Tools & Platforms
Microsoft pushes billions at AI education for the masses • The Register
After committing more than $13 billion in strategic investments to OpenAI, Microsoft is splashing out billions more to get people using the technology.
On Wednesday, Redmond announced a $4 billion donation of cash and technology to schools and non-profits over the next five years. It’s branding this philanthropic mission as Microsoft Elevate, which is billed as “providing people and organizations with AI skills and tools to thrive in an AI-powered economy.” It will also start the AI Economy Institute (AIEI), a so-called corporate think tank stocked with academics that will be publishing research on how the workforce needs to adapt to AI tech.
The bulk of the money will go toward AI and cloud credits for K-12 schools and community colleges, and Redmond claims 20 million people will “earn an in-demand AI skilling credential” under the scheme, although Microsoft’s record on such vendor-backed certifications is hardly spotless.
“Working in close coordination with other groups across Microsoft, including LinkedIn and GitHub, Microsoft Elevate will deliver AI education and skilling at scale,” said Brad Smith, president and vice chair of Microsoft Corporation, in a blog post. “And it will work as an advocate for public policies around the world to advance AI education and training for others.”
It’s not an entirely new scheme – Redmond already had its Microsoft Philanthropies and Tech for Social Impact charitable organizations, but they are now merging into Elevate. Smith noted Microsoft has already teamed up with North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany to train students on AI, and says similar partnerships across the US education system will follow.
Microsoft is also looking to recruit teachers to the cause.
On Tuesday, Microsoft, along with Anthropic and OpenAI, said it was starting the National Academy for AI Instruction with the American Federation of Teachers to train teachers in AI skills and to pass them on to the next generation. The scheme has received $23 million in funding from the tech giants spread over five years, and aims to train 400,000 teachers at training centers across the US and online.
“AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges—and it’s our job as educators to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a canned statement.
“The direct connection between a teacher and their kids can never be replaced by new technologies, but if we learn how to harness it, set commonsense guardrails and put teachers in the driver’s seat, teaching and learning can be enhanced.”
Meanwhile, the AIEI will sponsor and convene researchers to produce publications, including policy briefs and research reports, on applying AI skills in the workforce, leveraging a global network of academic partners.
Hopefully they can do a better job of it than Redmond’s own staff. After 9,000 layoffs from Microsoft earlier this month, largely in the Xbox division, Matt Turnbull, an executive producer at Xbox Game Studios Publishing, went viral with a spectacularly tone-deaf LinkedIn post (now removed) to former staff members offering AI prompts “to help reduce the emotional and cognitive load that comes with job loss.” ®
Over 500 new AI certifications have sprung up in Korea in two years, but few are trusted or even taken
A wave of artificial intelligence certifications has flooded the market in South Korea over the past two years.
But according to government data, most of these tests exist only on paper, and have never been used by a single person.
As of Wednesday, there were 505 privately issued AI-related certifications registered with the Korea Research Institute for Professional Education and Training, a state-funded body under the Prime Minister’s Office.
This is nearly five times the number recorded in 2022, before tools like ChatGPT captured global attention. But more than 90 percent of those certifications had zero test-takers as of late last year, the institute’s own data shows.
Many of the credentials are loosely tied to artificial intelligence in name only. Among recent additions are titles like “AI Brain Fitness Coach,” “AI Art Storybook Author,” and “AI Trainer,” which often have no connection to real AI technology.
Only one of the 505 AI-related certifications — KT’s AICE exam — has received official recognition from the South Korean government. The rest have been registered by individuals, companies, or private organizations, with no independent oversight or quality control.
In 2024, just 36 of these certifications held any kind of exam. Only two had more than 1,000 people apply. Fourteen had a perfect 100 percent pass rate. And 20 were removed from the registry that same year.
For test organizers, the appeal is often financial. One popular certification that attracted around 500 candidates last year charged up to 150,000 won ($110) per person, including test fees and course materials. The content reportedly consisted of basic instructions on how to use existing tools like ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion. Some issuers even promote these credentials as qualifications to teach AI to students or the general public.
