Through our work with the Community of Practice on Artificial Intelligence (COPAI), we’ve learned that in low-resource contexts, mechanisms for meaningful engagement – such as mentorship, access to national hardware, and an active voice in policy discussions with experts – can become powerful in-kind incentives for inclusive upskilling.
As part of COPAI’s AI Innovation Lab, students, policymakers, and experts received virtual access to Cambodia’s national high-performance computing platform, MISTI-HPC. By experimenting with local infrastructure and jointly developing prototypes, participants gained practical skills in ethical AI deployment, governance, and policy design.
This ‘learning-by-doing’ approach elevated technical capacity-building into inclusive participation, enabling them to contribute to national policy dialogues on AI research and innovation. For instance, during a consultation, when a government official asked how to incentivize university students to adopt AI, a student jumped in to explain that they had already been using AI tools for two years and instead sought guidance on responsible, higher-value applications, reframing the discussion from basic adoption toward purposeful usage.
Similarly, context-driven activities such as the “Generative AI for Gen Z” workshops by IT Academy STEP Cambodia and Sisters of Code demonstrate how concise, locally relevant training can rapidly enhance AI literacy and build confidence, with over 95% of participants reporting increased competence and female student participation exceeding 50%. Moreover, structured apprenticeship initiatives such as AI Singapore’s AI Apprenticeship Programme and regional open-data communities like SEACrowd provide hands-on, project-based learning, creating pathways from skill acquisition to meaningful employment while anchoring talent in sectors critical to inclusive development, including health, agriculture, and education.