CASE STUDY 4 Udemy: creating safe spaces for human-centric role plays in the age of AI Context: Udemy built AI Role Play to give people a safe, low-stakes way to practice human-centric skills, including communication, conflict resolution, inclusive leadership, ethical decision-making and critical thinking. This approach addresses the limitations of live role-plays, which are costly to deliver, challenging to scale and often carry psychological risks. The AI-driven simulations adapt to each response and provide real-time, actionable feedback, letting professionals rehearse high-impact workplace conversations without reputational risk. Available in five languages (and expanding to four more) Udemy’s AI Role Play reaches 81 million learners and 17,000 organizations across 225 countries and territories, making human-centric skill training practical, repeatable and measurable. Approach: AI Role Play blends instructor expertise with adaptive AI to deliver private, psychologically safe simulations in which learners practice behaviours such as active listening, de-escalation, constructive feedback, negotiation and decision-making. Instructors and organizations design scenarios that mirror authentic organizational challenges such as resolving team conflict, running an inclusive design critique or handling a performance conversation, while the AI dynamically responds to the learner’s choices and language. Learners receive personalized feedback and guidance on what to try next, enabling rapid iteration without social penalty. To strengthen fairness and relevance, Role Play also provides standardized feedback that tracks engagement, progression and completion, with organizations and learners able to align scenarios to their values and competencies. Results: AI Role Play has established a repeatable, risk-free practice loop for human-centric skills. Most AI Role Plays designed so far are designed to sharpen high-impact skills related to leadership, management and strategic thinking. Learners report higher confidence navigating difficult conversations; teams use analytics to target coaching where it matters; and organizations gain a scalable alternative to resource-intensive live simulations. Profiles of learner progress are enriched with performance evidence from realistic tasks, while private practice, immediate feedback and the ability to repeat attempts promote a culture of continuous learning. CASE STUDY 5 University of Cape Town: empowering principals to transform schools through human-centric leadership Context: In 2012, the Principals Academy Trust partnered with the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, with funding support from Capitec Foundation, to professionalize school leadership at scale. Recognizing principals as the key levers for change, particularly in a context of high poverty and crime, the goal was to move to durable, systems-based, people-centred leadership, grounded in new-economy skills like systems thinking, creative reasoning and personal mastery. Over time the initiative evolved into a multi-year leadership journey that builds school cultures where academic outcomes and human outcomes rise together. Approach: The co-designed programme is a flexible executive course that builds technical and people-focused skills, with the selected participants receiving a full bursary. The curriculum includes critical new economy skills including systems thinking and personal mastery (self-awareness, resilience, empathy) that is applied directly to each school. Learning continues beyond the classroom: principals receive at least three years of one-to-one coaching from veteran former principals and targeted teacher/classroom support to anchor systemic change. A principal peer network strengthens collaboration across schools and districts. In 2023 the programme expanded to include deputy principals and two high-potential teachers per school, creating a shared language and leadership bench so gains endure when principals are promoted. Results: The programme has significantly shifted leadership behaviours and school outcomes, reaching 273 school executives across 11 cohorts since launch. Participating schools recorded gains in independently assessed systemic tests and school-leaving results. In the first secondary-school cohort, Bachelor -pass rates rose by 16.4 percentage points, versus 5.8 points provincially, despite starting from a far lower base (19.7% in participating schools vs. 36.5% provincial). By the end of the period, the cohort surpassed the national pass rate by 2.5 percentage points. In primary schools, the first two cohorts improved by 20.23% on average on the Principals Academy Trust Performance Index, which aggregates results from externally administered, internationally benchmarked assessments. In 2023, 11 programme-alumni schools ranked in the provincial top 10 for performance, and four others won Most-Improved Subject awards. Beyond the numbers, systems and culture are sticking as alumni are regularly promoted to circuit manager roles, extending the model’s reach as they eventually coach other principals. New Economy Skills: Unlocking the Human Advantage 34

New Economy Skills Unlocking the Human Advantage 2025