A new report from GSMA Intelligence, produced in collaboration with Huawei and released at UNESCO's Digital Learning Week, finds that 38% of the world's population—3.1 billion people—remains offline despite living under mobile broadband coverage. The primary barrier is not infrastructure but a lack of digital literacy skills, user trust, and AI literacy. The report, titled "Bridging the Divide: Enhancing Digital Literacy in the AI Era," warns that without targeted interventions, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence could entrench existing inequalities, even in areas with full network coverage.
The stakes are enormous. Existing industry projections suggest that closing the digital capability gap could add approximately $3.5 trillion to global GDP by 2030, with more than 90% of those gains flowing to low- and middle-income countries. Physical mobile broadband coverage currently reaches 96% of people worldwide, yet the usage gap persists. The report notes that AI-powered voice assistants and applications that work with images, audio, and video can help low-literacy users bypass the need to input text, acting as a bridge. However, AI also raises the security and critical-thinking standards required to participate safely. Users must now understand data privacy and identify risks such as fraud and deepfakes. The research cites World Bank statistics that GenAI literacy represents the highest-value skill category, with wage premiums up to 36%, far exceeding returns for both digital and traditional AI skills.
To bridge the usage gap, the report urges policymakers, telecom operators, and technology vendors to focus on four priorities: treating practical AI awareness, online safety, and information verification as a baseline national qualification; adopting multilingual voice and conversational interfaces across public services; scaling up mobile learning units through cross-sector partnerships; and measuring performance by independent task completion and fraud resilience rather than trainee numbers.
The report highlights community-based delivery models, citing Huawei's Skills on Wheels initiative as a field-tested example. Its solar-powered DigiTruck mobile classrooms bring hardware, rural connectivity, and hands-on training, including AI literacy, to off-grid regions. Since 2019, training courses delivered by Skills on Wheels projects have reached more than 130,000 people across 21 countries. A report by Kenya's Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy shows that 79% of DigiTruck trainees surveyed had passed on their newly acquired digital skills to family members and peers. A new DigiTruck program will launch in France this autumn, covering several cities in the Île-de-France region and targeting low-income and underserved communities.
"Digital literacy can no longer be defined by static thresholds," said Tim Hatt, head of research and consultancy at GSMA Intelligence. "Connectivity alone is insufficient—capabilities, system design and trust must evolve together. To capture this multi-trillion-dollar opportunity, stakeholders must integrate layered AI literacy directly into daily livelihoods through trusted community channels." Gavin Allen, Executive Editor-in-Chief at Huawei, added, "Mobile classrooms have demonstrated immense value in helping underserved populations break through physical and psychological barriers to technology. We will continue working alongside local governments and industry partners to drive digital literacy, ensuring that no one is left behind as we transition into the AI economy."
The full report is available on the GSMA Intelligence research portal: https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/research/bridging-the-divide-enhancing-digital-literacy-in-the-ai-era.