The people signing up tend to be those anxious about keeping up in an AI-driven world. A survey released this week by education firm Eduwill found that among 391 South Koreans in their 20s to 50s, 39.1 percent said they planned to earn an AI certificate to prepare for the digital future. Others (27.6 percent) said they were taking online AI courses or learning how to use automation tools like Notion AI.
Industry officials warn that most of these certificates hold little value in the job market. Jeong Sung-hoon, communications manager at Seoul-based AI startup Wrtn, told The Korea Herald that these credentials are often “window dressing” for resumes.
Wrtn ranked second in generative AI app usage among Koreans under 30 this March, according to local mobile analytics firm Wiseapp.
“Most private AI certifications aren’t taken seriously by hiring managers,” Jeong said. “Even for non-technical jobs like communications or marketing, what matters more is whether someone actually understands the AI space. That can’t be faked with a certificate.”
mjh@heraldcorp.com
India’s job sector is undergoing a major transformation, with excessive dependencies on Artificial Intelligence by freshers becoming a complex challenge for recruiters in the country. The AI era has become a double-edged sword for companies–while productivity has improved, over-reliance on AI technology has impacted employees’ critical thinking, originality, and problem-solving traits.
Last month, US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) revealed shocking details about people who use OpenAI’s ChatGPT tool significantly in their routine. The study concluded that ChatGPT users have lower brain engagement and consistently “underperformed” at the neural, linguistic, and behavioural level. Notably, Mary Meeker’s research on AI usage trends discovered that India tops the chart with the highest ChatGPT mobile app users globally, at 14 percent.
Mita Brahma, HR Head at NIIT, said that employees’ over-dependency on AI is a massive threat for recruiters that is looming in the job sector currently. “Employees’ foundational cognitive and collaborative skills are not developed due to AI dependencies,” she added, “This can lead to tech-dependent superficial capabilities that don’t translate into real-world performance”.
Arindam Mukherjee, co-founder of the skilling platform NextLeap, said he has observed a surge in fake resumes that are ATS-compliant and do not give a true picture of the candidate’s real skills.
“AI agents can now apply for jobs on your behalf. AI resume builders can make your resume look like you are the best candidate, AI tools can complete the take-home assignment in minutes, and AI interview co-pilots can run in the background, assisting you in your virtual interview”.
Anil Ethanur, Co-founder, Xpheno – a specialist staffing firm, underscored that enterprises are not just facing a challenge of ‘wrong hires’, but also ‘wrong drops’ in the AI-era. Ethanur said that there are a lot of ‘false positives’ candidates in the AI ecosystem, who are disguised as ‘ideal fit’ employees. “The noise of and from AI-enhanced resumes is a significant dilution of the quality of recruitment processes and also causes cost-time-&-resource wastage for employers,” according to Ethanur. Besides, AI tools have also been noted to cause ‘false negatives’ where candidates with a good fit get wrongly knocked out as low fits. “The chances enterprises incurring higher costs of ‘wrong hires’ are much higher in the current stage of the AI era,” he added.
Pranay Kale, Chief Revenue & Growth Officer, foundit, said that AI tools like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and AI-enhanced resume builders have become second nature to younger job seekers. Therefore, Kale said that, “The Line between AI-assisted performance and actual capability is becoming increasingly blurred”.
While AI has crossed industries and functions, experts told Storyboard18 that sectors where creativity and judgment are central should be cautious when they onboard a new employee, particularly with 0-5 years of experience, into their organization. For instance, fields where content creation is a key task – research and development, publishing, media, advertisement, and journalism- should select the candidates carefully, Brahma said.
“In these fields, an overdependence on generative AI tools like ChatGPT without domain depth can lead to poor judgment, flawed insights, or even compliance risks. Hence, hiring in these sectors must include rigorous domain-specific assessments, ethical reasoning tests, and real-world simulations,” she said.
According to TeamLease Shantanu Rooj, industries that rely heavily on analytical thinking, ethical reasoning, and real-time problem-solving must be more deliberate and rigorous during hiring. Sectors such as consulting, financial services, legal advisory, and research demand professionals who can interpret nuance, deal with ambiguity, and make judgment calls based on context – all areas where AI currently falls short. Rooj added that education sector can also take a hit if the recruitment of teachers is not done correctly. “Teachers and professors who are overly dependent on AI tools risk diluting the learning experience rather than enriching it”.
