Is My Child’s Education Preparing Them for a Future With AI?

Will AI Take Away the Jobs Our Children Might Have Done?

It is impossible to predict exactly which jobs will exist in 15 or 20 years, and predictions about entire professions disappearing should be treated cautiously.

What we can already see is AI changing individual tasks within jobs. It can research, summarise, analyse information, write, translate, create images, produce computer code and complete administrative tasks remarkably quickly.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that 86% of the employers it surveyed expected AI and information-processing technologies to transform their business by 2030. At the same time, it projected both substantial job creation and displacement rather than simply a future with fewer jobs.

So perhaps the more useful question for children isn't:

"Will AI take my job?"

It is:

"What will AI allow me to do that wasn't possible before?"

That creates a very different mindset.

What Skills Will Children Need in an AI World?

Interestingly, the rise of AI doesn't appear to make human skills irrelevant.

The World Economic Forum found AI and big data to be among the fastest-growing areas of skills demand. Yet employers also expect growing importance for creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, curiosity and lifelong learning. Analytical thinking remains the most commonly identified core skill amongst the employers surveyed.

That has important implications for education.

Children need opportunities to ask questions, create things, solve problems, work with others, communicate ideas, take appropriate risks, make mistakes and try again.

These capabilities can be harder to measure in an exam, but that doesn't make them less important.

Should Children Be Learning How to Use AI?

Increasingly, yes.

AI is already part of the world children are growing up in. By 2026, Ofqual described AI tools as part of daily life for most young people, while also warning schools about inappropriate reliance on them for assessed work.

Simply giving children access to AI isn't enough, though.

They need to understand that AI can be wrong. They need to question what it produces, consider where information has come from, protect their privacy and recognise when using AI is helpful and when they need to do the thinking themselves.

There is a simple principle here:

Children need to learn to think with AI, rather than letting AI think for them.

Used well, AI could become an extraordinary tool for learning, creating and exploring ideas. Used badly, it can become a shortcut that removes the very thinking a child needs to develop.

Will English, Maths and Traditional Subjects Still Matter?

Absolutely. In many ways, AI makes these foundations even more important.

Reading, for example, is about far more than recognising words on a page. A child reads information, comprehends it, connects it with what they already know, forms thoughts about it and decides what to do with it.

AI can provide enormous amounts of information incredibly quickly. But children still need the ability to understand what they are reading, interpret it and use it intelligently.

The same applies to mathematics.

AI can calculate figures, analyse a spreadsheet or produce a financial forecast in seconds. But seeing numbers on a screen doesn't make someone financially literate. They still need to understand what those numbers mean, how they relate to one another and what the implications might be.

Subject knowledge matters for the same reason. The more a child understands about science, history, geography, technology, language and the wider world, the better equipped they are to ask intelligent questions and understand the answers they receive.

That matters because AI is only as useful as the thinking surrounding it.

Someone with strong knowledge and understanding can give AI better instructions, ask better follow-up questions, recognise important information, challenge questionable conclusions and turn an output into meaningful action.

So the rise of AI isn't an argument for teaching children less.

It's an argument for giving them strong academic foundations alongside the ability to apply what they know.

Could AI Create More Entrepreneurs?

Potentially, and this is one of the more exciting possibilities.

AI is already making some things faster and cheaper to create. Tasks that once required specialist knowledge or several different people can increasingly be supported by technology.

That could make it easier for individuals to test ideas, create products, build businesses and work independently.

We shouldn't assume that every child will become an entrepreneur, or that conventional careers will disappear. But today's children may experience less linear working lives than previous generations.

That makes qualities such as initiative, creativity, problem-solving and spotting opportunities particularly interesting.

Rather than preparing children solely to follow an established route, education can also help them develop the confidence to create opportunities of their own.

What Should Parents Look for in Their Child's Education?

Look beyond technology itself.

Ask whether your child's education is developing curiosity as well as knowledge.

Are they encouraged to ask good questions? Solve problems? Create things? Work with other people? Communicate ideas? Experiment? Use technology thoughtfully? Learn from failure?

Academic achievement still matters enormously. But an education focused exclusively on measurable results may leave less room for some of the capabilities children could need in a rapidly changing world.

We cannot perfectly prepare a seven-year-old for a job they may have in 2045 because that job might not even exist yet.

We can help them become the kind of person who will be able to adapt when they get there.

How We Think About This at The Mount

At The Mount, our purpose is to make childhood unforgettable, and part of an extraordinary childhood is preparing children confidently for the world ahead.

Strong academic foundations remain important to us. Children need to read well, understand numbers, develop knowledge and learn how to think. Technology doesn't replace those foundations. It makes being able to apply them intelligently even more valuable.

But education should also be broader than preparing children for the next test.

That is why we want children to experience art, music, sport, STEM, technology, creativity and opportunities to solve problems and work together. We want them to become curious, confident children who are willing to try things, ask questions and discover what they are capable of.

AI adds another dimension to that education.

Children need opportunities to understand these tools and eventually use them effectively, while retaining something even more important: their own ability to think.

The future AI creates is uncertain, but uncertainty doesn't have to be frightening.

Today's children may have tools available to them that previous generations could barely have imagined. If we equip them with knowledge, curiosity, creativity and confidence, those tools could open extraordinary possibilities.