A new report from GSMA Intelligence, produced in collaboration with Huawei and released at UNESCO's Digital Learning Week, reveals that 38% of the world's population—3.1 billion people—remains offline despite living within 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 artificial intelligence could act as both a bridge and a barrier for underserved communities. AI-powered voice assistants and multimodal applications can help low-literacy users bypass text input, but they also raise the bar for security and critical thinking. Users must now understand data privacy and identify risks such as fraud and deepfakes. Without targeted interventions in basic digital training, rapid AI adoption risks entrenching existing inequalities even in areas with full network coverage.
The economic stakes are immense. Existing industry projections suggest that closing the capability gap could add around $3.5 trillion to global GDP by 2030, with more than 90% of those gains flowing to low- and middle-income countries. The research cites World Bank statistics showing that GenAI literacy carries the highest wage premium—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 work together 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, Skills on Wheels projects have reached more than 130,000 people across 21 countries. A report by Kenya's Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy shows that 79% of DigiTruck trainees surveyed passed on their newly acquired digital skills to family members and peers.
"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."
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 with digital skills training. The full report is available on the GSMA Intelligence research portal.
