Harnessing AI for Promoting Sustainability and Life Skills in 21st Century Education

The 21st century has brought education formidable challenges, but also great opportunities. This means schools need to ensure students have the essential life skills and knowledge and do so in the most environmentally friendly way. Newer technologies, such as artificial intelligence, can actually help tackle both these priorities at once. AI Technology’ Role in Cultivating Sustainability and Critical Competencies in Higher Education: Stakeholder Perceptions A Quantitative Study to Explore the Perceptions Of Stakeholders On AI Technology’ Role towards Cultivating Sustainability and Critical Competencies in Higher Education Four hundred students, teachers, and administrators stratified by type responded to structured questionnaires which measured AI’s promise to reduce our ecological footprints through digital learning, paper cutting and integrated intelligent energy systems. The surveys also measured beliefs on AI improving life skills through personalised adaptive learning, gamification and simulations through creativity, critical thinking and teamwork. The results of the data analysis (using SPSS) supported AI as a resource efficiency strategy,with strong support coming from both students and administrators. Results confirmed that AI had a strong influence on advanced thinking and collaboration skills due to personalized feedback. This prediction was supported by a regression analysis of adaptive AI that indicates that AI adoption was predictive of both S&T gains and competencies. The study links sustainability objectives with competency-based education, developing an AI integration design model that delivers sustainable environmentally and skill-driven models for the UN sustainable development goal 4 and 13. Recommendations range from creating AI policies at the national level, to teacher AI training, to making sure there is equitable tech access and focus on ethical design. In sum, the paper illustrates the transformative potential of AI to generate learning systems for people and planet.