“Education in the AI Economy: Diffusion, disruption, and design for purposeful transformation”

The Microsoft AI Economy Institute (AIEI) invites proposals for its second global research call, inviting submissions that will help shape the future of work, learning, and opportunity in the age of generative AI. As GenAI is demonstrating the potential to become the most widely adopted technology in history, we face a defining moment: will its benefits be broadly shared, or will barriers—technical, institutional, regulatory, economic, educational, and cultural—limit its promise for people and communities around the world?

Microsoft established AIEI to support the diffusion of AI so that it is intentional, inclusive, and informed by rigorous research and scholarly discourse so that societies everywhere may adapt to the economic and social changes AI brings. We seek to accelerate understanding of how GenAI is transforming productivity, labor markets, and workforce development across sectors and geographies. We are especially interested in research that identifies the drivers and barriers to GenAI adoption, and that offers actionable insights for policymakers, educators, employers, and workers.

We invite proposals that address any of the following questions and themes:

1. The Impact of AI on Entry-Level Jobs

• What empirical data can be developed to document and analyze the actual impact of AI on entry-level jobs?
• In which fields is this impact most pronounced, and why?
• How are employers and employees responding? Are employers changing the nature of entry-level work or the employment experience? Are training programs evolving?
• How are employees adapting, and what is the impact on AI skills development for both employees and employers?
• What lessons can be drawn from apprenticeship programs in Switzerland, Germany, and labor unions?
• What does the impact of AI on entry-level jobs mean for the architecture of a career path, including consideration of rapid credentialing and stackable certificates in driving entry-level supply?

2. AI and the Impact on K-12 Teaching

• How is AI likely to impact different aspects of teachers’ work, such as administrative tasks, lesson planning, and grading? And how might this affect teacher retention?
• What studies best document how teachers currently spend their time, and how might AI help align this with how they would like to spend their time?
• What best practices are emerging, and what will be the impact of AI on classroom time?
• What insights can inform the development of new products and tools to support teachers?
• What are ethical concerns for use of AI in the K-12 classroom and how are AI ethics taught in a K-12 environment?

3. AI and Opportunities for Community, Technical, and Vocational Colleges

• How do the questions above apply to community colleges and technical/vocational education?
• What unique opportunities and challenges exist for these institutions in preparing students for an AI-enabled workforce?
• Thinking about the American investment in land-grant institutions, how could the existing two-year, community, and technical colleges network provide a platform for the rapid diffusion of AI fluency into the workforce?

4. AI and National Diffusion Differences

• What conditions best explain why some countries adopt AI faster than others? Do we see links between AI fluency skilling efforts or initiatives and rates of diffusion?
• How do national strategies and approaches to data governance and AI regulation shape AI development and use? For example, what strategies are Singapore and the UAE deploying to become early leaders, and are they seeing measurable national dividends?
• What policies or practices can be replicated to accelerate responsible AI adoption? How do differences in workforce skills, demographics, and labor needs affect AI adoption across countries?
• What policies or programs have helped countries adopt AI responsibly and can they be adapted or scaled elsewhere?

Research Priorities

Proposals should provide a unique approach to advancing the AIEI mission of helping society prepare for the economic transformation driven by the advent of GenAI with consideration of what are barriers to GenAI diffusion across sectors and strategies to address such barriers.

Proposals will be prioritized that:

• Are cross, multi, and interdisciplinary
• Consider multilayer impacts of the AI Economy
• Compare and contrast country and/or regional perspectives
• Propose a novel direction of scholarship in alignment with the AIEI mission
• Use existing data sets or leverage existing platforms for collecting data
• Consider longer-term effects of AI on education, including both challenges and opportunities

Commitment to Program Deliverables

Each awardee will be expected to:

• Participate in biweekly virtual convenings that may include interim deliverables, including data analyses, initial findings, and working papers (November 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026)
• Workshop with other awardees and Microsoft leadership in person at a Microsoft location, providing an abstract, problem and motivation, brief literature review, methodology, preliminary results, discussion, limitations, and references to further scholarship of AIEI (April 2026))
• Contribute a book chapter for a book that will synthesize the findings and observations of the research cohort (May 1, 2026)
• Participate in a policy workshop (June 2026)
• Conduct research and submit a manuscript to a high-quality, open-access journal within nine-months of notification of award (June 30, 2026)

Researchers will be recognized as senior fellows of the AI Economy Institute and, as appropriate, will be offered opportunities to present their findings at industry events and conferences.

Potential for Long-Term Collaboration

Collaboration may extend beyond the funding period. Depending on the structure of the AIEI, future opportunities could include:

• Additional research projects or commissioned studies and funding focused on AI and the economic impacts thereof;
• Consulting engagements, guest lectures, and involvement with industry;
• Opportunities to highlight an existing body of work and academic affiliations.

Eligibility and Format

• Open to researchers affiliated with accredited universities or research institutions, worldwide
• One principal investigator (PI) per proposal; interdisciplinary teams encouraged
• Each selected PI will receive a $75,000 grant plus a travel allowance for the in-person convening; for the travel allowance, awardees in the United States, Canada, and Mexico will receive $7,500 and all other awardees will receive $20,000
• Researchers will produce:
  • A peer-reviewed journal article
  • A book chapter for AIEI’s second volume, to be published in 2026

Timeline

• Proposal deadline: September 29, 2025, 5PM Pacific time
• Award notification: October 27, 2025
• Research period: November 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026
• Virtual convenings:  Biweekly, November 1, 2025 – March 31, 2026
• Timeline for book chapter deliverables shared:  November 3-7, 2025
• In-person workshop: April 2026
• Book chapter submission: May 1, 2026
• In-person policy convening: June 2026
• Manuscript submission: June 30, 2026

Evaluation Criteria

• Relevance to the AI economy and alignment with AIEI’s mission (25%)
• Originality and potential for scholarly and policy impact (25%)
• Methodological rigor, feasibility, and likelihood of meeting deliverable timelines (25%)
• Commitment to equity, interdisciplinarity, and real-world application (25%)

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