In October 2025, I was invited by UNICEF to design and deliver an AI in Education workshop for their Learning Pioneers Programme, bringing together education ministry leaders from 14 countries at the Innovation Camp in Helsinki. The session tackled a critical challenge: how can resource-constrained education systems harness AI’s potential without compromising cultural sovereignty, breaking budgets, or replacing educators?
The workshop addressed critical challenges facing education ministries deploying AI at scale – from infrastructure constraints to data sovereignty concerns. Through five live demonstrations and three hands-on activities, participants learned to build AI-assisted lesson planners, develop educator digital twins using context engineering techniques and explore infrastructure-appropriate solutions like WhatsApp chatbots for teacher support. A key focus was on sovereign pedagogy: ensuring AI tools respect and amplify local languages, cultural contexts, and curriculum frameworks rather than imposing Western educational models. I introduced UNICEF’s Learning Innovation team to open-source AI infrastructure frameworks that can reduce per-user costs from $16-20/month to $1-2/month while keeping sensitive education data on national servers.
This work reflects my deep interest in democratising AI in education: making cutting-edge tools accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate for the Global South.
Workshop presentation here: