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I write about four connected themes: AI readiness in education, expertise encoding and knowledge work, building AI products in real contexts, and Global South perspectives on AI implementation.
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Your School Isn’t Behind on AI. You Just Don’t Have a Map Yet.
The question is not which AI tools to buy
What 28 AI Readiness Assessments Reveal About Schools in Ghana
NiallOS: a personal AI operating system for knowledge work

Published on Medium for long-form articles and Substack for newsletter essays. For shorter takes and daily conversation, find me on LinkedIn.

What 28 AI Readiness Assessments Reveal About Schools in Ghana

February 27, 2026February 27, 2026 by Niall McNulty

On 21 February 2026, I ran AI readiness workshops with school leaders at Cambridge International Schools Day in Accra, Ghana. Twenty-four schools completed an AI Readiness Framework, a self-assessment tool that scores schools across five dimensions of AI preparedness. Twenty-eight responses were collected in total, as several schools had more than one participant complete the assessment.

The results tell a clear story. Schools are investing in hardware and tools. They are not investing in the governance and policy structures needed to use them well.

Niall McNulty running an AI readiness workshop for schools in Accra

The question is not which AI tools to buy

February 27, 2026February 23, 2026 by Niall McNulty

What 200 school leaders in Ghana taught me about AI readiness

“How many of you have a written AI policy for your school?”

I asked this to a room of 200 school principals and senior leaders at Cambridge International Schools Day in Accra, Ghana. A handful of hands went up. Maybe ten. In a room of 200.

That ratio is not unusual. In a 2023 UNESCO survey of over 450 schools and universities, fewer than 10% had developed institutional policies or formal guidance on generative AI. The numbers have likely improved since, but not by much. Meanwhile, RAND’s 2025 survey of US schools found that more than half of teachers are now using AI for planning, feedback, and content. College Board research puts the figure even higher for students: 84% of high school students reported using generative AI for schoolwork by mid-2025.

The gap between what we have planned for and what is already happening. That’s what this session was about.

Niall on-stage at the Cambridge International Schools Day in Accra, Ghana

Your School Isn’t Behind on AI. You Just Don’t Have a Map Yet.

February 6, 2026 by Niall McNulty

A practical readiness framework for international schools in Sub-Saharan Africa

I spend a lot of time talking to school leaders about AI. Principals in Zimbabwe and South Africa, heads of school in Kuwait, curriculum directors in the UAE. The conversation almost always starts the same way: “We know we should be doing something. We just don’t know what.”

It’s not a lack of intelligence or ambition. These are people running complex institutions, managing multilingual communities, navigating international curricula, and doing it across infrastructure realities that range from fibre-connected campuses to schools where the Wi-Fi drops out twice a day. What they lack isn’t capability. It’s a map.