Global AI report warns Australia’s education and work systems need to be redesigned

17 July 2026 | Media Release

Around the world, governments are accelerating national strategies, including Australia, where the Prime Minister recently outlined new roadmaps for navigating the AI age — underscoring how central AI has become to competitiveness, productivity and public policy.

Against this backdrop, the Global Federation of Competitive Councils (GFCC), in partnership with Torrens University Australia, has released a major new report: The Human Edge: Global Perspectives on AI and Prosperity.

Drawing on insights from 113 leaders across 32 countries and five sectors, the report offers one of the most globally diverse perspectives on how nations can strengthen human capability and institutional readiness in an AI-driven world.

Professor Aleks Subic, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Torrens University Australia, chairs the GFCC Global Task Force on Human and AI and has been instrumental in leading the research and the strategic recommendations behind the report.

He says the report shows that AI capability is accelerating faster than institutional readiness.

“Technology is advancing rapidly, investment is surging, and adoption is spreading across sectors. Yet education systems, workforce models, governance frameworks, and social protections are not keeping pace. This is the defining competitiveness challenge of the AI transition.

“One of the critical challenges for educators is how we can develop human capability in the AI era. How can universities go beyond the focus on AI as a tool or a research engine to producing graduates who can work alongside AI to achieve greater productivity, creativity, efficiency and who can make a greater contribution in society to inclusive social growth.

“This survey is not biased to either technology or human and society, it is viewing the whole issue in a comprehensive balanced manner, this is why is it called the human edge.

“Torrens University’s collaboration with the GFCC reflects our belief that the future of competitiveness depends on empowering people with the capabilities to co-evolve with technology.

“Traditionally, national and regional competitiveness was measured through productivity, innovation and research output but in the AI economy, competitiveness will depend on the capability of people to adapt, learn fast, redesign work and build trust,” said Professor Subic.

Key insights from The Human Edge report

• Preparing people for the AI era goes beyond producing more data scientists, coders or AI engineers – these skills are important, but more valuable are people who can exercise judgement, critical thinking and work across disciplines to create more value with AI.
• The central risk is not that AI replaces humans, but that it rewards some humans and excludes others. Providing access to minority and disadvantaged groups is critical.
• Institutional readiness is the real competitiveness frontier in the AI era; an institution’s ability to redesign work, learn quickly, build trust, deploy technology responsibly and distribute productivity fairly will set it ahead of the rest.

The report makes seven strategic recommendations for governments, universities and employers, including:

• Establishing AI-ready education and skills frameworks across all stages of learning
• Building lifelong learning as permanent national infrastructure
• Redesigning work, not just curricula to maximise human-AI collaboration
• Protecting graduate and apprenticeship pathways as AI reshapes entry-level work
• Embedding inclusion into AI policy and implementation from the outset
• Developing new measures of human-centred AI competitiveness
• Strengthening governance frameworks to build trust while supporting innovation

Professor Subic said AI represented one of the greatest opportunities of the century to improve productivity, innovation and prosperity, but only if people remained at the centre of policy and practice.

“The true potential of AI does not lie simply in technology, but in what it can do for human capability – but that will only be achieved if institutions prioritise educating people about how to work with it. Any university or institution that uses AI without strengthening human capability may produce short-term efficiencies but will be fragile in the long-term,” said Professor Subic.

Full report available here >

Media enquiries: media.enquiries@torrens.edu.au