Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we work, live, and learn. It performs cognitive tasks that once defined human capital — and risks widening the gap between those who can harness it and those who cannot. As change accelerates, education offers a clear compass: not rote memorization, but the cultivation of the most human capabilities — discernment, meaning-making, leadership, and more. As Yidan Prize Judging Committee Chair Andreas Schleicher reminded us at the Education World Forum 2026, these are capabilities that must be practiced, coached, and lived.

 

Human connection at the heart of flourishing ecosystems

Last year's Summit asked how education should respond at a crossroads. This year — the Summit's 10th edition — we spotlight a turn that is already underway: from schooling to education as a driving force for flourishing ecosystems grounded in human connection, creation, and deep learning. Recent Yidan Prize Conferences in Senegal and South Korea — on locally rooted innovation, cross-sectoral partnership, and relational intelligence — also shed light on how we can build trust, collaborate across differences, repair ruptures, and make meaning together in the age of AI. Building on these conversations, this year’s Summit will explore three big questions:

 

• School as a proving ground: What can we learn from educators around the world who are turning theory into practice and growing relational, purpose-driven learning communities?
• Partnership as an engine: What does it take to build cross-sector alliances that endure, and to write together a renewed blueprint for change across the public sector, private sector, and civil society?
• Philanthropy as a catalyst: How can philanthropy move beyond deploying risk capital to building relational capacity — and take its place as an integral part of the change it seeks?

 

This shift is already visible. In China, a grassroots network of 11,000 schools is placing education at the center of a holistic, fulfilled life. In India, an annual citizen-led survey mobilizes 30,000 volunteers to put evidence about children's learning into the hands of communities and policymakers. Across sub-Saharan Africa, a peer network of more than 355,000 young women is reshaping learning around mentorship, entrepreneurship, and collective leadership. And around the world, foundations are rethinking their role — from funding individual programs to strengthening the connective tissue of ecosystems as a whole.

 

At the heart of this evolution is not fear that we will become obsolete, but a reminder that learning is a deeply human and inherently relational practice — a conviction echoed at the IFE Conference 2026 in Monterrey, and one that we’ll carry forward in Hong Kong.

 

Acknowledgment

Cathay Pacific is the official carrier for the 2026 Yidan Prize Summit.