News · Education Students Offered an AI Tutor Got Lower Grades, a Large Trial Finds Universities are racing to give students AI study tools. A randomised trial at the University of Maryland — one of the largest of its kind, published as a working paper in October 2026 — suggests that simply switching one on

News · Agriculture A Free AI Tool Is Mapping Senegal’s Small Farms From Space Knowing which crops are growing where is basic information for food security planning — but on small, mixed farms it is hard and expensive to collect. A peer-reviewed study from the University of Cambridge, published on 29 September 2026, shows that

News · Healthcare The NHS Is Giving 505,000 Staff an AI Assistant. How Strong Is the Evidence? NHS England is rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot to more than half a million clinicians and support staff — described as the largest deployment of its kind in healthcare. The decision followed a large trial that reported staff

Industry · Healthcare Robots in Hospitals: Beyond the Operating Theatre When people think of robots in hospitals, they usually picture a surgeon at a console guiding robotic arms. Surgical robots are booming — but they’re only part of the story. Robots now carry medicines and lab samples along corridors, prepare drugs in pharmacies, disinfect rooms,

Industry · Healthcare Remote Monitoring and the Hospital at Home For some patients, the best hospital bed may be their own. “Hospital at home” programmes — called virtual wards in the UK — use wearable sensors, connected devices and visiting clinical teams to give hospital-level care in people’s homes. Supporters say they free up beds,

Analysis · Skills The Skills Workers May Need in the Next Decade Most of us will change jobs, tools and ways of working several times over a career — and AI is speeding that up. Employers expect a large share of today’s skills to change by the end of the decade. The good news is

Analysis · Education How Education Must Adapt to an AI-Driven Economy Students adopted AI before most schools had a plan for it. Now education systems face two challenges at once: deciding how AI should be used in classrooms, and preparing young people and adults for a labour market that AI is reshaping. The early evidence

Analysis · Business Transformation Why Data Is Becoming a Strategic Industrial Asset Every modern machine, vehicle and building produces a constant stream of data. For years, most of it was ignored or locked away. Today it is increasingly treated like a raw material: something to be collected, cleaned, protected and turned into value — from

Analysis · Robotics How Robotics Could Change Manufacturing Work Factories have used robots for decades, but the way people work alongside them is changing fast. Cheaper, safer and more flexible machines — including “cobots” designed to share a workbench with people — are spreading beyond big car plants into smaller manufacturers. For the people on