The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Education Industry in Slovenia in 2025

As Slovenia moves from policy to practice in 2025, AI matters for education because the national programme pairs real investment and infrastructure - including the Vega supercomputer - and a clear push to update curricula, boost teacher training and lifelong learning so pupils can use AI safely and creatively; see the European Commission AI Watch report on Slovenia's National Programme for AI for the EUR 110 million roadmap.

Anchored by the UNESCO‑affiliated IRCAI Ljubljana research centre and research hubs, the strategy stresses human‑centred, ethical deployment, while schools and educators will need practical upskilling - exactly the kind of workplace-focused training Nucamp offers in its Nucamp AI Essentials for Work syllabus - to turn national ambition into classroom impact, from remote tutoring to curriculum projects powered by local language models and HPC resources.

“Slovenia aims for a high quality and ethical use of artificial intelligence that citizens can trust.” - Boštjan Koritnik, Minister of Public Administration

Slovenia's national AI strategy - the National Programme for the Promotion of the Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (NpUI) - is a tightly coordinated, action‑oriented roadmap adopted in May 2021 that pairs clear governance with concrete investment and targets: ten strategic objectives across research, public sector use, education, ethics and infrastructure, backed by about EUR 110 million of public funding through 2025.

Implementation is driven by an inter‑ministerial working group led by the Ministry of Digital Transformation to monitor progress, set up sectoral working groups and steer funding and policy choices, while practical measures span curriculum updates, public‑sector pilots, and a National AI Observatory to track uptake.

The strategy also doubles down on technical capacity - from EuroHPC and the Vega supercomputer to national data spaces and DIHs - and stresses a human‑centred, ethical framework to build public trust and speed reference implementations from lab to market.

For a concise policy summary see the European Commission AI Watch report on national AI strategies, the OECD overview of AI policies and Slovenia's NpUI working group, and the DigWatch overview of national AI programmes including Slovenia's NpUI for more detail on priorities and implementation.

Updating curricula and building human capital in Slovenia are being treated as joined-up, practical reforms: the Slovenian Qualifications Framework (SQF) anchors curriculum change with learning‑outcomes across 10 levels and a clear focus on lifelong learning and labour‑market relevance (Official Slovenian Qualifications Framework (SQF) - gov.si), while the National Education Institute links the Ministry to schools to steer curricular updates, teacher professional development and new teaching strategies - including ICT - so classrooms can actually use those skills (TIMSS 2015 country overview: Slovenia National Education Institute role).

Eurydice's descriptions of Slovenia's single‑structure system explain how optional new subjects and flexible pathways support this shift, from added subjects like film or sign language to stronger vocational options (Eurydice country profile: organisation of the education system in Slovenia).

The result is a system with class sizes averaging about 19 pupils - a vivid image: one teacher, a manageable group and growing adult‑learning cohorts (over 15,900 in upper secondary adult programmes in 2022/23) that together create the human capital bench educators need today and tomorrow; these same conditions make targeted, on‑demand supports such as intelligent tutoring systems practical at scale in Slovenian schools.

Slovenia's schools are on a fast track to become digitally ready: national plans pair curriculum change with hard infrastructure goals so classrooms can reliably run AI tools and remote learning.

The 2022 Plan for the Development of Gigabit Connectivity aims to deliver gigabit links to key public sites - explicitly including schools and cultural institutions - by the end of 2025 and to all households by 2030, while the Digital Slovenia 2030 Strategy foregrounds digital competences, inclusion and Slovenian-language e‑content to make those networks useful in practice; see the EU report: Gigabit infrastructure development in Slovenia and the Slovenia digital education technology profile: Digital Education Action Plan 2021–27 technology profile.

Distance learning capacity already exists through national services such as the SIO portal and RTV SLO's Izodrom broadcasts used during COVID closures, and policy tools - from digital vouchers (EUR 100–200) to school digitisation teams and a Center for Digital Education - aim to close access gaps, backed by mapping tools like PROSTOR and AKOS geoportals so planners can see where fibre and 5G still need to reach.

The net effect: better connectivity, national support systems for teachers, and practical building blocks for AI-enabled tutoring and blended classrooms that depend on steady broadband rather than sporadic home connections.

“We would not have been so ambitious if we didn't come across and became a part of the Climate KIC Deep Demonstration project.” - Duša Marjetič, Head of the Qualification division, Ministry of Education and Sciences

Turning Slovenian AI research into classroom-ready products depends on good project staging and the right pots of EU money: the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale is the practical lens funders use to judge whether a prototype belongs in the lab, a pilot classroom or the market, and Horizon Europe/EIC instruments map neatly onto those stages.

For example, EIC instruments are designed to shepherd ideas from early discovery through demonstration and scale‑up - EIC Pathfinder targets the earliest TRLs, EIC Transition moves lab proofs toward pilots, and the EIC Accelerator helps companies scale from mid‑TRLs into full commercial deployment with blended financing (up to €2.5M grant plus equity up to €15M, or about €17.5M total) - and Slovenian SMEs are explicitly eligible as EU member‑state applicants.

Framing an education AI project with clear TRL milestones not only clarifies what schools and pilot partners are needed (think classroom pilots at TRL 6–7) but also improves chances in competitive calls; practical guides on the EIC Accelerator and on using the TRL scale for Horizon Europe proposals are useful starting points for teams ready to move innovations from lab benches to everyday school tools (EIC Accelerator funding and blended financing overview, TRL scale guide for Horizon Europe proposals).

A clear TRL story makes the “so what?” visible: a demonstrated, user‑tested tutor system leaps from experimental code to tens of classrooms once it hits the funding and validation sweet spot.

