AI in education and the workforce: The biggest disruption ever
AI Forum of IU and the Federal Employment Agency provides initial answers on how to shape the revolution
AI Forum of IU and the Federal Employment Agency provides initial answers on how to shape the revolution.
Berlin, 6 July 2023. Artificial intelligence will change the way we learn, work and educate ourselves. The experts at the AI Forum "Next Level Learning", which took place on Thursday, 29 June in Berlin, agreed on this. IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU), together with the Federal Employment Agency, invited participants to an exchange on how generative AI will change education and the labour market and what we can do now to shape the revolution.
Dr Diana Knodel, co-founder of the EdTech start-up Fobizz, highlighted the potentials and hurdles in the school sector. Representatives of the management consultancy McKinsey & Company presented surprising results from conducted AI studies. IU CEO Dr Sven Schuett, head of Germany's largest university already using its own AI solutions, shared his vision for higher education. The challenges and opportunities facing the public sector were discussed by CIO of the Federal Employment Agency, Dr Markus Schmitz. The AI Forum was moderated by Rafael Bujotzek, journalist and IT expert.
Here are the most important findings of the event:
Education: one of the sectors potentially most affected by AI
According to a recent study by McKinsey & Company, education is one of the sectors that can benefit most from generative AI. This is because generative AI is particularly transforming work activities that require a high level of human understanding of natural language - such as communication, review, documentation and interaction with people in general - which applies to about 40 per cent of the jobs that workers do in the economy. This opens up enormous opportunities for the field of education. Fewer routine tasks give teachers more time for personal mentoring and higher productivity. AI, for example, facilitates the creation of teaching materials, reduces administrative time and provides learners with a whole new learning experience.
"The question is not whether to allow generative AI in the classroom, but how to ensure that its use is ethical and equitable, and that it does not interfere with critical thinking skills," said Andrew Goodman, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, who in his keynote at the AI Forum gave educational institutions five practical tips for the next important steps in the transformation process (see video recording).
"Using AI is a new skill. Anyone who wants to be successful in the workforce in the future needs AI skills. Teachers need to prepare students for this now," said Goodman.
Fewer barriers to access and more personalised education
Everyone should have access to education. This is the vision that drives Dr. Sven Schuett, CEO of IU International University of Applied Sciences. With IU, Schuett’s aim is to empower people worldwide to grow personally and realise themselves. The key to this is: personalised and democratised education. He sees the influence of AI as an opportunity to accelerate this process. ChatGPT & Co. can improve learning for students and make education at a higher level of quality more accessible to even more target groups.
"AI is probably the biggest disruption ever for the education sector, just as it is for the labour market. In my opinion, it is the biggest change since the invention of the internet and computers combined, and probably also the fastest humanity has ever seen," said the CEO, who is himself a pioneer in digital transformation with IU. Thanks to the early use of state-of-the-art technologies and demand-oriented offers, more students are enroled at IU International University of Applied Sciences than at any other German university.
"Artificial intelligence will impact and automate jobs at all skill and salary levels, and as it does so, the pace will accelerate, requiring much faster training where actual knowledge will become less important and meta and soft skills will become more important. That is why every learning offer should include AI," says Schuett. At IU, AI elective modules are currently being introduced for all study programmes. In addition, IU is the first university in the world to use an AI learning buddy, Syntea, which has been accompanying students in their personal learning process since the beginning of the year. At the AI Forum, Syntea developer Quintus Stierstorfer, Director Synthetic Teaching at IU, presented the digital learning buddy live, which already enables personalised education today.
Schuett's prediction: "Each of us will have a digital companion to personalise our learning journey. My closest colleague is now ChatGPT." But he also sees the hurdles to be overcome: "School systems change very slowly, but future skills and new learning opportunities are needed much faster. It should also be a social prerequisite to face change with hope and a positive attitude. There are many people who are afraid of being replaced by AI. Education, trial and error, learning opportunities and policy frameworks can counteract this."
