AI-skilled kids more likely to become successful adults
According to billionaire serial entrepreneur Mark Cuban, tomorrow’s leaders may be today’s artificial intelligence-obsessed children.
“Students using artificial intelligence will produce better, more creative work and establish a collaborative relationship with technology needed in the future workplace,” Cuban told CNBC Make It. “Students using artificial intelligence will be best equipped for leadership.”
Cuban said the students who will use artificial intelligence to achieve the most success now and in the future will be those who use the technology to improve rather than replace their own critical thinking skills.
According to the billionaire, “Students using AI effectively know how to ask the right questions” because they are given the opportunity to spend time comfortably using technology. “They use powerful inputs and apply critical thinking to evaluate outcomes. AI helps students think bigger, but it doesn’t make decisions,” he said.
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Eighty-eight percent of U.S. teachers believe learning AI skills is important for their students’ future success, according to Samsung’s new Solve for Tomorrow 2025 AI Readiness Study, which surveyed 620 public middle and high school teachers across the country. But according to the same survey, which will be published in full on Monday, 81% of respondents worry that over-reliance on AI technology will erode students’ critical thinking skills.
“Access is the biggest hurdle to teaching students how to best use AI tools effectively and ethically in school,” Cuban added. Cuban is partnering with Samsung’s STEM resources initiative alongside fellow entrepreneur Emma Grede. solve for tomorrowSamsung, which plans to distribute $2 million worth of technology and artificial intelligence educational resources to 500 US schools this year, will announce this on Monday.
Educators often express concern that students will use AI tools to cheat, or that the information they receive from AI chatbots and other models will contain errors that spread misinformation. These concerns are valid, research shows: What artificial intelligence assistants can do common mistakesand technology allows for relatively less effort Creation and dissemination of fake images, sounds and videos.
But some other experts agree with Cuban’s assertion that students must learn to use AI tools accurately and efficiently to prepare for future success in the workplace.
“AI is not always a crutch, it can also be a coach,” psychologist and author Angela Duckworth said in her commencement speech at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education in May 2025. “For me, [ChatGPT] has a secret pedagogical superpower. He can teach by example.”
Cuban often likens the current AI boom to technological revolutions of the past, particularly the rise of computers and the internet, which helped spawn Cuban’s early entrepreneurial success. His frequent advice to students today: Spend as much time as possible getting familiar with the latest AI tools and models so you can impress future employers with your up-to-date rapid engineering and model customization skills.
“Every company needs this. There’s nothing intuitive for a company to integrate AI, and that’s what people don’t understand,” Cuban said. section “This is going to be jobs left and right,” he adds from the “TBPN” podcast released Aug. 20.
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