The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Education Industry in Brunei Darussalam in 2025

Brunei's 2025 pivot to practical AI education is gathering real momentum: the AI Ready ASEAN Programme launched on 5 June 2025 will work with local partners to engage 20,000 people in Brunei through ethical, hands‑on activities like the “Hour of Code” (see the AI Ready ASEAN Programme at UTB), while Universiti Brunei Darussalam is already graduating homegrown talent - six students in the first Applied Artificial Intelligence cohort - and embedding GenAI policy and lab work into teaching (read about UBD's AI programmes).

For educators and professionals seeking practical, workplace‑focused AI skills, Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work bootcamp offers guided training on prompts and real business use cases to turn national ambitions into usable classroom and admin tools.

“The future is always a lot closer than we think,” UBD Vice-Chancellor Dr Hazri Haji Kifle said.

AI matters for education in Brunei because it can turn national ambitions into everyday classroom gains: from adaptive tutors that tailor pathways to each learner to back‑office automation that frees teachers for mentoring and project work.

Research highlights AI's core strengths - personalized learning, richer engagement, and administrative efficiency - while flagging real risks like privacy, bias and the digital divide, so policy and teacher training must move in step with tech adoption (see the BytePlus overview on AI in education and EY's roadmap for governments).

Locally relevant pilots - such as Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Malay‑English learners that deliver step‑by‑step algebra support and instant feedback at scale - show how practical tools can raise outcomes without replacing teachers; instead they reallocate time toward human tasks that matter.

The “so what?” is simple: when Brunei pairs clear governance and infrastructure with teacher upskilling, AI becomes a multiplier - helping every student get the right practice at the right time while shrinking routine admin work that currently eats into teaching hours.

“As a large and diversified organisation, our adoption of SAP SuccessFactors solutions transformed HR's impact on the business.” - Salehin Basir, Senior Human Capital Development Manager, Darussalam Assets Sdn Bhd

In 2025 Brunei's classrooms and campuses are putting AI to work across a clear set of use cases: personalized and adaptive learning that tailors pathways to each student, intelligent tutoring systems that deliver step‑by‑step algebra help and instant feedback at scale, predictive student‑performance analytics, automated content creation and assessment, and back‑office automation to free teachers for mentorship and projects - a market breakdown is documented in the 6Wresearch Brunei AI in Education report.

Deep learning and advanced machine‑learning models are the engine behind many of these tools, powering real‑time adaptation, pattern recognition and recommendation systems that turn interaction data into smarter learning flows (see the BytePlus deep learning overview).

Local pilots show the practical mix of technologies and pedagogy: Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Malay‑English learners provide concrete examples of adaptive practice and instant feedback that scale classroom attention without replacing teachers (Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Malay‑English learners), while universities and EdTech vendors explore LLM deployment and NLP for content and admin automation - so the “what” is broad, but the through‑line is simple: AI is being used to personalise learning, speed insights, and cut routine work so educators can focus on high‑value human tasks.

“AI breaks the mold of most machines and systems humans have designed and dealt with throughout history” - Thomas Arnett, Clayton Christensen Institute

Where is AI in Brunei Darussalam's education system in 2025? It's already visible across policy, classroom pilots and campus labs: the Ministry of Education's Digital Transformation roadmap and its EdTech Centre are pushing infrastructure, blended learning tools like MOE TV and the Digital Resources Management System, and teacher upskilling through the Brunei Darussalam Leaders and Teachers Academy, while schools and STEP Centre programmes are piloting adaptive tools and robotics; at the university level Universiti Brunei Darussalam's SDS showcased RoboTeach - a humanoid robot coded with local knowledge and an LLM (Llama) that interacts via speech and gestures at a National Teachers' Day exhibit attended by national leaders - illustrating hands‑on R&D that's moving prototypes into classroom demos (see UBD's RoboTeach exhibit).

Industry and platform partners are also surfacing: BytePlus and other vendors outline how LLM deployment, model management and administrative automation are being explored to scale personalised learning and cut routine admin work.

