MPs see AI’s potential to help tackle social mobility – How do we realise it?
This is a guest blog Sara Belhay, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, EY Foundation.
Polling commissioned by the EY Foundation ahead of the 2026 summer recess and conducted by Ipsos among 101 MPs suggests cautious optimism about the potential of AI to support social mobility. More than half of those surveyed (53%) believe AI could have a positive impact on social mobility for young people from low-income backgrounds by at least a fair amount, while 18% think it could have a positive impact by a great deal. Alongside this, 9% believe current government policies address the impact of AI on these young people to a great extent, highlighting the importance of continuing to develop the policy response as AI evolves.
The polling results come at a time when government has put AI at the heart of its plans for economic growth. The AI Opportunities Action Plan sets out an ambition to accelerate adoption across the UK, boost productivity, create jobs and improve public services. The decision to give the Minister for AI a seat at the Cabinet table is also a welcome signal of the importance government places on AI and recognition that its impact cuts across government, from education to employment.
That matters at a time when more than one million young people are not in education, employment or training. AI is developing against that backdrop, with the potential to reshape jobs, the skills employers need, and the way people enter the labour market. While AI could create new opportunities, there is also a risk that these changes reinforce existing inequalities if young people from low-income backgrounds are not able to benefit equally. Our polling suggests MPs see the potential for AI to have a positive impact; the question is how we realise it.
Where could AI make a difference?
Delivered by the EY Foundation and Social Tech Trust, in partnership with the Social Mobility Commission, and supported by Microsoft, HSF Kramer, EY, Fieldfisher, and LinkedIn, the Challenge Prize will back practical, responsible, and scalable solutions that help young people access pathways into education, skills, employment and long-term opportunity. The response to the challenge demonstrates both the scale of interest and the appetite to address it, with 142 applications submitted.
The five emerging patterns identified by Social Tech Trust across the applicant pool also connect with what we are seeing through the EY Foundation’s programmes, our work with young people and employers, and the wider policy debate.
Helping young people navigate opportunity
Careers and opportunity navigation featured strongly across the submissions. This connects closely with our work at EY Foundation and with a longstanding social mobility challenge. Creating opportunities is only part of the answer. Young people also need to know they exist, feel the opportunity is for them, understand the routes available, and have the support to pursue them. The submissions offer different perspectives on where technology could help.
AI literacy is relevant here too which is why the EY Foundation has embedded basic AI literacy across its programmes so that young people have an opportunity to understand and use technology they are increasingly likely to encounter in education and work. Over the last year, young people on the EY Foundation’s two-week programmes reported a 31 percentage point increase in their confidence using AI tools from 65% pre-programme to 96% post-programme rating 'Good' or 'Excellent'.
Building with young people, not for them
Lived experience and young people’s involvement in developing solutions were also prominent in Social Tech Trust’s analysis. People who have experienced barriers themselves can bring a different understanding of what is not working and what might need to change. Starting with the problem people experience, rather than the technology available, is particularly important when the aim is to improve social mobility.
This connects closely with what young people have told us through Don’t Build AI Without Us. They want a meaningful say in how AI that affects their lives is developed. Involving young people from the outset can challenge assumptions about what they need and help shape solutions around the barriers they experience, rather than asking for their views once an idea has already been designed.
Strengthening the evidence
Social Tech Trust’s analysis also highlights the importance of building the evidence behind new approaches. From a policy perspective, this is particularly relevant. As interest grows in the potential for AI and education technology to improve outcomes, we also need to understand where these approaches are effective and the evidence that sits behind them.
This is reflected in the government’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review, which recognises that technology, including AI, can play an important role in education when it is “based on robust evidence and rooted in educational practice”. It also sets out an ambition for schools to have access to the right tools for teaching and learning, supported by a safe and effective EdTech market.
Making social mobility part of the AI conversation
What we are seeing through the Challenge Prize gives us good reason to keep exploring the potential MPs identified in our polling. As the policy response to AI develops, social mobility needs to be considered alongside decisions about education, skills, employment and the future of work. That means looking at where technology could help remove barriers to opportunity, what else needs to be in place for those approaches to work and whether young people are involved in shaping them.
In October, we will take some of what we are learning back to Parliament, where the winners of the AI & Social Mobility Challenge Prize will be announced at our parliamentary reception. This will give us the chance to share what we have learned and consider what it means for the wider policy conversation around AI and social mobility.
If we want AI to widen opportunity, social mobility needs to be part of the decisions we make about it now.
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Authors
Sara Belhay
Head of Policy and Public Affairs, EY Foundation
