Digital Learning Week: Education in the Age of AI

From September 2 to 5, 2025, UNESCO in Paris organized and hosted Digital Learning Week (DLW), a global event bringing together ministers and policymakers, development partners, administrators, researchers, and education practitioners at all levels. A benchmark in digital education, this edition focused on the disruptions, dilemmas, and opportunities associated with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education systems.

The rise of AI is revolutionizing the way we learn, train, and manage education systems. Its potential is manifold: personalized learning, more accurate student monitoring, teacher support, and optimized school management. But these opportunities come with major challenges. Digital Learning Week 2025 invited participants to discuss these transformations, including the risks of algorithmic bias, digital surveillance, increased inequality, and the risk of dehumanization in the education sector. 

Over four days, education stakeholders engaged in critical reflection: how can we ensure that AI and digital technology serve humanity, equity, and sustainable development goals? Workshops and interactive sessions enabled participants to jointly develop concrete approaches to regulating these technologies while promoting responsible innovation.

The program centered on high-level plenary conferences, parallel thematic sessions, exhibition spaces for digital tools, forward-looking workshops, and opportunities for co-creation. 

The KIX Africa 21 hub was represented by its coordinator, Dr. Maïmouna Sissoko-Touré, to highlight the work done in digital education in the 21 member countries, and in particular the opportunities offered by AI, such as:

•  ensuring personalized learning at the level and pace of learners;

• enabling inclusive and equitable access to online learning opportunities;

• improving the quality and real-time monitoring of learning progress, tracking long-term learning outcomes, and enabling the development of interdisciplinary skills;

• supporting remote summative assessments and high-stakes exams, helping to simulate climate change scenarios, and improving school resource management;

• identifying skills gaps and recommending appropriate training pathways;

• anticipating the impacts of crises on education and implementing more effective public policies to address them.

While KIX Afrique 21 stands out as a regional benchmark for the integration of AI in education, Dr. Maïmouna Sissoko-Touré spoke on the subject: “Education policies: when ministries in French- and Portuguese-speaking Africa enter the age of AI.” French-speaking Africa was represented not only as a beneficiary of innovation, but also as a source of expertise and solutions for other regions.

KIX Africa 21 Hub, in close collaboration with UNESCO, has already organized a ministerial round table on digital and AI skills in Dakar (October 2024), featuring presentations by the Ministers of Education of Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal, with the aim of defining digital and AI skills benchmarks for teachers and students. 

Workshops are planned in Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, and Burundi starting in September 2025 to take advantage of the opportunities offered by AI in the governance and management of education systems, as well as in teaching and learning.

By highlighting its activities and achievements, the KIX Africa 21 center will remind us that digital technology, when rooted in local realities and guided by research, can become a real lever for transformation in education and contribute to building fairer, more inclusive, and more resilient education systems.

All the information about the event:

Digital Learning Week 2025 – UNESCO