AI in Education Unplugged: Closing the Access Gap Through Education-Driven Design

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is transforming education, but its benefits remain out of reach for many of the communities that could benefit most. Drawing primarily from an hour-long public interview with Dr. Seiji Isotani and secondarily from the OECD Digital Education Outlook 2026 interview chapter, this memo argues that policymakers should stop treating infrastructure build-out as a precondition for AI in education. Instead, they should design around the infrastructure that already exists—especially mobile phones, intermittent connectivity, and teacher-led delivery models. The Brazil case discussed by Dr. Isotani shows that this approach can work at scale: 500,000 students across 7,000 schools and 20,000 teachers received materially faster feedback on writing, with statistically significant improvement and no meaningful urban-rural or resource-based gap in gains.