Slovenian schools and edtech providers must now plan for a tightly phased EU rulebook: the AI Act, in force since 1 August 2024, already put prohibitions and AI‑literacy duties into effect on 2 February 2025 and brought obligations for general‑purpose models into play from 2 August 2025, while rules for high‑risk systems used in education (for example, automated scoring that can affect access to courses or careers) fall fully under the Act's stricter regime when key provisions apply from 2 August 2026; the Act's risk‑based duties - mandated risk assessments, high‑quality datasets, activity logging for traceability, robust documentation and human oversight - are precisely the requirements schools and vendors must bake into any AI pilot that touches assessments, admissions or other high‑stakes decisions (see the European Commission's AI Act overview and the implementation timeline for the phased deadlines).

The recent publication of the GPAI Code of Practice and Commission guidance in mid‑2025 underlines that transparency and compliance are now operational priorities, so practical steps (data summaries, post‑market monitoring and clear human‑in‑the‑loop rules) are the difference between a legally sound classroom tool and one that can't be used at scale.

SLAIS - the Slovenian Artificial Intelligence Society - is the country's long‑standing hub for AI research and practice, a compact but influential network of university labs, the Jožef Stefan Institute and industry partners that helps turn theory into usable tools for schools, government and business; see the SLAIS website for its remit and events.

Founded in 1992 and a member society of EurAI, SLAIS promotes both theoretical and applied work, organises conferences and summer schools (from BIOMA to ESSAI), supports VideoLectures and a specialised AI library at JSI, and has been a named contributor to national planning (the European Commission AI Watch notes SLAIS' role in consultations on Slovenia's National Programme for AI).

Those national links matter for educators: SLAIS' practical focus on technology transfer, standards and multidisciplinary networking - visible in OECD's profile of the society - helps channel research, HPC access and training into classroom pilots and education‑focused innovations, making Slovenia's small, tightly connected community a clear advantage when scaling trustworthy AI in schools.

Practical AI in Slovenian classrooms is already taking shape around familiar, teacher‑friendly tools that speed planning, personalise practice and extend learning beyond the school day: generative assistants can draft lesson plans, re‑level texts and produce tailored quizzes, while AI‑powered exercise packs inside Google Classroom create individualized practice and instant feedback that teachers can assign in a click; see Google's Gemini for Education for examples of lesson drafting, “Gems” and audio overviews, and a practical explainer on AI activity packs in Google Classroom for how personalized learning looks in practice.

Local surveys show Slovenian upper‑secondary teachers currently use mostly simple AI to prepare materials but intend to expand use - so pilots that focus on time‑saving, pedagogically clear use cases (automated formative practice, targeted feedback, captioning and blended learning supports) are the quickest wins.

A vivid image: one pupil receives a customised practice pack while a classmate listens to an AI‑generated audio summary of the day's science project, letting the teacher spend class time on deeper, human coaching rather than routine markup.

Practical adoption must pair these tools with explicit classroom rules, basic AI literacy and strong data governance so benefits arrive without harming trust or relationships; for local perspectives, consult the Slovenian teacher study and vendor guides on classroom integrations.

“With Gemini, my planning is so fast and easy. I can adapt my lesson plan to the needs of my students, and it can give me more ideas. I feel like I can give more attention to my students and projects using AI rather than spending my whole afternoon or weekends working on the planning.” - Natali Barretto, STEM teacher, Albuquerque Public Schools

On the global scoreboard the United States still sets the technical pace - Stanford HAI's 2025 AI Index Report notes U.S. institutions produced 40 notable AI models in 2024 and private AI investment topped about $109 billion - far outstripping China's and Europe's tallies - while China excels on adoption and data access and the EU has leaned into an ethics‑first, regulatory path, as argued in MERICS' analysis of Europe's AI strategy; these differences matter for Slovenia because a small, well‑connected EU member can import cutting‑edge tools from U.S. industry, tap Chinese lessons on rapid deployment, and rely on the EU's governance framework to keep classroom pilots safe and trustworthy.

A vivid way to see it: the global frontier is concentrated - dozens of landmark models and most investment come from a handful of players - so Slovenia's practical route is to combine national HPC and research hubs with EU compliance and targeted partnerships to bring tested, ethically governed AI into schools without having to replicate global scale R&D locally (see the Stanford HAI 2025 AI Index Report on global AI model production and investment and the MERICS analysis of Europe's AI strategy and regulatory approach).

Conclusion & next steps: Slovenian schools should move from aspiration to a simple, practical checklist - map every AI tool in use, classify each by risk under the EU AI Act and prioritise work on high‑risk systems that could affect students' pathways, then build proportionate oversight and human‑in‑the‑loop checks; experts urge appointing an AI compliance lead well before the 2026 high‑risk deadline and meeting the AI‑literacy duties that began in February 2025.

Use national levers already in place - ANDI's eTorba platform (with an e‑reader that lets pupils highlight, annotate and interact with digital textbooks), digital vouchers and the gigabit connectivity rollout - to ensure infrastructure and materials are ready, and pair those with clear school policies and routine audits.

For policy templates and sample school guidance, adapt the practical frameworks in the TeachAI toolkit to local rules and GDPR‑aligned data practice, and scale staff capability with targeted short courses (for example, workplace‑focused training like the Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp).

Start small with pilot classrooms, document outcomes for a national observatory, and keep communication channels open with parents, unions and regional coordinators so implementation is steady, transparent and centered on learning - not hype; that combination turns national strategy into tangible classroom gains.

“With a structured, step-by-step approach, we can turn regulatory challenges into opportunities for better, more thoughtful AI integration in education.”