AI for Social Mobility: What the Market Scoping Paper Tells Us—and What’s Next

Discover the key insights from our Market Scoping Paper on AI and social mobility, developed through workshops with over 30 cross-sector organisations.

What if AI and emerging technologies could help dismantle the barriers that prevent young people from accessing quality education, meaningful employment, and the skills they need to thrive? What if technology became a tool for equity, inclusion, and opportunity, ensuring that all young people, regardless of their background, can build futures that match their potential?

These are the bold questions at the heart of the Social Mobility and AI Grand Challenge – Discovery Phase, an ambitious initiative powered by EY Foundation, Social Mobility Commission, and Social Tech Trust, running between January – April 2025.

Together, we’re working to ensure that AI and emerging technologies don’t deepen inequality but instead become powerful tools for positive social change—and there’s still time for you to help shape what comes next.

A Call for innovation

We’re designing an innovation initiative—whether through a challenge prize, accelerator, or a hybrid model—to inspire tech ventures, social entrepreneurs, and innovators to develop AI and emerging tech solutions that address barriers to education, employment, and skills development for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This initiative will focus on real, scalable, and impactful innovations that ensure technology becomes a genuine force for good.

Our Discovery Phase, running from January to April 2025, is laying the groundwork for this initiative. We’ve engaged with a wide range of impact tech ventures, funders, policymakers, educators, AI experts, and young people to explore how AI and emerging technologies can unlock new pathways into education and work. These conversations have brought together national and regional voices, including organisations with deep experience in policy, frontline delivery, and tech innovation. Through a series of collaborative workshops, we’ve surfaced key challenges and opportunities which are being shaped into a final prize format in collaboration with key stakeholders. We’re now looking for additional funders, supporters and aligned organisations to join and help drive this bold new initiative forward.

You can download the full Market Scoping Paper, which includes all of our key findings and insights, from here.

Our Discovery Phase has been a collaborative and dynamic journey, bringing together more than 30 organisations across technology, education, policy, and social impact sectors. These workshops have been more than just meetings—they’ve been a space for real, honest conversations about the role of AI in social mobility. We tackled hard questions, faced difficult truths, but emerged with optimism and a clear sense of the opportunities ahead.

Workshop 1 – Setting the Scene

Our first workshop brought together a diverse group of impact tech ventures, policymakers, funders, educators, and young people to identify the biggest barriers to social mobility and explore how AI could help. The discussion was candid—AI holds promise, but if not handled carefully, it could also entrench existing inequalities. Participants from across the UK met online and explored the risks, biases, and ethical concerns while also uncovering areas where AI and emerging tech could genuinely open doors for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

Workshop 2 – Shaping the Grand Challenge

In our second, in-person workshop in Central London, we moved from problem definition to solution generation. We asked, what would it take for AI to truly level the playing field? Through guided discussions, interactive exercises, and group activities, we mapped out how AI and emerging tech could be harnessed for real impact. The ideas were bold, the discussions were tough—but we left with a clear sense of where AI could make the biggest difference.

Workshop 3 – Testing and Refining the Challenge

Our third workshop brought together returning and new participants to pressure-test the emerging challenge questions and refine the programme’s direction. We tested five potential challenge questions and used live feedback to assess clarity, relevance, and impact. Participants—ranging from ventures to youth organisations—shared what would excite them to apply, what could unlock scalable solutions, and how we can balance ambition with feasibility.

What we’ve learned so far

During our first workshop with cross-industry stakeholders, we identified three overarching themes that framed our discussions:

1. Ethics, bias & trust in emerging tech and AI – AI has the potential to change lives, but only if it is developed and deployed fairly. If we don’t address bias and ensure transparency, we risk reinforcing inequalities instead of dismantling them.

2. Diversity, inclusion, equitable access & affordability – AI-powered tools must be accessible to all young people, not just those with privilege. Without affordability and equitable access, tech-driven solutions could widen the gap instead of closing it.

3. Education, employment & skills development – AI and emerging tech can help bridge the gap between education and employment, but only if we focus on real-world skills and opportunities rather than outdated systems that favour traditional pathways.

After the first workshop, we agreed that the first two themes—ethics and equity—should serve as guiding principles, ensuring that every AI-driven solution is ethical, inclusive, and free from bias. This foundation allowed us to use the following workshops to identify four new themes that will help shape the challenge prize. These are:

1 │ Ecosystem changes

• Challenges in AI and tech development: Algorithmic bias, lack of regulatory safeguards, and the risk of AI reinforcing inequalities in hiring and education.

• Social interface with AI and tech tools: How educators, parents, and students engage with AI and tech solutions, and how trust in these tools can be built.

2 │ Reaching the most marginalised young people

• Digital exclusion and lack of access to AI-powered learning and career tools.

• The need for AI-enabled pathways for NEET young people (Not in Education, Employment, or Training).

3 │ Understanding changing workforce needs

• Employers are struggling to define AI-related skills.

• The lack of clear upskilling pathways.

• The need for a shift to skills-first hiring models.

4 │ Career guidance & hiring practices

• The gap in career guidance and outdated HR systems.

• The need for mentorship, skills-matching, and fairer hiring processes.

Through candid, sometimes difficult conversations, we’ve uncovered not just challenges, but a sense of optimism—a belief that AI and emerging tech, if developed with a clear focus on inclusivity, accessibility, affordability, and equitable access, can truly unlock opportunities for young people.

What’s next? Help shape the initiative!

The partners are now preparing to launch a challenge prize or equivalent innovation model that invites impact tech ventures and social innovators to submit solutions that align with the above themes. The final prize format is still being shaped in collaboration with key stakeholders, and the door remains open to get involved – new funders, supporters and aligned organisations are invited to join and help drive this bold new initiative forward.

Download the Market Scoping Paper from here.

We’re building momentum, and this is your chance to be part of it.

Join us in making AI & technology a force for social mobility! Let’s innovate to inspire the next generation.