A seminar on education planning and governance in the intelligent era concluded on Sunday, launching the Lab of AI Governance and Planning in Education and its first result — Education Policy and Planning AI Agents, according to the organizers.

Held by Beijing Normal University and UNESCO arms, the seminar opened in Beijing on Jan 14, aiming to tackle the intersection between education policy, planning and the transformative role of artificial intelligence in shaping global education systems.

It brought together 38 participants from 19 countries, including government officials, educational planners and international scholars, to engage in discussions on the future of education in an AI-driven world.

The six-day event focused on topics including digital transformation in global education planning, AI applications in education governance, the future of education and the value of education planning.

The Lab of AI Governance and Planning in Education was launched during the seminar to foster the integration of AI technology in education governance and policy planning to create more inclusive, efficient and data-driven educational systems.

It was launched by BNU, in collaboration with UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (IITE) and academic institutions such as Tsinghua University.

The lab will focus on AI in education policy and planning, digital education and smart society experiments, as well as regional education development and international comparison.

One of the lab's major goals is to address the digital resource scarcity faced by developing nations, particularly in Africa and Small Island Developing States, ensuring that digital education is accessible to all, said Huang Ronghuai from UNESCO Chair on AI in Education.

The first outcome of the lab, Education Policy and Planning AI Agents (EduPX), was designed to assist education decision-making and governance. It is focused on overcoming challenges in policy document retrieval, policy comparison and trend forecasting.

By utilizing a large dataset of global education policies and integrating data from economics, technology and political sectors, EduPX provides multilingual policy support and strategic insights for education planners, research institutions and international organizations, according to the developer.