What Will Define Leading Schools in an AI-Driven World? Insight From Bett Asia 2026

If the world’s leading schools will be defined by human capabilities that AI can’t emulate, what skills do students need to be developing now? 

When Edmentum surveyed education leaders at Bett Asia 2026, 82% of the respondents said they’re prioritizing critical thinking. 59% said problem-solving. Half identified AI and rapidly changing technology as a major challenge for their schools, and 45% said they’re struggling to balance academic achievement with the wider set of durable skills that today’s learners need to develop.

Here are a few key questions those leaders addressed at Bett Asia 2026.

Which Skills Are Most Important and Where Are They in the Learning Experience?

A primary goal for many international education leaders is to develop students’ ability to use AI and other technology purposefully while adapting and thinking independently as they analyze that information. Along with critical thinking and problem-solving, respondents cited collaboration, confidence, communication and curiosity as areas to prioritize. A roundtable session hosted by Edmentum at Bett Asia also explored where those challenges sit within international frameworks. 

AI is making information readily and quickly available. First drafts have become easier to generate. Schools now need to place greater emphasis on what students do with that information: how they interpret it, challenge it, apply it, and make sound decisions.

Schools can identify the skills that students need to do this, they said, but few are making explicit choices about which of those skills should play the most prominent roles in shaping curriculum, assessment, teaching, and the overall learning experience.

Where Is the Line Between AI Support and Cognitive Dependence?

The roundtable also explored a less comfortable question: what happens when technology does parts of the thinking that learning was designed to develop?

The session drew from research around cognitive offloading, task avoidance, and reduced critical evaluation. It also raised the possibility of an “AI dependency paradox,” in which assisted performance improves while underlying capability weakens when that assistance is removed.

A principal in the room asserted that “The students need to understand that the AI is developed through [a] neural network thinking system, and it can be flawed. And that is where you need to impress upon them: how do they analyze the correctness of AI?”

So how can leaders and educators identify where technology can support learning without undermining the reasoning, judgment or knowledge students are developing? The answer differs by subject area, age levels, and learning objectives, but schools increasingly need to be able to communicate exactly where they draw that line.

What Does Good Pedagogy Look Like When AI Is Everywhere?

“It’s not enough for teachers to know what an AI can do, how to use the AI, but it’s also important for them to make sound pedagogical judgment [about] when to use that AI tool,” said a teacher trainer in attendance. “What learnings would it take away? What learnings would it enhance?”

Bringing the discussion of AI into classroom practice, she described the goal as learning “how to be good designers of a learning experience that is enhanced by AI and not a learning experience that’s dependent on AI.” 

Some questions for educators to consider before introducing AI into a learning experience:

• What thinking or understanding is this task intended to develop?
• Which part of the work should remain with the student?
• Will AI extend the learning or bypass the thinking students need to practice?
• What evidence will show that the student can demonstrate the underlying capability?

The discussion also highlighted the implications for teacher development. AI fluency alone can’t prepare educators to make these decisions; teachers need strong pedagogical foundations, clear guardrails, and confidence in deciding when technology will truly support the intended learning.

How Can Schools Turn “Skills for Life” Into a Coherent Vision?

“The leader has a very big role to play where they need to bring in a lot of clarity where there is confusion,” said one education leader at the roundtable. “They need to bring in confidence where there is fear and responsibility where there is excitement.”

The panel resisted prescribing a universal definition of the skills students will need. Instead, leaders were asked: How does your organization define the skills for life and competencies you want to build in your learners, and who ultimately makes that call?

Leaders then explored:

• Which capabilities should define their students’ educational experience
• What they are willing to prioritize or deprioritize
• How that vision can remain coherent across diverse settings
• Whether a given approach is simply repeating claims families hear elsewhere

Execution is a big part of that decision; a vision that reaches only some students cannot define an entire organization. The roundtable therefore pushed leaders to consider how an educational experience can be sustained and scaled across schools and regions while still allowing for local context.

International school groups need to be clear about what should remain consistent wherever students learn within the organization — and where schools need flexibility to respond to their own communities.

What Evidence Shows That Students Are Developing Essential Skills?

Capabilities like critical thinking, adaptability, and independent judgment can be difficult to quantify. Yet if they are central to a school’s educational vision, leaders need a way to gauge whether students are developing them. That requires moving from a stated vision to something that can be delivered, sustained, and clearly demonstrated across an organization.

AI often complicates that because, while technology can contribute to a finished piece of work, the output itself makes it hard for educators to see the thinking behind it. That makes it more critical than ever to design learning and assessment in a way that can make that thinking visible and show that the organization is living up to its promise.

What Can International Education Leaders Carry Forward From Bett Asia?

The session closed by asking each participant: “Given everything discussed today, what is the one decision you most need to make when you return to your organization?” The answers varied, but one assertion was very clear: international schools need to gain clarity on which capabilities they want to prioritize and build the student experience around them. 

Connect with Edmentum to explore how schools around the world are putting these priorities into practice.