Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban has a message for students: if you want to lead tomorrow's workforce, you need to get comfortable with artificial intelligence today. It's a view that resonates with educators across the country, though their enthusiasm comes with some serious reservations about what happens when students rely on AI too much.

The Cuban Perspective: AI as a Competitive Advantage

Cuban hasn't been shy about championing AI literacy as an essential skill. "Students who use AI will produce better, more creative work and gain a collaborative relationship with technology that's needed in the future workplace," he recently told CNBC. "Students who use AI will be best equipped to lead."

But Cuban's vision isn't about letting AI do all the heavy lifting. According to him, the real winners will be students who use these tools to enhance their own abilities rather than replace them. The key is learning how to craft effective prompts, question what the AI produces, and critically evaluate the results instead of accepting them at face value.

"AI helps students think bigger," Cuban said, emphasizing that the technology should support decision-making without actually making the decisions.

It's a distinction that matters. Cuban often draws parallels to the early internet era, when an entirely new technological shift created industries and jobs nobody had imagined. He sees AI as a similar inflection point, one that will reshape the career landscape in ways we're only beginning to understand.

Teachers Are On Board, But Cautiously

Educators largely share Cuban's enthusiasm about AI literacy becoming essential. Samsung's Solve for Tomorrow 2025 AI Readiness survey found that 88% of U.S. public middle and high school teachers consider AI skills important for future student success. A separate Samsung survey revealed that 96% of teachers expect AI to be embedded in education within the next decade.

So teachers get it. The problem is they also see the potential downsides up close. In the AI Readiness survey, 81% of teachers expressed concern that AI could undermine students' critical-thinking abilities if used too heavily. Other worries include plagiarism, the spread of misinformation, and reduced face-to-face interaction among students.

Despite these concerns, most teachers are already experimenting with AI tools or exploring integration strategies. The bigger challenge is resources: a staggering 97% of teachers report they lack adequate resources or training to teach AI effectively. That's a massive gap between recognizing AI's importance and actually being equipped to teach it.

Closing the Resource Gap

Samsung is attempting to address this problem through its Solve for Tomorrow program, which supports STEM education nationwide. The company plans to deliver $2 million worth of technology and AI training resources to 500 U.S. schools in 2026. Cuban is partnering with the initiative alongside entrepreneur Emma Grede to promote equitable access to AI learning.

The timing makes sense given how quickly students are already incorporating AI into their work. Samsung reports that 42% of Solve for Tomorrow state-winning projects used AI during the 2024-25 school year, a dramatic jump from just 6% two years earlier. That kind of acceleration suggests students are racing ahead whether the educational infrastructure is ready or not.

AI as Coach, Not Crutch

Not everyone views AI through a purely cautionary lens. Psychologist Angela Duckworth offered a more optimistic take during the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education commencement in May. "AI isn't always a crutch — it can also be a coach," she said, arguing that AI can model strong reasoning and writing, providing students with high-quality examples to learn from.

It's a perspective that aligns with Cuban's view: AI as a tool for enhancement rather than replacement. The challenge, as most educators acknowledge, is teaching students to use it that way. The technology is powerful enough to do the work for them, which makes it all too tempting to let it.

The consensus seems to be that students absolutely need AI skills to thrive in a rapidly evolving workplace. What remains unclear is how to ensure every student has access to quality AI education, and how to teach responsible use that develops rather than replaces fundamental thinking skills. For now, that's the puzzle teachers and innovators like Cuban are trying to solve.