What Skills Should Kids Develop in the AI Era?

I graduated with a design degree in 2005, started with web design, and in 2009, I entered the mobile internet design field (the iPhone launched in 2007). I worked as a senior product designer at Alibaba Cloud and was part of the entire process from startup to Nasdaq IPO for Liulishuo from 2013 to 2019.

As a designer, I’m somewhat confident in my design philosophy, methodology, skills, and influence in the design industry.

But after AI came along, especially around October 2025, the impact AI had on internet design and development was beyond imagination. It’s almost like overnight, all my design concepts, methodologies, technologies, and skills from the last 20 years were nearly completely replaced by AI.

What does it mean to be completely replaced? It means AI does it better and faster than you.

At that point, there were three reactions in the industry:

1. First reaction: AI arrived, nothing for me to do, I have to switch fields.
2. Second reaction: Even though they see the prowess of AI, they still insist they’re better than AI, sticking to “traditional design” and “traditional coding.”
3. Third reaction: Embrace AI and learn how to use and harness it.

Because I am very passionate about design, I definitely won’t be someone with the first reaction. There was a time when I was stuck in the second reaction, but thanks to the great learning atmosphere provided by my previous team, I quickly turned to the third path: learning to harness AI.

Therefore, even though I’m an independent developer who doesn’t understand code or development, I can still develop user-usable products.

I’m having a lot of fun, but then I look at my kids and the next generation around me, and they’re still learning in a relatively traditional educational environment and mode. I started to think: what kind of preparation should they make in the AI era?

This might be a bit utilitarian and pragmatic. But based on my understanding of the AI industry (I’ve been following the cutting-edge trends and personalities), combined with my own learning and practice, I want to share: in my view, what abilities kids should pay attention to cultivating in the AI era.

Learning and Understanding Fundamental Knowledge

To put it plainly, in the AI era, individual or isolated knowledge points, or certain information that can be looked up anytime, its value diminishes greatly. Because obtaining information and knowledge has become very convenient and very low-cost.

But this by no means implies that fundamental knowledge is unimportant. Quite the opposite, the more we are in the AI era, the more fundamental knowledge matters.

Because the true mastery of fundamental knowledge by a person isn’t just for recitation, exams, or storing some answers in one’s brain. Its more important role is to help you understand problems, judge truth from falsehood, discover loopholes, and be able to transfer knowledge from one field to another.

Especially when collaborating with AI, if you completely lack fundamental knowledge, and AI gives you an answer that seems plausible, you’ll find it hard to judge whether it’s right or not. You won’t know where it makes sense and where it’s talking nonsense. At this point, people are easily led by AI.

So in the AI era, kids indeed need to learn fundamental knowledge more to turn it into their judgment, understanding, and transfer capability.

In collaborating with AI, there are two relatively important abilities:

One is holistic structuring ability. Although you don’t need a deep understanding of AI’s process, or even its principles, you need to have a holistic awareness of structure and clearly know what the thing you want to do is structured like.

The other is decision-making ability. Since AI has certain uncertainties and uncontrollability, it often gives divergent results. In these moments, you need to use your fundamental knowledge, including common sense, to make decisions and judgments.

These are very much related to fundamental discipline knowledge.

In the past, while we were under exam-oriented education, through doing, memorizing, reading, and recitation, we had actually invisibly formed certain knowledge systems. And through massive problem-solving and calculation, we’ve established logical thinking. These are the positive effects from the negatives. It’s just that the process was dull, tedious, painful, and lacked active building of knowledge systems.

In the AI era, this may become different. You don’t necessarily need to memorize every knowledge point, every piece of information, or any specific fact. You can more pursue the reasons behind these pieces of information, understand their relationships, or even break down a problem, extend and explore its more fascinating parts.

But this doesn’t happen automatically.

AI might also make people lazier. It can quickly provide answers or let kids skip the thinking process and directly grab a seemingly good result. If a child lacks the ability to question, verify, reflect, and self-manage, AI could weaken his or her learning ability.

So I prefer to understand it this way: AI will not automatically make learning better. It is just an amplifier. If a child has curiosity, an awareness of problems, and basic judgment capability, AI will amplify their learning ability; but if they only want quick answers, AI will also amplify their laziness and dependency.

Learn Self-directed Learning & Have Hands-on Ability

To put it a bit tongue-in-cheek, it’s about “learning how to learn.”

First, I want to remind all parents, the word “learning” doesn’t just refer to subject learning in school. Learning, especially self-directed learning, is actually a kind of awareness and a method.

For example, if your child likes to eat scrambled eggs with tomatoes, then you can let him learn how to make this dish. When he learns how to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes through various channels (even by watching short videos), then next time when a small appliance breaks at home, you can let him learn how to fix it. Once he can learn to fix small appliances, if your car breaks somewhere, he can also learn how to fix the car. One day, when he can learn to repair cars on his own, I believe he is not far from learning to build a rocket.

Having lived in the US these years, I have deep reflections on self-directed learning—or as one might say, hands-on ability.

Due to labor costs and prices, when little problems arise at home, many people are basically willing to do it themselves. Especially local Americans, everyone takes pride in being able to do it themselves.

In the learning process, especially when learning new things, you will definitely encounter obstacles. At this point, if you are a self-directed learner, you will look for resources, methods, and actively ask for help. Once you overcome these learning curves and obstacles, you’ll not only achieve the final result but also enhance your self-confidence.

