AI’s Infrastructure Moment? Billion-Dollar Mergers & the Launch of Microsoft's Next-Gen Learning Ecosystem

Hello, fellow Learning Futurists — and happy new year 👋

Welcome to the January 2026 edition of Learning Futures.

While many of us spent December eating cheese in front of the TV, AI infrastructure in education has been quietly but decisively shifting beneath our feet.

What we’re seeing in January 2026 is a fundamental transition: AI in education has moved from “interesting experiments” to “permanent institutional infrastructure” — and the question that matters most has shifted from “should we?” to “how do we govern it well?“

This month’s key developments include:

• Billion-dollar infrastructure consolidation: Coursera and Udemy merge in a $2.5 billion deal, signalling that only scale + AI infrastructure wins in workforce learning

• Full ecosystem deployments: Microsoft unveils of a comprehensive AI-enhanced learning ecosystem at Bett 2026, positioning to own the entire learning infrastructure layer

• Assessment infrastructure failing: Research shows faculty still can’t reliably detect AI writing (69% accuracy), while 80% of students don’t understand their institution’s policies — exposing a critical governance gap

• What proper governance looks like: Evidence from Eedi and Google DeepMind shows what happens when AI is properly designed and overseen: low error rates (0.1%), measurable effectiveness that matches human-only approaches.

What strikes me most this month isn't any single announcement — it's what they collectively represent: an infrastructure moment, where AI has shifted from experimental and optional to more foundational and permanent.

Let’s dive in, cover the need-to-know developments, and dig into what they mean for educators, L&D leaders, and instructional designers.

Let’s go! 🚀