Taken together, the picture in 2025 is mixed but progressive: central coordination and policy exist alongside real-school pilots, university labs and an emphasis on teacher capacity, with connectivity upgrades (notebooks, National Education Network) and data‑protection frameworks forming the practical backbone for wider adoption (see the national technology profile and BytePlus overview for detail).

“the technology for teaching and learning to improve student outcomes, enhance individualised and personalised education, and improve teaching effectiveness”.

Brunei's approach to AI in education is intentionally practical and ethical: Universiti Brunei Darussalam has codified a campus‑wide set of rules - captured in its 2023 “Policy and Guidelines on Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)” - that stresses ethical use, transparency, data privacy and clear responsibilities for educators and students, and even saw His Majesty sign a copy at UBD's Teachers' Day exhibit (UBD Policy and Guidelines on Generative AI (GenAI) and Teachers' Day exhibit).

Complementing institutional policy, international best practice for scholarly work - such as the SRCD guidance on generative AI - underscores concrete steps that Brunei institutions can adopt: disclose when and how AI tools were used, retain accountability for AI‑generated content, avoid listing AI as an author, and guard against hallucinations, bias and IP issues (SRCD guidance on Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) policy for scholarly work).

The upshot for schools and universities is straightforward: pair clear governance (policy, disclosure and data protections) with educator training and micro‑credentials so AI augments pedagogy without undermining academic integrity - a model Brunei is already piloting through staff workshops and C3L modules that translate policy into classroom practice.

“The future is always a lot closer than we think,” UBD Vice‑Chancellor Dr Hazri Haji Kifle said.

Key statistics for AI in education in Brunei Darussalam show concrete scale and ambition in 2025: the AI Ready ASEAN Programme will engage 20,000 people in Brunei as part of a larger 5.5 million‑person regional goal, and the launch at Mawaddah Hall included an interactive “Hour of Code” workshop to kickstart hands‑on learning (see the UTB launch details).

The programme's training‑of‑trainers model targets 2,000 master trainers who can cascade AI literacy to hundreds of thousands - an explicit cascade figure of about 800,000 community members is cited for regional reach - while a 2024 market snapshot noted Southeast Asia attracted roughly USD 30 billion in AI investments, with potential to lift ASEAN GDP by 10–18% by 2030, underscoring why these upskilling targets matter.

For educators, these national numbers translate into classroom impact - more trained teachers, more exposure to practical activities and stronger pipelines for tools like Intelligent Tutoring Systems that deliver step‑by‑step algebra support at scale (see the AI Ready ASEAN programme overview and local EdTech examples for classroom use).

“Let this moment not just be the start of a programme, but the continuation of a meaningful partnership, where Brunei plays a central role in shaping a digitally capable, ethically aware ASEAN society.” - Mr. Diera Gala Paksi, Project Manager for AI Ready ASEAN

Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) has turned academic ambition into concrete programmes: the School of Digital Science now offers a Bachelor of Digital Science with practical majors such as Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence & Robotics and a three‑year Applied Artificial Intelligence pathway designed to produce industry‑ready graduates, backed by a collaboration with Coursera that layers professional certifications onto degree study - details are available on UBD Bachelor of Digital Science programme page and the press coverage of the UBD Applied AI launch.

The School's outreach (for example, SDS open days) and its growing research portfolio show a clear pipeline from hands‑on labs to classroom learning, while entry standards (from GCE O‑Level and A‑Level thresholds to IELTS alternatives) keep the programme academically rigorous yet accessible for qualified local and international applicants; imagine students moving from data‑science workshops straight into accredited micro‑credentials that employers recognise, shortening the path from classroom to paid work in Brunei's tech ecosystem.

For Brunei's education sector this case study matters because it pairs curriculum, industry links and credentialing in a way that can scale teacher and student capacity for AI across the country.

