Andalusian youth and AI: critical thinking is the advantage, but the evidence doesn't yet back the optimism

By Andalucía Información · October 20, 2026.

The Jornadas de Publicaciones 7.0, held at the Fundación Cajasol Auditorium in Jerez, brought together executives, researchers, and university and vocational training students to discuss how artificial intelligence (AI) affects young people in Andalusia. The speakers' central message was that AI is a job opportunity, but only for those who cultivate their own talent, and in particular “critical thinking.”

Enrique Benítez, an economist and member of the OECD's Observatory for Public Sector Innovation, focused his talk on the classroom. He warned that “whatever AI does for you in your studies, you stop learning.” He cited, according to his presentation, the decision by New York Mayor Zohran Mandani to ban AI in classrooms because students were completing assignments without learning, with a particular impact on reading comprehension. We have not been able to verify that figure or measure here: it is what the speaker said.

On the business side, Jesús Ochoa (Ayesa Digital) said they are looking for people with commitment and technical knowledge, “not AI experts.” Antonio Galán (Epicsa) called for “hybrid profiles” who know how to apply AI solutions to real problems without settling for the first result. José María Martín-Mateos (Nexur cluster) stressed that what adds value is “thinking, sizing, organizing, asking.” And Lucía del Castillo (L3G Marketing) encouraged attendees to “know how to prompt,” that is, to write good instructions for an AI model.

Two other ideas stood out. Martín-Mateos argued that many companies use headlines about AI and jobs “as an excuse” to justify layoffs that have nothing to do with it. He also noted that there is still a reliance on models developed in the US and China, so the challenge for large companies is to have their own AI hosted in the cloud. Ochoa, for his part, said Andalusia is competitive at integrating AI, not at creating it.

**Our take.** We agree on the essentials: value is shifting toward judgment, problem framing and verification, and those who outsource the effort of learning are left without the foundation to supervise the machine. It is a thesis consistent with what we argue about employment: it is not “AI takes your job,” but “it changes which work matters.”

But advice should be kept separate from evidence. That all the speakers agree AI “improves productivity, does not reduce employment” is the opinion of those who hire for and sell that technology, not a data point. Broadly, the most recent evidence suggests the damage shows up first in entry-level jobs that never get created—precisely the ones the young people in the auditorium hope to fill. As industry context, in the US unemployment among recent graduates already exceeds that of non-graduates, something unusual since 2011. Saying that layoffs blamed on AI are an excuse may be true in some cases, but it does not refute the pressure on junior hiring.

The event itself offered one honest admission: UCA researcher Javier Jareño acknowledged that there are still no studies on AI's effect at each educational level and that firmer regulation is needed. In other words, advice is being given today with more conviction than measurement. The winners from that gap are comfortable narratives; the losers, students who need reliable guidance.

Sovereignty is the most interesting point. Integrating AI well is a real short-term advantage, but relying on other people's models limits room for maneuver. The rise of open models, which increasingly compete with closed ones, is good news for regions like Andalusia: it allows them to host their own models, control their data and avoid paying a toll on every query.

In the short term, the transition will be uneven and young people will feel it before anyone else. In the long term, a generation that knows how to think, ask and verify will be better placed for an economy in which machines handle the routine and people devote themselves to what truly matters to them. Critical thinking is not a slogan: it is the skill that ages best.