India AI Impact Summit 2026: Karis Calls for Speedy, Ethical Integration of AI in School Systems

Estonian President Alar Karis today stressed that education holds the key to making artificial intelligence work responsibly, as he addressed the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

During the session “AI and Education: From Innovation to Impact” – co-hosted with the Estonian Embassy, New Delhi -speakers examined how countries can shift from pilot projects to widespread, responsible adoption of AI in public education systems.

Karis noted that AI already plays a daily role in classrooms for both students and teachers. He argued that the real question is not whether to use AI, but how to ensure everyone uses it knowingly, critically, and responsibly.

Karis said -“AI has already arrived in our schools, students and teachers are using it on a daily basis,” . He further added-“The question, therefore, is not whether AI is to be used, but whether it is being used knowingly, critically, and responsibly by everyone. In this AI era, it is not how smart machines are that matters most, but how smart the people who use them are. Education is the key to this, and in Estonia we are bringing AI into schools and education with a dedicated policy at speed and scale.”

He explained that Estonia builds data and technology literacy as a foundation of democracy. The country aims to equip the majority of its population with basic AI tool knowledge and at least half with intermediate to international-level skills. “Our AI push in education will focus on serving the learning just like our digital AI in governance helps us in serving people better,” he added. “Above all, AI education needs to be transparent and ethical, this will generate trust, which will lead to willingness to learn.”

Participants agreed that technological innovation like AI must strengthen — not bypass — public education systems. They highlighted the need to reduce teachers’ administrative burdens, promote multilingual and inclusive learning, and prevent any widening of the digital divide in low-resource or low-bandwidth environments.

Mary N. Kerema, Secretary ICT, E-Government and Digital Economy, Republic of Kenya, emphasized teacher empowerment as the foundation. “We have realised that without embracing technology, we will be left behind,” she said. “But the most stable and capable infrastructure in education is the teacher. You may have limited connectivity and limited devices, but you will always find a teacher in the classroom. That is why AI training for teachers must come first. If we empower the teacher, then there will be clear ethical AI use, because it all starts in the classroom.”

Dr. Pia Rebello Britto, Global Director, Education, UNICEF, warned against structural inequities. “We want innovation, especially technological ones like AI to strengthen public education rather than bypass it,” she stated. “On one hand we see exciting times with AI emergence, while there remains major challenges: in most lower/middle income countries a majority of almost 70% 10-years olds around the world cannot read or understand a simple text. Thus hundreds of millions of children are at risk of being left behind due to the emergence of enormous progress in technologies like AI. When we speak about AI and education, we have to talk not about marginal gains. We have to talk about how innovation can reverse structural inequity. What creates equity is an ecosystem that supports teachers, protects children, and is accountable to public systems.”

Professor Petri Myllymäki from the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence addressed early concerns around tools like ChatGPT. “When ChatGPT was launched, there was panic. Everyone thought that AI will write all the essays and students will learn nothing,” he recalled. “But we realised that outsourcing essays was always possible; it just became easier. The point of education is not to produce another essay in the world, it is to learn something in the process. By all means, use AI tools, but make sure learning happens.”

Ivo Visak, CEO of AI LEAP (Estonia), stressed national-wide commitment and trust. “It is not only the Ministry of Education and Research concern, It is a whole nation’s question,” he said. “We have Estonian companies supporting the initiative, and there is general public trust toward such programs. If you have trust, people will follow. But you cannot break that trust you have to deliver. That is why we have a strong pedagogical plan behind it which is supported by technology, not a technological program supported by pedagogy.”

The session positioned 2026 as a year of implementation, urging countries to adopt coordinated national strategies, prioritize teacher capacity building, develop interoperable digital infrastructure, and establish strong public governance frameworks to deliver equitable AI-driven learning outcomes.