Learning Curves: Rethinking Education from Classrooms to Careers in an AI-driven World (Microsoft AI Economy Institute Series) - Hardcover

Lavista Ferres, Juan M.; Nagle, Frank

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1394452454 ISBN 13: 9781394452453

Publisher: Wiley, 2026

Synopsis

AI's impact on education, workforce development, and global labor markets

Learning Curves: Rethinking Education from Classrooms to Careers in an AI-driven World is the second book in the Microsoft AI Economy Institute series. Authored by Juan M. Lavista Ferres, Frank Nagle, and a distinguished group of international contributors, including globally recognized scholars and industry experts, this volume examines how generative AI is reshaping education systems, labor markets, and workforce development across sectors and geographies worldwide.

The book examines AI's effects on K-12 teaching, community colleges, technical and vocational institutions, and entry-level employment. It investigates the barriers to AI adoption, whether they are technical, institutional, regulatory, economic, or cultural, and explores global differences in AI diffusion. Contributors offer research-backed insights for policymakers, educators, employers, and workers navigating the transition to an AI-driven economy.

Readers will find:

• Analysis of how generative AI tools are changing experiences for both educators and students across institutional settings
• Research on AI's impact on entry-level jobs and evolving employer expectations for workforce readiness and skills
• Examination of barriers to equitable AI adoption, including technical, regulatory, economic, and cultural factors worldwide
• Insights drawn from the Microsoft AI Economy Institute's structured collaboration between leading scholars and industry practitioners
• Global-scale analysis of AI diffusion differences and their implications for education systems and labor markets

Written for policymakers, educators, institutional leaders, and students as well as decision-makers and investors, this book delivers research-grounded analysis of how generative AI is transforming education and workforce development. With 86% of students already using AI in their studies and 1 in 5 Americans using AI at work, it addresses questions that demand immediate attention.

About this title

About the Author

JUAN M. LAVISTA FERRES is Microsoft’s Chief Data Scientist and Corporate Vice President, serving as Lab Director of Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab and Director of the AI Economy Institute.

FRANK NAGLE is Microsoft’s Chief AI Economist, based in the AI Economy Institute within Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. He is also a research scientist at the Initiative on the Digital Economy at MIT.

Featuring Additional Distinguished Authors: Bashar Alhafni, Pierre-Alexandre Balland, Paul Bigby, Carolina Calvo Asencio, Bharat Chandar, Yung Chun, Somalis Chy, Jerik Cruz, Antonio Delgado, Wendy DuBow, Laura M. Evans, S. Kiersten Ferguson, Carla Z. Glave, Nizar Habash, Peng He, Manuel Hoffmann, Nicole Immorlica, Stephen Michael Impink, Jason Jabbari, Ekaterina Kochmar, Tingting Li, Carolina Lopez, Fengchun Miao, Milan Miric, Ezequiel Molina, Laura Nurski, Joseph Onderi Orero, Sarah L. Rodriguez, Amy Rubinson, Malle Schilling, Catherine Schwarz, Robert Seamans, Andrew Stokols, Sarayu Sundar, Arun Sundararajan, Inbal Talgam-Cohen, Hung Vo, Catherine Wu, Román Andrés Zárate, Xin Zhao (Skye).

From the Back Cover

HOW AI IS TRANSFORMING EDUCATION, WORK, AND OPPORTUNITY ON A GLOBAL SCALE

Generative AI is remaking the relationship between education and employment. Students already integrate AI tools into daily learning; employers increasingly expect AI fluency from new hires. Yet the pace of adoption varies dramatically across schools, industries, and nations. Understanding these patterns―where AI diffusion accelerates, where it stalls, and why―is central to ensuring that its economic benefits extend beyond a privileged few.

Drawing on research assembled through the Microsoft AI Economy Institute, Juan M. Lavista Ferres and Frank Nagle bring together insights from scholars and industry experts who study AI’s intersection with K-12 teaching, vocational training, entry-level employment, and global workforce development. The result is a data-informed examination of real barriers―technical, regulatory, and cultural― alongside actionable findings for those shaping education and labor policy.

Whether you lead a school district, design workforce policy, manage institutional strategy, or study the forces reshaping labor markets, this book offers a research-grounded perspective on AI’s role in education and the economy. It maps both the opportunities and the unresolved challenges, equipping readers to make informed decisions about purposeful transformation.

From the Inside Flap

Generative AI is on track to become the most widely adopted technology in history. According to the Digital Education Council, 86% of students already use AI in their studies. One in five Americans use it at work. Yet a pressing question remains unanswered: will AI’s benefits reach broadly across communities, or will technical, institutional, regulatory, and cultural barriers concentrate its advantages among the few? The answer depends largely on how education systems respond.

Learning Curves is the second book in the Microsoft AI Economy Institute series, a flagship initiative that brings together leading scholars and industry experts to study questions at the nexus of AI, education, and the workforce. Led by Juan M. Lavista Ferres and Frank Nagle, this volume draws on rigorous research and scholarly discourse to examine how generative AI is reshaping learning, teaching, and employment.

The book explores AI’s concrete effects across multiple domains: entry-level jobs and shifting employer expectations; K-12 classrooms and teaching practices; and community, technical, and vocational colleges adapting curricula for a transformed labor market. It also examines AI diffusion differences on a global scale, analyzing why adoption patterns vary across regions and what barriers―economic, educational, and cultural―slow or accelerate progress in different communities and geographies around the world.

Written for policymakers, educators, institutional leaders, and students, this book provides a clear-eyed view of what’s ahead, what’s working, and the questions that remain. For anyone seeking to understand how AI will reshape education and the workforce―and how to design that transformation purposefully―this is an informed and timely resource grounded in evidence rather than speculation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1394452454
• ISBN 13: 9781394452453
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432