September 2024

Can you hear that? It’s the sound of school bells ringing. 

In many parts of the world, this is the time of year when students head back to class. But AI has moved us beyond the traditional three Rs (in the U.S., that’s reading, writing and arithmetic) and is quickly transforming how we learn.  

From preschool to postdoc, AI is becoming a powerful tool for education, research and even creative design. It’s guiding children in building foundational skills and helping teachers focus on what matters most. It’s allowing us to get away from the traditional approaches of the past to create more engaging, richer learning and creative experiences.  

Wherever you are in your educational or work journey, it’s a good bet that AI will play a role, if it isn’t already.  

This month, we’ll tell you about some of the ways savvy students are tapping AI to individualize their learning. We’ll share how AI tools are bringing back joy and inspiration to the classroom. And an educational expert will explain why knowledge and initiative are key to getting the most out of AI.  

For us lifelong learners, class is never out of session. So pull up a seat and join us for what we hope will be an enlightening lesson. 

To get us started, we worked with U.K.-based illustrator Naomi Sloman to create a set of flashcards explaining 20 basic AI terms. They’re colorful and a little whimsical, because we think learning should be fun.  

Twelve-year-old Aren Uzun was getting low marks for some of his class presentations and didn’t understand why.  

Through Reading Coach, an AI-powered tool, the California seventh grader discovered that he was speaking too fast and pronouncing some words incorrectly. He started using Reading Coach after school to practice his reading and writing. As his confidence grew, his grades ticked up.  

Students like Aren are increasingly using AI to personalize their learning — whether that’s tackling a challenging subject or, in Isabelle Armstrong’s case, focusing their thoughts. The 16-year-old, who lives in Australia and admits to being “a bit of a rambler,” turned to Search Coach to hone her prompts, and that led to her becoming crisper with essay-writing.  

“This is helping me get more clear with what I’m saying and get to the point,” she says.  

But while AI can be a valuable learning tool, it’s “just a magnification of human intent,” says Sal Khan, founder of the nonprofit educational organization Khan Academy.  

As Khan points out in a recent podcast, a software engineer using AI to generate code must understand code architecture, just as an editor needs to have writing chops and recognize great writing. He adds that as AI transforms work at increasing speed, gaining expertise and upskilling will be critical to not get left behind. 

The good news: Generative AI can help us get there by enabling us to ask questions and engage in a way that approximates one-on-one learning.  

“Now you can do much deeper things in a learning setting using generative AI,” Khan says. “So I think the same technology that’s going to introduce some shifts in society can also help us navigate those shifts.” 

High school chemistry teacher Melissa Higgason needed a shift of a different kind. After decades in education, the Indiana teacher “felt like I was kind of losing my sparkle.” Her students seemed disengaged; she felt defeated.  

That changed after Higgason started using Khanmigo for Teachers to create lesson plans using items like marshmallows and balloons to teach students about physics. Available free to teachers in 40-plus countries, the AI-powered tool from Khan Academy also helps with tasks like developing assessments and individual lesson plans, giving teachers more time to work with students. 

Before long, Higgason got her sparkle back. We salute her and all the dedicated teachers around the world who are helping their students shine. 

Streetwear with a mission 

Working at a clothing store in Melbourne, Australia, Marcus Crook would sometimes chat on his lunch breaks with people experiencing homelessness. 

Those encounters led Crook and some collaborators to launch HoMie, a streetwear label and social enterprise focused on supporting young people impacted by homelessness. The organization has a clothing store, provides paid retail internships and hosts events where young people get free clothing, haircuts and care packages. 

Crook uses Copilot to help refine ideas for HoMie’s clothing designs, shaving a process that might take a couple of days down to a few hours, and to develop pitches for potential partners that would otherwise take weeks. To Crook, generative AI is a tool that allows him to focus more on HoMie’s mission.  

“If we can be more efficient in creating products,” he says, “that time and money can be spent on social impact programs.”  

Could AI help save the Amazon? 

The Amazon rainforest loses about 10,000 acres of land daily to deforestation, threatening the more than 3 million species that live there.  

At that rate, almost half of the Amazon could be gone by 2050 — but AI offers new hope for reversing that devastating trajectory.  

Project Guacamaya uses AI to analyze satellite images, photos of animals from hidden cameras and forest sounds captured by tiny microphones. The speed of AI enables researchers to quickly detect deforestation and identify species and their behaviors in real time, work that previously would have taken months, even years.  

Armed with those insights, researchers can work faster to protect biodiversity in the world’s largest rainforest, says Dr. Juan Lavista Ferres, chief scientist at the Microsoft AI for Good Research Lab.  

“AI enables us to act quickly, providing the Amazon with a critical opportunity to recover and regenerate,” he says.  

Celebrating Hispanic talent   

When Gabriela Olmos-Hill’s family went bankrupt and lost their businesses in Mexico, she got a lesson in resilience and reinvention.

Olmos-Hill’s mother bought some wool sweaters from a small Mexican town, drove for three days to the U.S. border and sold them at a profit. These days, Olmos-Hill leads marketing privacy and customer advocacy in Microsoft’s cloud marketing organization and is inspired by her fellow Hispanic and Latinx colleagues.

We are too. To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we’re featuring videos about Olmos-Hill and other Microsoft employees on our Hispanic and Latinx community page.

“I love seeing the stories of people that came in like myself, with imposter syndrome and maybe didn’t think that they would be able to get a job at Microsoft,” Olmos-Hill says. “I see success stories every single day.”

Commitment to Copilot 

We’ve heard about many companies using Copilot, but Lumen Technologies’ enthusiasm for the AI tool is next level.   

Lumen’s marketing department hosted its first “Copilot Olympics” earlier this year, challenging employees in a series of competitions to use Copilot to create products, supporting materials and marketing copy. The event epitomized Lumen’s companywide adoption of Copilot as an integral tool in its evolution from a traditional telecom to a technology company.  

Lumen’s sellers are using Copilot to learn about customers and summarize meetings. Developers are using it to rewrite and review code. Marketers rely on it to craft messages and track important tasks. Copilot has become so ubiquitous at Lumen that some employees can no longer imagine working without it.  

“If I’m double- or triple-booked, I can go back and just say (to Copilot), ‘Tell me what I missed,’” says Ryan Asdourian, Lumen executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “That is magic at work.” 

Hey, if AI can bring a little sparkle to the classroom or a bit of joy to the workplace, we’re all for that. See you next month!

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