Developing Talent with Artificial Intelligence: Human–AI Symbiotic Theory (HAIST) as a Framework for AI-Mediated Learning and Talent Development

Traditional talent development models were designed before the AI revolution and do not consider artificial agents as possible sources of development. artificial intelligence is quickly infiltrating education spaces—but our thinking about learning has not caught up with how we can productively pair learners with both human and artificial intelligence. Addressing this gap, we introduce Human–AI Symbiotic Theory (HAIST), a novel theoretical framework designed for AI-facilitated environments, which posits how learners can productively leverage both humans and AI as “development partners” across the entire talent development process. We begin with a comprehensive integration of ideas and theory from the literature on talent development, AI for learning, and human–AI collaboration and use these insights to build HAIST for the specific context of talent development. HAIST comprises three mechanisms—Complementary Intelligence Activation (CIA), Dynamic Adaptive Co-Regulation (DACR), and Agency-Preserving Scaffolding (APS)—that are grounded in prior theory and research on topics like sociocultural theory, self-regulated learning, and distributed cognition. We then demonstrate how HAIST can be applied throughout all phases of talent development while highlighting implications for traditionally underserved learners like adult learners, student veterans, multilingual learners, and first-generation learners. We provide an applied example of how the three mechanisms work in tandem to support talent development and discuss points of tension that must be navigated when applying HAIST (e.g., between adaptation and optimization vs. agency). Lastly, we highlight how considerations of ethics and learner rights (algorithmic bias, learner voice, etc.) should be considered when operationalizing HAIST. Overall, HAIST can serve as a foundational theory to not only understand how talent development should occur between learners and both humans and AI, but also to consider the process of instruction design in AI-mediated learning environments.