Using AI involves a very, very significant amount of self-directed learning. As an independent developer who doesn’t understand development, there are many technical field things beyond my knowledge. Many times, I need to understand one technical term after another, what they mean, and how they should be practiced. Of course, because of AI, the threshold for self-directed learning has indeed become very low, as long as you’re willing, you can go learn.

Behind self-directed learning and hands-on ability, there’s actually a very important thing, which is being curious. Of course, this was also one of the three core values at the English learning company I worked at before, Liulishuo.

Discovering One’s Own Interests and Passions

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the story of Zhang Xue and his motorcycles. Zhang Xue, in his teens, had a passion for motorcycles ingrained deep in his bones. Helping a child find their own interests and passions is something that happens by chance and cannot be forced.

The old saying “every trade has a master” might have seemed a bit hypocritical in the past—who wouldn’t want their children to develop in more respected, glamorous industries? But now “every trade has a master” is actually a very practical and sensible approach.

Life is quite short. After reaching adulthood, most of our time is spent working. If you’re doing a job you’re not passionate about or interested in, even if it pays well, you’ll feel agonized and as if you’re wasting your life.

AI can help you do many tasks, it can empower you and make you somewhat “superpowered.”

But what do you want to do with AI? That’s a big question. You have a great tool, but without a goal or direction, it’s a very painful issue.

So, my advice to parents is to discover and nurture your child’s interests and passions, allowing for more attempts.

But at the same time, it also requires patience and endurance.

Because for many kids, even at fifteen or sixteen, they are still bewildered, seeming not to be opening up. Even my own kids, when asked what they want to do, they actually don’t know. Many of my friends come from affluent backgrounds, offering their kids lots of attempts, but the kids still don’t know what they want to do.

So at this time, parents need to be patient. If you have faith, you need to keep praying for your child.

Build Resilience: Stick to It, Don’t Give Up Easily

I think this is important for a child’s character, whether AI is involved or not. They need resilience, to stick to things, not give up easily.

Our kids learn piano, karate, badminton. There’s nothing wrong if they want to learn something else, but they have to stick with it.

Sticking with something isn’t just for a year, but several years. Even if they don’t perform as well as those talented kids, they need to persist. This persistence is about building character and resilience.

If I’ve achieved anything small, I’d say it’s because of my persistence.

I’m pretty ordinary in aptitude and intelligence, but I’ve done some things others around me haven’t. For example, over ten years ago, when learning guitar with a church group, I was the slowest, but I was the only one who stuck with it. Even though I’m not great, I still enjoy singing and playing today.

In design, I don’t think I’m very smart, but I’m willing to persist. When problems come up, I spend time figuring them out. I’ve experienced the pain of sticking to something and not giving up, and also its benefits and joys.

In the AI age, failure is common. There will be many failures: technical issues, operational and promotional problems. Without resilience, character, it’s hard to accomplish anything.

Learn to Ask Questions

The key in working with AI is knowing how to ask it questions.

Many say a good question can be more important than a good answer. Being able to ask good questions reflects your overall skills: basic knowledge, industry understanding, awareness of trends, deep thinking… These all contribute to the depth of your questions.

But I don’t think “learning to ask questions” is just about writing prompts.

Asking questions can be trained, like teaching kids to observe, compare, ask why, ask “is there another possibility,” “is the answer reliable,” “are there proofs,” “what if seen from another angle.”

But deeper than that, asking questions isn’t just a skill, it’s a mindset. Someone who truly asks questions won’t easily overlook life’s questions or accept superficial answers.

At home, parents should provide a supportive environment, encouraging kids to ask questions. Kids’ questions might seem childish or annoying, but behind them, they’re observing and understanding the world.

For kids, the awareness to ask comes partly from knowledge accumulation and from living and observing seriously. In this atmosphere, they can slowly develop a real questioning mind.

Express Yourself, Build Influence

In the AI industry, it’s said that products aren’t the most important or scarce because everyone can produce them. What’s most scarce? Attention. It’s about how many people notice your product.

That’s why, as someone introverted and indifferent to follower or reader counts, I started regularly updating social media and promoting my content. (I’ll soon start making videos too.)

Expressing yourself, building influence, can be driven by personal gain.

In our adult world, it can bring attention, traffic, even direct profit.

In my career, despite being introverted, by writing blogs, I was noticed by the industry and potential job opportunities. I’ve also connected with more people by answering questions on Zhihu, gaining recognition.

On another note, expressing yourself, building influence, it’s a human nature, a need.

Everyone needs a way to express themselves, unrelated to personality. You can express yourself in any way: writing, music, sports, or through various appropriate activities.

People need an outlet for expression. It’s not just about personal gain; it’s about inner health and well-being.

Exercise

After moving to the US, I found that American parents are quite competitive too. Compete in what? Sports. In my kid’s private school, I’ve heard more than half the funding goes into sports.

I have an observation, maybe inappropriate or even humorous: because US healthcare is inefficient, it’s best not to get sick, to stay healthy. This might be why Americans emphasize sports for kids. Of course, it’s just a joke.

Whether or not it’s the AI era, health is paramount.

Health includes many aspects. For kids, the most important are sleep and exercise. We all understand the reasoning, but when facing conflicts between sleep, exercise, and studies, the choice is up to each family.

From my experience, in my 20s and 30s, I paid great attention to exercising, had a good foundation, though I’m short. But I lacked systemic exercise and fitness. So by my 40s, my health obviously declined. Lack of muscle training led to common IT worker problems like neck, lower back, tailbone issues, sometimes bothersome or even painful.

So for the next generation, I think we should provide them a better environment, plan better schedules, and give them more opportunities to exercise.