What’s next for AI and social mobility? Gearing up for a year of action

It's been one year since we launched our AI and Social Mobility: An Opportunity to Unlock the Potential of Young People report.

Since then, AI has grown at an unprecedented rate with growth projections for AI companies and initiatives projected to reach a global market of $1 trillion or more by 2030 [1].

Policy makers and the third sector have scrambled to ensure its use does not entrench existing inequalities, but this is a tough ask with only 0.4% of the $539.9 billion global private investment in AI being used for AI for impact initiatives [2].

Policy announcements, funding pots and pilot projects have shown pockets of promise, but the work is not over.

In this article we reflect on what we said 12 months ago, what has happened in the last year, and how we will make 2026 a year of action on AI and social mobility.

AI and Social Mobility: An Opportunity to Unlock the Potential of Young People

Back in January 2025, we set out what we saw as the opportunities and risks AI presented for social mobility.

Key Opportunities:

• Personalised Learning: AI can facilitate tailored learning experiences to suit diverse learning needs, making quality education more accessible for students without access to opportunities like personal tutoring.

• Skill Development: By reducing administrative burdens on teachers, AI allows a greater focus on supporting students to develop essential skills such as emotional intelligence and collaboration.

• Job Access: AI can analyse individual strengths to connect young people with suitable job opportunities and training programmes, helping to overcome traditional networking barriers.

Significant Risks:

• Technology Accessibility: Many young people struggle to access essential digital tools. Without the hardware, software, and skills needed to take advantage of AI, we risk creating a two-tiered system of opportunity.

• Privacy and Bias: Young people are often particularly vulnerable to data privacy breaches. Data used to train most AI systems often reflects biases in society. Algorithmic bias and privacy concerns risk entrenching existing inequalities.

• Inclusive AI Development: Without involving the voices of people affected by AI in how it is developed and deployed, we risk missing the opportunity to identify and mitigate negative impacts before they are established. 

One Year of Announcements and Discussion

Publication of our report in January 2025 coincided with the government’s launch of the AI Opportunities Action Plan which outlined the government's plan to capitalise on the opportunities, and mitigate the risks set out above.

Since then, there has been a steady stream of UK government announcements set to impact the experiences of young people from low-income backgrounds.

Most notably:

Mitigating the security risks: The Independent International AI Safety Report, Challenge Fund for AI Security Research and the planned regulatory sandboxes for AI Growth Zones will have a huge impact on how privacy and bias concerns are addressed in the fundamental design and deployment of AI systems.

Committing to AI innovation in education: The Department for Education’s (DfE) AI Guidance for Schools and the AI Education Content Store commissioned by DfE will help edtech organisations develop tools built for the UK’s specific context, and support schools in realising the benefits of AI for time saving and personalised learning.

Addressing digital poverty and the skills gap: The announcement of the £187m TechFirst programme to support the development of tech skills and pathways into the tech sector, the Digital Inclusion Action Plan to address digital poverty, the £9.5million Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund and the long awaited Curriculum and Assessment Review all demonstrated the urgent need to upgrade the longstanding approaches to skill development which no longer serve the needs of young people in the UK.

2025 also saw an increase in other charities assessing what AI could mean for social mobility.

The Sutton Trust’s Artificial Advantage? AI in the classroom and the inequality gap report paints a mixed picture for what AI could mean for young people. Through a mixture of surveys and case studies, their research shows AI use is increasing in schools but crucially, the inequality of use between state and private schools demonstrates the emergence of the two-tiered system we warned against in our report.

The King’s Trust Gen(eration) AI report found through economic modelling and large-scale polling that 55% of the jobs currently held by young people are likely to change because of AI. This startling statistic demonstrates the huge importance of addressing the skills gap and more broadly making sure the voices of young people set to be heavily impacted by AI, are included in how it is developed and deployed.

2026: Our Year of Action

So, what’s next?

Building on great discussions and announcements from across government and the wider social mobility sector in 2025, we plan to make 2026 the year of action on AI and social mobility, continuing to lead the way in this field.

We will:

• Launch our groundbreaking AI and Social Mobility Grand Challenge – the first of its kind - in collaboration with a range of leading voices across the fields of AI and social mobility.

• Work with the University of Nottingham to build and test a model for involving young people from low-income backgrounds in decisions on how AI is developed and deployed in areas that affect them, building on the key recommendation of our report.

• Publish three interconnected reports with the Institute for the Future of Work, following a pilot on internalised motivation, a crucial factor in ensuring young people from low-income backgrounds engage with the new opportunities related to AI.

• Continue to build the next generation of tech talent through our paid Tech Futures programme for young people eligible for Free School Meals, working with our network of employer partners across the UK.

Ensuring an inclusive future of work cannot be achieved alone. We need bold ideas and partners to join us in the journey.

If you or your organisation is developing AI solutions that enhance social mobility, are assessing what AI means for your future workforce, or are wanting to give back in 2026, we want to hear from you.

Get in touch at Freya.mumford@eyfoundation.ey.com.

[1] IDCA (2025) ‘Global Artificial Intelligence Report’

[2] World Economic Forum (2024) ‘AI for Impact: Strengthening AI Ecosystems for Social Innovation’