Today, as societies become increasingly digital, the ability to understand and work with technology is no longer confined to technical specialists; it is a foundational requirement for all. AI, data and digital skills requirements will flow into every aspect of our working and personal lives. However, the development of digital skills is far from uniform across the globe, and as a key catalyst for future economic growth, education systems today have a critical role to play. The talent pipeline: AI, data and digital skill development lags behind Across the globe, digital skills are widely regarded as being instrumental to economic development. However, the integration of digital technologies within education systems remains uneven. There is insufficient global, and often national, alignment on how to define digital skills. over half of countries According to a UNESCO report, over half of countries have not yet established digital skills standards. While some countries are beginning to establish the digital competencies they wish to prioritize in curricula and assessment frameworks, these competencies are frequently developed by primarily commercial entities. As a result, skill definitions often reflect proprietary technologies and vendor- specific ecosystems, rather than a comprehensive, interoperable framework that serves the broader needs of learners, industries and societies. Efforts like those led by TeachAI, however, are emerging to bring together education, non-profit and technology leaders to support governments and educators in aligning on and integrating a shared definition of AI literacy into childhood education worldwide. Implementing technology in classrooms and teacher training lacks consistency. Many students have limited opportunities to engage with digital tools in educational settings; even in high-income countries, only approximately 10% of 15-year-olds use digital devices for mathematics and science for more than an hour per week. Moreover, teachers often report feeling inadequately prepared and lack confidence when integrating technology into their instruction. Only half of countries have set standards for teacher ICT competency development. These inconsistencies have not gone unnoticed by employers, who continue to identify significant disparities in how education systems cultivate digital skills across regions. Data from the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey 2025 reveals just two out of every 10 business leaders believe education systems effectively develop AI and data skills, and four out of 10 say the same for technology literacy.Globally, the picture is more nuanced. Northern America, Central Asia, and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) express particularly strong confidence in their education systems’ capacity to nurture AI and analytics abilities. Meanwhile, South Asia, South-Eastern Asia, and Oceania are most assured in the development of networks and cybersecurity expertise, with South-East Asia, South Asia, and MENA also highlighting more positive views of technology literacy among students. In contrast, leaders in Eastern Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean tend to rate human- centric skills more highly. In Sub-Saharan Africa, skills like resilience, creativity, curiosity, lifelong learning and teamwork are rated above the global average. Indeed, regions less confident in their digital skills development tend to report relative strengths in other areas, like collaboration and management. Yet, leaders in Northern America, while comparatively positive about AI and analytics skill development, tend to rate resilience and lifelong learning lower. Overall, in any region digital skills are rarely rated as developed well by education systems compared to human-centric skills (Figure 2). Even where digital skills are strongest, teamwork and collaboration still score higher, highlighting global gaps and inconsistencies in skill development through education systems, a worrying sign that the development of digital skills is falling behind the expectations of most business leaders. Education systems around the world struggle to embed digital skills effectively, with progress varying widely between regions and even between schools, reflecting unequal access to resources, infrastructure and teacher training. Reports from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) continue to highlight gaps in digital coverage, with large holes in the availability of qualified technical assistance staff and limited incentives for teaching staff to integrate digital devices into their teaching.6 Student access to technology is also far from uniform. According to research conducted by UNESCO, internet connectivity is highly unequal in terms of wealth and region.7 The percentage of 3–17 year-olds with an internet connection at home in both the richest and poorest families varies considerably in some regions, but is universally low in others. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, connectivity is in the low single-digit percentages across all wealth groups. In Japan, just over 60% of the poorest in this age category have access to the internet at home, compared to close to 90% of the wealthiest.1.2 Supply and demand of AI, data and digital skills New Economy Skills: Building AI, Data and Digital Capabilities for Growth 8

New Economy Skills 2025