Current Status and Market Analysis of the AI Education Industry
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"AI + Education" refers to the deep integration and development of artificial intelligence and education, using AI applications based on educational scenarios as a pathway to promote educational equity, improve education quality, and achieve personalized education. Specifically, "AI + Education" is a collection of technologies, models, and practices that innovatively apply AI in the field of education. It can be categorized into "Computational Intelligence + Education," "Perceptual Intelligence + Education," and "Cognitive Intelligence + Education." In other words, AI + Education is evolving from "capable of storage and calculation" to "capable of listening, speaking, seeing, and recognizing," ultimately achieving "capable of understanding and thinking."
From the perspective of educational activities, current educational scenarios can be divided into teaching, learning, management, and assessment. Among these, the main actors in "teaching" and "management" are educators. The former is responsible for executing teaching tasks, including lesson planning, teaching, answering questions, setting exams, grading, etc. The work is complex, and the core demand is to reduce the burden and achieve precise teaching. The latter is responsible for coordinating administrative tasks, including staff recruitment, teacher-student supervision, admissions, class scheduling, campus construction, etc. Decision-making involves many factors, and the core demand is to improve efficiency and achieve scientific management. The main actors in "learning" and "assessment" are students. In the "learning" scenario, students' tasks include previewing, attending lectures, reading, doing homework, reviewing, taking exams, internships, etc. Due to significant individual differences among students, the core demand is adaptability to achieve personalized learning. In the "assessment" scenario, the focus is on large-scale standardized testing, where tasks like exam paper creation and grading are extensive, and some evaluation processes are labor-intensive and inefficient. The core demand is to ensure accuracy while achieving automated grading.
On the morning of January 31, the "Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics" parallel session of the 2024 World Digital Education Conference was held at the Shanghai Expo Center. The meeting aimed to share policies and experiences related to AI applications in education from various countries and to foster important consensus on AI empowering educational development. Ye Zhenzhen, Chairman and President of People.cn, read and released the "AI Empowers Educational Development" initiative on behalf of the conference.
According to the "2024-2029 AI Education Industry Status and Future Development Trends Analysis Report" by the China Research Institute of Industry:
Artificial intelligence is a strategic technology leading a new wave of scientific revolution, industrial transformation, and social change. It is profoundly altering how people produce, live, and learn, driving human society into an era of human-machine collaboration, cross-border integration, and shared construction. In 2019, UNESCO released the "Beijing Consensus—Artificial Intelligence and Education," forming a shared vision for educational development in the intelligent era among the international community. With the rapid development of generative AI technology, we collectively recognize that AI will become a crucial engine for promoting high-quality educational development, shaping new paradigms and forms of education. We look forward to working with governments, international organizations, enterprises, research institutions, schools, and other stakeholders to jointly advance the deep integration of AI and education and continuously empower educational innovation. Practicing ethical standards for AI applications in education and promoting the construction of a scientific governance system." The initiative "AI Empowers Educational Development," released at this parallel conference, clearly conveys the consensus among nations on valuing digital ethics in educational applications.
"In the digital age, we must integrate talent cultivation, skill enhancement, and value shaping into one cohesive effort," said Du Yubo, President of the China Association of Higher Education. He emphasized the need to fully incorporate digital literacy and skills training into school education and vocational training, ensuring that digital technologies are applied legally, compliantly, and safely in the educational sector. Colin Bailey also pointed out that we must use AI safely, effectively, and appropriately to prepare students for the responsible use of generative AI technologies.
Miao Fengchun, Director of the Educational Informatization and AI in Education Unit at UNESCO Headquarters, believes that regulating AI, fostering AI literacy among teachers and students, and optimizing instructional design are essential to achieving harmonious coexistence between learners and AI.
Additionally, challenges such as cognitive barriers, technological self-reliance, capital-driven logic, and regulatory failures highlight the need for nations to continuously study, negotiate, and collaborate on addressing the ethical risks of AI in education.
The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China integrated education, science, and technology into a unified strategy for the first time, marking "advancing educational digitization" as a key priority and heralding a new chapter in educational reform. As a major driver of the latest technological and industrial revolution, AI has spawned numerous new products, technologies, business models, and paradigms, while also unlocking new possibilities for educational modernization. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, "China attaches great importance to the profound impact of AI on education and actively promotes the deep integration of AI and education to foster innovation and transformation in education." As we embark on the journey to build a strong educational nation, AI will further inject robust momentum and provide strong support for empowering educational reform and promoting high-quality development in education.
Furthermore, on January 11, the Ministry of Education announced a list of 184 primary and secondary schools nationwide designated as AI education bases, including six schools from Beijing.
In accordance with the "Notice on Recommending AI Education Bases for Primary and Secondary Schools" issued by the Ministry of Education, provincial education authorities recommended 184 schools, which were publicly listed by the Ministry from January 11 to 17. The selected schools in Beijing include Hongzhi High School, Beijing No. 8 High School, Beijing No. 80 High School, Zhongguancun No. 3 Primary School in Haidian District, Beijing No. 12 High School, and the Experimental School Affiliated with Beijing Institute of Technology. The Ministry of Education has proposed selecting a group of distinctive high-level primary and secondary schools as science education and artificial intelligence education bases. It will actively promote the integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and fifth-generation mobile communication technology (5G) with teacher team building, accelerating the formation of new approaches and models for teacher development empowered by new technologies.
Efforts will be made to strengthen laboratory construction in primary and secondary schools, supporting the exploration of discipline-specific functional classrooms, comprehensive laboratories, innovation labs, and educational maker spaces. Schools are encouraged to conduct multifunctional technological renovations of regular classrooms to create composite experimental teaching environments.
Science education practice activities will be enhanced by selecting science museums, museums, research bases, and high-tech enterprises as practical education bases for schools. Corresponding scientific practice activities will be designed in alignment with science curriculum standards, organizing students to learn through hands-on exploration.
Experimental teaching will be reinforced with emphasis on student-operated experiments. School laboratory course implementation will be incorporated into teaching supervision and routine inspections, while experimental operations will be included in the high school entrance examination (zhongkao).