been so noticeable. For this reason, UNESCO made an urgent call to school systems to integrate AI and the IDB states the obvious: Latin America runs the risk of widening its poverty gap even further.

 

At the same time, the first systematized evidence of the real impact that this disruption will have (or already has) is emerging. Institutions such as MIT and Stanford have demonstrated that adaptive learning systems improve performance in mathematics and that predictive analytics systems reduce school dropout rates by up to 20%. In India, a pilot with one million students and 15,000 teachers showed 20-40% improvements in comprehension using an AI-enabled reading platform (ICTworks, 2025). The University of Michigan demonstrated that teachers who integrate AI into their didactics or learning experiences improve their students’ critical thinking, digital literacy and metacognition (Gardner-McCune et al., 2022).

 

Although only 35.7% of school curricula in OECD countries include AI-critical teaching (Digital Promise, 2024), some are already taking decisive steps that show the depth of change. In the region, Uruguay is already scaling teacher training initiatives in AI and algorithmic ethics; the US accelerated Computer Science and AI education at all levels; and the EU generated a competency framework called AILit. The UK this week announced a £187M investment in its TechFirst program to train one million high school students. South Korea will implement one AI tutor for every public school student, while Singapore, Korea and the United Arab Emirates announced the complete redesign of their educational curricula.

 

Although in Chile the Mineduc started the path with curricular guidelines, usage guides and reflection on generative AI, the reality is that without a real budget and leadership that sees the size of this opportunity (and the cost of not taking it) it is very difficult to move forward. So far, no candidate in the presidential campaign has referred to the subject, so it is clear that vision and strategy on this matter are urgently needed. To borrow the words of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer: “we must put the power of AI into the hands of the next generation, so that they can shape the future, rather than be shaped by it”.

 

Mónica Retamal F.

Executive Director at Kodea