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Estonia is about to make the next big jump in education by initiating a program to incorporate cutting-edge artificial intelligence applications into its education system. The AI Leap 2025 program will provide Estonian students and teachers with access to AI-based educational tools and teach them the most effective ways to use them. Starting this fall, an initial cohort of 20,000 high school students in 10th and 11th grades will get access to these AI applications, and 3,000 teachers will undergo training to learn how to use them best. The program will later be expanded to more high school students and vocational schools.
AI Leap 2025 was inspired by Tiger Leap, a 1990s program that made internet access and computers ubiquitous in Estonian schools, laying the foundation for the country’s success in the digital sector. Policymakers believe AI Leap will familiarise Estonian students with AI technology, making the country more competitive. Several AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic, are already in a private-public partnership.
The e-Estonia Briefing Centre recently interviewed Siim Sikkut, an Estonian President Alar Karis’ Digital Council member and a member of the launching team for AI Leap about the new program. Sikkut is also the former Government CIO of Estonia and is now a managing partner in Digital Nation, a digital transformation advisory for governments.
What is the background of the AI Leap program? Who initiated it, and how is it being funded and organised?
The program’s context is the realisation that AI is here to stay. Using and creating AI tools is already an essential skill for productivity. Still, it will become a critical skill for remaining competitive at the personal, company, and national levels. As a country, we need to build this base skillset fast.
Estonia has also prior experience in this regard. The AI Leap program is inspired by the Tiger Leap program of the mid-1990s, which was almost 30 years ago. That program brought the internet and computers to all schools in Estonia to equip kids with critical future skills. Many founders of our unicorns, startups, and digital government builders were educated through that program. There is again the chance and need to do it again for the AI era.
Estonian President Alar Karis specifically initiated the AI Leap program, assembling key Estonian tech entrepreneurs at a roundtable in December, at which the current idea was born. He tasked his Digital Council with developing the initiative, and various entrepreneurs, including Jaan Tallinn, Kaarel Kotkas, and Taavet Hinrikus, agreed to help, as did the Ministry of Education, which Kristina Kallas leads. Once the core plan was set, President Karis unveiled the initiative during his Independence Day speech on 24 February 2025. The program is jointly funded by the state and the private sector, especially at its inception stage. A foundation is also in the process of being launched to manage and implement the program.
What is the status of the foundation?
The foundation is being created as a unique, apolitical initiative in which the state and the private sector are involved and contributing. The foundation will go live this month. We are fine-tuning the foundation’s tasks, the founding paperwork, the founders’ circle, and the funding details.
At the same time, the work has already started in dedicated groups involving many stakeholders, from educational technologists and researchers to teachers and school leaders, to carve out the content program of workshops and technological solutions. In co-creation with stakeholders and global AI partners, we define the exact ways to achieve AI Leap goals within each workstream – to make education more personal, the learning process smarter and the Estonian people smartest possible in AI use.
Who is developing the curriculum for these new students, both in high schools and vocational schools? What will the learning process entail?
Under the leadership of the Ministry of Education and Research, relevant working groups are beginning to work on this. These groups include teachers, students, academics, businesses, and other community members. They will start by defining the target competencies for skilling and then move on to define specific curricula, tools, relevant training programs, etc.
The exact content of the learning process is still to be set. In addition, it will not be a one-time effort. AI Leap will be, in many ways, an experimental program where we will learn how to best grasp AI in learning and how to enhance AI use skills.
We’ll start with initial teacher training in autumn 2025 and then give students access to the world’s best learning applications developed using artificial intelligence. This training will include an overview of the use and understanding of AI technology and recommendations on personalising learning according to each student’s needs and optimising and empowering teaching. Artificial intelligence will not replace anyone; it will be incorporated into our education system to boost learning and teaching.
It seems Anthropic and OpenAI are already engaged. Would it be correct to assume that they will assist in creating the curriculum?
Yes, Anthropic and OpenAI are already involved in the planning process, and we are also engaging our next partners. We will be open to collaboration with any and all partners who meet our needs and have useful solutions to offer. Partners will be engaged in co-creation of the curriculum, workshops, and solutions. This is a joint innovation partnership, where we are offering Estonia as a sort of testbed for next-generation AI-based learning applications and large-scale AI skilling while benefiting from the improved skills and solutions ourselves.
What are you trying to achieve during this first phase of the program?
In the program’s first phase, which will begin on September 1, 2025, the goal is to give 20,000 10th and 11th-grade high school students and their 3,000 teachers free access to the best AI learning applications. Initial teacher training will also be carried out then, and the smooth integration of learning software with existing digital learning applications such as E-kool, e-koolikott, and others will occur as well. As the next stage, AI Leap will be expanded to vocational schools and new high school 10th-graders in September 2026, involving 38,000 students and 2,000 teachers. By the spring of 2027, the first students who have completed the AI Leap program will graduate from the school. The initiative will directly impact nearly 58,000 students and 5,000 teachers by then.
What are the long-term goals? Where will this program be in 20 years?
In the world of technology, even three years is a long time. There’s no reason to think and plan beyond this horizon. I’m sure that in 20 years, this program won’t be active, but we may have other ones in place. Tiger Leap is not a thing anymore and has not been for many years, but its impact is still apparent.
The long-term goal is to maintain Estonia’s high level of education, increase Estonians’ global breakthrough ability, and smoothly integrate AI into education to ensure the best possible learning. We want to make teaching more efficient, personalised, diverse, and inclusive. We also want to reduce the digital technology divide and prevent a new divide between those who are AI savvy and those who are not.
How will you measure success?
Our measures of success will naturally be based on our objectives. First, we will look at how schools and teachers are onboarded. Beyond that, we want to measure how students’ and teachers’ skills improve and whether and how education becomes more efficient and effective. Specific key performance indicators, the curriculum, and the rest of our plans are still being worked on.
How might AI negatively impact the education and learning process? What do you say to sceptics?
Students are already using AI, and it’s having an impact. But if this use is not adapted for education, this impact could be negative. This is why we have to do something. We must include AI tools in education in meaningful and useful ways to do this. In this way, students’ AI skills will improve along with their educational outcomes.
It’s also worth pointing out that even if 70 or 80 per cent of high schoolers in Estonia have been exposed to AI applications, not everyone has or can afford them. For the sake of our national development, we need to provide opportunities for everyone to use artificial intelligence wisely and adjust the content and form of learning according to the needs of each student, regardless of their socioeconomic means. Concerns about smartphone overuse do not apply here. It’s a valid issue that children already use smart devices too much, but AI Leap won’t make them use them more. Instead, they will learn how to use them for education, not just entertainment. In this sense, it will be a more valuable use of devices.
Is Estonia the first in the world to do this?
As far as we know, Estonia is the first — or at least one of the first — to introduce AI into the entire education system at once. Other countries have tried it in certain schools or regions, but we’re rolling it out nationwide from the start and doing it quickly. Estonia has a track record of leading the way in digital society and government, so experimenting with new solutions comes naturally to us. We’re happy to share our results and lessons with the world, and we hope AI Leap will inspire other countries to take similar steps. AI is here to stay, and those who don’t adapt risk missing out on a huge opportunity for progress and better education.