One thing is equally important to the CEO: "Like all other powerful technologies, AI must and will be regulated. Because the technology is developing so quickly, it is currently difficult to say what restrictions there will be. From a European perspective, we should be careful not to overregulate it so that Europe doesn't regulate itself out of the game in this most important technological disruption."
In his presentation at the AI Forum, Sven Schuett presented ten major challenges in the education sector that could be solved with the help of AI (see video recording in German language).
Teaching and learning AI skills already at school
EdTech start-up founder Dr Diana Knodel has also recognised how important it is to learn how to use AI and new technologies and to teach them to our youngest generations. With Fobizz, she developed a platform for further training and a range of digital tools for teachers and schools. This also includes a GDPR-compliant ChatGPT version for schools, which already has over 100,000 users.
"We want to bring AI into schools as quickly as possible and across the board - not only as a topic, but above all as a learning technology. This requires above all training and further education offers for teachers as well as clear framework conditions from the legislation, which must still leave enough room for experimentation," said Knodel.
She is aware that the road to this point will be a long one. Many federal states have shown a desire to integrate AI into teaching and to include it in the curriculum, but this is often not possible due to a lack of acceptance and openness as well as restrictive regulations.
"What could help would be if the federal government also provided budget for joint projects with other EdTech start-ups as part of its Digital Pact. That way we could bring learning tools to schools much faster," said Knodel.
Diana Knodel expressed her position and other demands at the AI Forum (see video recording in German language).
Tailored offers for jobseekers
The Federal Employment Agency also welcomes the transformation process. Thanks to AI-supported systems, time-consuming tasks such as checking study certificates, matching job seekers and those offering jobs or reading hundreds of thousands of job advertisements can be simplified and optimised by machines. Generative AI offers, among other things, the chance to determine precisely fitting offers and the demand on the job market in the shortest possible time. At the AI Forum, CIO Dr. Markus Schmitz presented the strategic foundation for using AI at his Agency, linked to voluntarily imposed data ethics guidelines and processes (see video recording in German language).
"We are definitely aware of our responsibility for the handling and use of sensitive data and do everything we can to make the technical processes secure and unprejudiced," said Schmitz, who sees the AI Forum as an important building block for the transformation of society as a whole: "We in the public sector often have the regulatory debate, where people only ever discuss what is not possible. It was great today to simply talk about the possibilities we have - of course always with the risks in mind. We should have this debate much more often in Germany and make it a social issue. It should not just be a dialogue between experts - it has been for many years. Events like this help to democratise the debate and thus make an important contribution."
All recordings from the AI Forum "Next Level Learning: AI in Education and the World of Work" as well as further background information on the topic at: iu.de/ki-forum-2023
For interviews, background discussions or a demonstration of the AI-supported learning buddy Syntea, we will be happy to put you in touch with the speakers.
With over 130,000 students, IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU) is the largest university in Germany. The private, state-recognised educational institution with its headquarters in Erfurt began operations in 2000 and is now represented in more than 35 German cities. Students from over 190 nations design their studies according to their needs: whether practice-integrated dual studies, flexible distance learning or individual “myStudium”, which combines online self-study and campus life. IU wants to give people worldwide access to personalised education for a fulfilled and self-determined life. In more than 250 bachelor's, master's and MBA programmes, including over 50 in English, IU teaches students key skills relevant to the future. A digitally supported learning environment and the use of AI solutions help students to achieve optimal learning results and experiences. IU is one of the first universities in the world to have developed and deployed its own AI-supported learning buddy. IU cooperates with over 15,000 companies and supports them in the academic training of professionals. Partners include Motel One, Vodafone, AWO and Deutsche Bahn. Further information at: iu.org
The AI-supported learning buddy "Syntea" is now available as a public demo version in the ChatGPT store at the following link: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-P5olqoCPc-syntea
