48th WorldSkills Competition Debuts AI Design Tools as Vocational Education Adopts AI Assessment and Textbooks

The 48th WorldSkills Competition concluded in Shanghai, where the Industrial Design Technology project allowed competitors to use AI design platforms to generate drone concept proposals for the first time, and the Software Testing project's fourth module used a locally deployed large model with AI interfaces. Seven new projects added to the competition are mostly tied to AI, including the first Smart Security Technology project. An intelligent skills assessment system jointly developed by East China Normal University and Shanghai AI Laboratory has been piloted at Shanghai Nanhu Vocational and Technical College, while Jie'an Gaoke launched an AI digital textbook for industries such as railways.

This shift moves AI from an auxiliary tool in vocational education into competition rules, skills assessment and textbook generation, directly affecting how vocational colleges evaluate teaching and what courses cover. For schools, skills assessment has long been constrained by strong subjectivity, difficulty scaling up and processes that are hard to reproduce; the AI assessment system offers a replayable, verifiable data chain. For product builders, combining vertical industry data with AI digital textbooks creates a new product form. It should be noted that the original text only mentions pilot student feedback and statements by relevant executives, with no independent research or quantitative results proving improved learning outcomes. Vocational college skills assessment may shift from one-on-one subjective scoring to a replayable, verifiable data chain, potentially lowering the cost of large-scale assessment. AI digital textbooks and competition AI tools entering teaching will change course content and teacher preparation at vocational colleges, and drive demand for vertical industry training products.