“I hope that this [new programme] will make graduates more industry-ready, giving them a better chance of securing a job locally or abroad, and make them more independent and able to create job opportunities.”

Brunei's AI skills ecosystem is rapidly maturing around a hub of practical, career‑focused offerings that blend classroom study, micro‑credentials and hands‑on labs: Universiti Brunei Darussalam's School of Digital Science now runs a three‑year Bachelor of Digital Science with an Applied Artificial Intelligence major that celebrated its inaugural cohort of six graduates in August 2025 and layers industry certificates from Coursera partners like IBM and Google onto degree study (read UBD's overview of cutting‑edge programmes).

Short courses, micro‑credentials and lifelong‑learning modules through UBD's C3L and Teaching & Learning Centre make it easy for teachers, government officers and entrepreneurs to pick up prompt skills, LLM awareness and practical AI tools, while the Intelligent Systems Lab turns projects - LLM integrations, continual‑learning pipelines and a NAO robot demo shown to His Majesty during National Teachers' Day - into portfolio work and industry collaborations (see the School of Digital Science newsletter for context).

For schools and institutions this means clear pathways: stackable credentials, on‑campus mentorship, and vendor‑aligned certifications that help educators move from passive awareness to building, evaluating and governing AI in classrooms and admin workflows - creating the next wave of locally trained AI practitioners who can deploy tools responsibly at scale.

“This first cohort of Applied AI graduates marks an important milestone… These students represent the next generation of innovators, equipped with the technical knowledge, critical thinking skills, and adaptability to drive transformation in industry and society.” - Senior Professor Dr Chandratilak De Silva Liyanage, Dean, School of Digital Science

Turn policy into practice with a short, Brunei‑specific checklist: start by mapping every AI use case and the data it needs, then test them against Brunei's Voluntary AI Guide - the seven principles of transparency & explainability, security & safety, fairness & equity, and data protection & governance provide a clear ethical filter (Brunei's Voluntary AI Guide); align procurement and contracts with the Personal Data Protection Order 2025 and nominate an institutional data‑protection lead to ensure compliance (PDPO 2025 and national legal updates).

Pilot small, teacher‑led trials (evaluate for bias, explainability and classroom fit), require transparent disclosure of AI use to students and parents, and keep humans accountable for decisions; embed governance checkpoints - risk assessment, incident logging and vendor model‑management clauses - before scaling.

Invest in stackable training (micro‑credentials, peer coaching and master‑trainer cascades) so staff can audit outputs and adapt prompts or datasets safely, and treat automation as time freed for mentorship and project‑based learning rather than a replacement.

Above all, iterate quickly: short pilots with clear evaluation criteria let schools discover whether a tool actually improves learning or simply shifts work - so Brunei's schools can scale what works, retire what doesn't, and protect students while unlocking AI's practical gains.

“The future is always a lot closer than we think,” UBD Vice-Chancellor Dr Hazri Haji Kifle said.

Brunei's AI journey in education is now at a pragmatic inflection point: homegrown capacity - exemplified by Universiti Brunei Darussalam's inaugural cohort of six Applied AI graduates and hands‑on lab work like the NAO/LLM demos shown to His Majesty - gives the country a foothold to move from pilots to scale, even as external trackers note that AI initiatives remain less documented than in bigger markets (see Brunei overview).

Next steps are clear and actionable for ministers, school leaders and institutions: anchor every pilot in transparent policy, prioritise teacher and staff upskilling through stackable, workplace‑focused programmes, and channel university R&D into tested products that serve local priorities under Wawasan 2035 and the Digital Economy Masterplan (read UBD's programme summary).

Practical short courses and bootcamps that teach promptcraft, evaluation and deployment - such as a 15‑week AI Essentials for Work pathway - can bridge classroom practice and admin efficiency quickly, freeing educators to focus on mentoring while ensuring ethical, accountable use of AI across Brunei's schools and campuses.

“The future is always a lot closer than we think,” UBD Vice-Chancellor Dr Hazri Haji Kifle said.