Beyond Chatbots: How AI Agents Are Quietly Rewiring Learning and Work

Hello Learning Futurists 👋

Welcome to the May edition of Learning Futures, where we track the key shifts transforming how we teach, learn, and think in an AI-shaped world.

This month, something deeper is stirring. While April was all about AI product launches and national strategies, May signals a turning point—one where the AI conversation expands beyond classrooms and into the very fabric of the workplace, curriculum design, and scholarly knowledge. Learning, it turns out, is no longer a single event or location. It's becoming a system—adaptive, distributed, and always on.

Here’s what happened the AI-edu landscape in May:

• Graduate students prefer Gemini over ChatGPT—but success hinges on cultural familiarity and Google ecosystem integration, not technical superiority

• AI agents are evolving beyond chatbots into autonomous tutors with memory, planning capabilities, and domain-specific expertise

• A new global AI literacy framework shifts focus from teaching tool use to building critical thinking and ethical reasoning with AI

• Workplace learning is becoming "always-on"—with AI agents that respond to employee brain states, emotions, and cognitive load in real-time

• Wiley and Perplexity launch a new, major partnership bringing peer-reviewed academic content directly into AI search with live citations

Let’s go. 🚀