AI in education: Specialists call for human skills to be strengthened

In a world where artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming how we learn, work, and make decisions, people are what continue to make a true difference, agreed specialists on a panel held at Tec de Monterrey.

This idea was presented at the International Forum on Evaluation and Future Skills, a global opportunity for dialogue on how to evaluate and strengthen the future skills of high school and university students.

"Although AI may become a powerful tool, people need to develop their critical skills so that they can analyze, question, and make decisions", said Marco Fernández, coordinator of the Tec's Education with Equity and Quality Initiative (IEEC).

The forum brought together specialists, academic leaders, and institutions from Mexico, Finland, and the United States to discuss the role of educational evaluation in a context influenced by artificial intelligence.

Evaluating more than memorizing

One of the main topics discussed at the forum was how to develop skills such as critical thinking when AI can now generate immediate responses, texts, and complete arguments in seconds.

In 2023, the Tec implemented the College Learning Assessment (CLA+), a tool developed by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), which enables it to measure cross-cutting skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication.

What's more, the specialists agreed that the challenge does not lie in banning AI from classrooms but in teaching students how to use it responsibly in a way that complements learning.

The process matters more than the answer

During the roundtable sessions, professors and specialists mentioned that one of the main risks of depending completely on AI tools is that students lose sight of the cognitive process behind learning.

By way of example, they shared exercises in which students constructed their own arguments and compared them with others completely generated by AI.

While the texts created by students reflected unique and imperfect perspectives, those produced by artificial intelligence tended to sound the same and were less authentic.

They also discussed the importance of step-by-step teaching of skills such as reasoning, analyzing information, or constructing essays instead of focusing solely on the end result.

"Students need to experience that uncertainty and make a cognitive effort before delegating tasks to artificial intelligence", said forum participants.

An international conversation on education and future

The forum also provided an opportunity to discuss how universities are responding globally to the changes caused by AI and the growing discussion on the value of higher education.

Specialists from American universities shared how, even at institutions that are highly focused on research, there is a growing debate on the need to strengthen teaching, evaluation, and human-centric skills in the classroom.

Furthermore, they spoke of the need to create a common language to define skills such as critical thinking and establish better mechanisms to measure them in different educational contexts.

"The true challenge lies not in competing with artificial intelligence but in producing people who are capable of questioning, interpreting, and making decisions in complex contexts", was another of the conclusions shared during the forum.

"The true challenge lies not in competing with artificial intelligence but in producing people who are capable of questioning, interpreting, and making decisions in complex contexts".

What is the International Forum on Evaluation and Future Skills?

The International Forum on Evaluation and Future Skills is an academic event promoted by Tecnológico de Monterrey and the CAE to discuss the future of educational evaluation and cross-cutting skills in the age of artificial intelligence.

Participating in the forum were representatives from:

• Tec de Monterrey
• PrepaTec
• The School of Government and Public Transformation
• The School of Social Sciences and Government
• The Council for Aid to Education (CAE)
• Purdue University
• Texas A&M University

Its 2026 edition brought together representatives of universities and organizations from Mexico, Finland, and the United States on the Tec's Monterrey campus.

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