Experts unanimously agreed that the hiring process should measure independent cognition, contextual reasoning, and original problem-solving skills that AI alone cannot supply when hiring a professional.
Dr Sangeeta Chhabra, Co-Founder & Executive Director, AceCloud, added, “leaders must go beyond assessing technical expertise and focus on attributes such as problem solving, adaptability, and the ability to collaborate effectively with intelligent systems to filter the right talent”.
Ankit Aggarwal, founder & CEO of Unstop, suggested that founders look beyond the resumes and give students real-time problems from solving different brands to help them showcase their ideas and problem-solving abilities.
Aggarwal said that “hackathons, coding challenges, case study competitions, quizzes,” can help in testing the real skills of the employees.
‘Dangers of over-reliance on AI’
According to Kale, the automation bias could contribute to structural unemployment and skill atrophy in certain sectors. Kale says that AI may erode critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity, especially among early-career professionals. “If individuals lean too heavily on AI to automate outputs or make decisions without understanding the ‘why’ behind them, we risk developing a workforce that is skilled in using tools but lacks foundational cognitive depth,” Kale argued.
In contrast, Ethanur said that AI addiction will not lead to higher unemployment rates. He projected that a significant change in the job market will be driven by the mainstream arrival of AI in low to mid-cognitive functions. “The phase when this redefinition happens on a large scale will have to coincide with the arrival of sufficient AI-enabled and AI-dependent talent pools into mainstream employment”.
Rooj upheld that the next decade will not be defined by AI replacing people but by people who can meaningfully work with AI. For instance, roles like “prompt engineering, AI oversight, ethical data governance, and human-AI interface management” will gain traction.
“AI should empower, not diminish, the human edge, and it’s up to all of us to ensure we strike that balance,” Chhabra noted.
Tools & Platforms
NCS launches S$130M AI transformation initiative across Asia Pacific focused on Intelligentisation, Internationalisation, and Inspiration
Unveils Sunshine.AI suite, forges six major technology partnerships, and builds an AI-enabled workforce of over 10,000 to catalyse transformation
SINGAPORE, July 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — In an era where AI is becoming fundamental to drive transformation, NCS today announced a S$130 million investment over three years to lead change across Asia Pacific (APAC).
At its annual flagship Impact Forum, attended by more than 1,200 leaders and technology practitioners from APAC, NCS outlined a vision where technology transcends borders, best practices are shared across diverse markets, and AI serves to advance communities rather than replace human capability.
NCS launched Sunshine.AI, a suite of AI tools and accelerators that transform how organisations develop intelligent solutions. NCS also announced strategic partnerships with leading global technology players and strengthened collaboration with research institutions, building a dynamic community of AI practitioners that elevates NCS’ AI capabilities and regional leadership.
“With AI reshaping industries as it becomes more accessible than before, we’re partnering government agencies and enterprises to help them harness the best of AI not just for efficiency gains but to advance communities,” said NCS CEO Ng Kuo Pin.
“Expanding our APAC footprint and doubling down on collaborations with technology leaders are still important in a bifurcated world. The investment we are making over the next three years and our blueprint anchored by three pillars – Intelligentisation, Internationalisation and Inspiration – will better enable our people and clients to create new business outcomes and build a resilient, innovative future with AI,” he added.
Intelligentisation: More than Digitalisation – A Blueprint for AI-Powered Transformation
Intelligentisation is a structured, holistic approach to embedding intelligence into the core of business processes, government workflows, and human experiences. This means designing AI systems not as standalone tools, but as integral components of decision-making, service delivery and operational flow. Central to this are NCS-proprietary tools, accelerators and methodologies.
From assessment to design to implementation, the NCS Sunshine suite of tools is tailored for developers, IT operations teams and corporate users. It comprises:
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Sunshine.Coder, an AI coding assistant that supports language conversion, test generation, and code analysis
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Sunshine.Operations, an AIOps platform designed to automate incident triage, system log analysis, and operational task flows
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Sunshine.Productivity, a suite of tools that enhance day-to-day tasks such as summarisation, content retrieval, and secure document handling.
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