AI readiness is often divided into separate policy conversations: schools need AI literacy, teachers need training, assessments need reform, and employers need workforce transformation. This brief argues that these are not separate agendas. They form one institutional capability chain, beginning with classroom readiness and extending into workforce readiness. It examines how teacher capacity, student AI literacy, assessment design, governance, and organizational redesign shape whether societies can prepare people for an AI-mediated economy. The brief positions education not as a separate sectoral issue, but as the upstream foundation of workforce transformation.