The use of artificial intelligence in education is not a new idea, but China has now taken a step that could become a turning point in the global AI race. As part of a comprehensive educational reform, the country will integrate AI systematically into education starting in the fall of 2025.
This move is both timely and scientifically grounded. A growing body of research confirms that AI-supported learning processes can radically improve student performance, but only if introduced in the right way.
This was the topic of a conversation between Áron Kovács-Nagy and Levente Szabados, Associate Professor at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and Senior Consultant at Neuron Solutions.
The key to effectiveness lies not in the tool, but in how it’s used.
In various studies, researchers created scenarios where students had different levels and types of access to AI tools:
- some students had no access to AI support,
- others were allowed to use AI freely,
- and a third group worked with AI in a tutoring and mentoring framework. In the latter case, the AI’s role was not to solve problems for them, but to guide their thinking by asking questions, prompting reflection, and encouraging independent reasoning.
The most striking result was that students who had free, unstructured access to AI actually performed slightly worse than those who didn’t use AI at all.
In contrast, students in the guided, mentored AI environment significantly outperformed the other groups.
This highlights a crucial point: introducing AI into education is not enough, how it is introduced makes all the difference.
Learning by Doing, Not by Lecutre
Effective AI education cannot happen through textbooks or traditional classroom teaching alone. It is a learning-by-doing process, much like how we learned to use the internet or smartphones, in practical settings, gradually, ideally in a supportive and safe environment.
We need to create these same conditions for students to learn how to use AI tools effectively, not just to speed up learning, but to develop deeper thinking and problem-solving skills.
China is now moving precisely in this direction, and with that, it may gain a significant strategic advantage in the future global labor market, innovation landscape, and technological leadership.
The question is: when and how will the rest of the world, including Europe, follow?
Integrating AI into education must not be random or unstructured.
It shapes the way future generations will think and learn.
You can listen to the full conversation by clicking here!
