“At the GEEK4Food Dialogue on “Education and AI for skills-based transitions in Europe’s food systems”, the evidence pointed to a disconnect between what educators teach, what policymakers prioritise, and what the food system needs.

Our measurement and institutional systems weren’t built for the simultaneous transitions our food systems face – digital, ecological, demographic. We measure skills in “smallest units of knowledge” whilst economic transitions happen in real-time across farmers, processors, retailers, education institutions, member states, EU coordination.

The gap isn’t just pace – it’s paradigms (Donella Meadows, 1999). Educators, policymakers, stakeholders, and farmers prioritise different competencies because they operate within different constraints and timeframes.

What if the goal isn’t making education respond faster to labour markets, but developing adaptive capacity within the system itself? Not just teaching skills, but developing mindsets to navigate uncertainty, recognise system boundaries, and shift paradigms when the system changes.

AI-powered tools can make competencies visible, create feedback loops, help people navigate development. They’re legitimate leverage points. And when individual insights aggregate into collective intelligence, they can illuminate the structural disconnects between the systems that shape opportunities.

The most encouraging part? The willingness to name the disconnect. To question whether our interventions match the challenge’s scale. To ask not “how do we build better tools?” but “what system are we building tools for?”

The work ahead is building adaptive capacity to shift paradigms, tweak system rules, and adjust information flows.”

By Geek4Food Team

Thank you to our invited experts and speakers

• Jonas Lazaro-Mojica, Policy Officer at DG GROW, European Commission
• Eliane R. El Haber, Project Officer at UNESCO IESALC
• Lija Groenewoud van Vliet, Creative Director at In4Art
• Maciej Krzysztofowicz, Head of Policy Design at EC JRC
• Ondina Afonso, Head of Quality & Research at MC Sonae
• Antonio Vicente, President of the School of Engineering at Minho University
• Rui Costa, Secretary General at ISEKI-Food Association

To our moderators

• Anna Sacio-Szymańska, PhD in Management Sciences, Principal and Strategic Accounts Manager at 4CF – The Futures Literacy Company 
• Jesus Maria Frias Celayeta, Academic leader at the Sustainability & Health Research Hub, TU Dublin

To our project colleagues and experts

• Luke Hicks, Associate Vice President at SkyHive by Cornerstone
• Giulia Setticasi, Customer Success Manager at SkyHive by Cornerstone
• Milena Marzano, Managing Director at Milcoop
• Milena Corredig, Professor at Department of Food Science – Food Technology at Aarhus University

And to our project coordinator PAOLA PITTIA, Professor of Food Science at the University of Teramo, and Maarten van der Kamp, Director of Education at EIT Food, representing the co-coordinating partner.