In recent months, a growing number of summer camps in China are charging parents thousands of yuan to master AI and become “venture capitalists” within a week.
As parents increasingly worry that their children will be left behind in the age of AI, companies are capitalizing on that fear by claiming they can teach kids how to use AI in business and finance with week-long “study tours” and camps. However, according to a recent report in domestic media outlet China Newsweek, these summer programs often only offer unqualified instructors and photo opportunities at high-tech companies.
The rise of the AI camp comes amid a national effort to merge AI and education. China’s National Education Plan, announced in June, integrates AI at all levels of education. In 2024, the Ministry of Education also stated that AI education must be “essentially universal” in primary and secondary schools by 2030.
And the market is profitable. A report by domestic analysis firm Changjiang Securities predicts that China’s AI education market will reach 160 billion yuan ($22 billion) by 2027 and nearly 180 billion yuan by 2030.
An AI study tour company in Beijing claims it can teach children how to “launch an AI startup in six days.” The live-in program costs nearly 13,000 yuan ($2,000) and covers “AI fundamentals, business skills, and financial thinking.”
“Many university students are unable to create a business model template, but our campers can present on stage after just six days,” an anonymous company staff member told China Newsweek.
Prices for multi-day AI study camps in Beijing and Shanghai typically start at around 6,000 yuan. Comparable courses in Hong Kong typically cost more than 10,000 yuan, and courses overseas can cost up to 30,000 yuan.
Official regulations require study tour companies to hold three licenses: business registration, travel permit, and educational services certification. However, according to China Newsweek, many of the organizers of AI camps are media companies or private individuals.
A study tour industry insider with 10 years of experience said STEM camps are outpacing traditional outdoor programs. Her AI camp for kids at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in northeastern Heilongjiang province was fully booked after advertising exclusive access to a chip lab and AI courses.
But officials say many companies are charging twice as much, even though they only offer visits to technology companies rather than actual courses. “As long as the kids are taking pictures at HIT, the trip is considered ‘meaningful’ by[the parents],” she says.
Dong Lin, a mother of a 5-year-old in Shanghai, sees AI as a tool. “AI amplifies[children’s]existing strengths,” she told Sixth Tone. “For their generation, AI is their native environment.”
She believes parents should focus on incorporating AI into everyday learning. “We are entering an era of human-AI collaboration,” she said. “Rather than chasing the hype, parents should focus on teaching their children how to use these tools responsibly and creatively in their daily lives.”
Mr. Song, a parent of a fifth and third grader in the southern city of Guangzhou, told Sixth Tone that he plans to enroll his children in the AI camp when they reach middle school. When choosing a camp, he prioritizes interaction, hands-on experience, and small class sizes.
“We hope that the children will make diverse friends, learn about others, understand their own differences, and gain true knowledge through first-hand experience (at AI camp),” Song said.
But the surge in demand has also created a shortage of qualified AI instructors, with many programs relying on hastily trained graduate students or basic programming tutors to teach classes.
An anonymous education technology recruiter told domestic media that it is difficult to find qualified teachers outside of first-tier cities. Her company interviewed music and sports majors for its AI course and ended up hiring flight attendants. “A few days of training is the norm,” she says.
Hu Lin, co-founder of Kaichuangli, an education technology company based in the southern tech hub of Shenzhen and dedicated to equipping children with AI literacy and programming skills, said AI education in China suffers from inconsistent standards. He said the goal is to teach children about AI as if it were their native language, not to take shortcuts.
An 11-year-old girl named Xu told Sixth Tone that she spent five days in an AI camp at tech giant Alibaba’s headquarters in the eastern city of Hangzhou in July this year.
Xu toured the corporate campus and participated in a hands-on coding session. She described how instructors guided students in using Qwen, Alibaba’s large-scale language model, to generate a business plan template for a mock online store and create compelling product descriptions on Taobao, the company’s e-commerce platform.
“I learned a lot of things that aren’t in textbooks,” Xu said.
But despite the rapid rise of AI, Guangzhou mother Song isn’t worried.
“Some human qualities cannot be replaced,” she says.
Editor: Marianne Gunnarson.
(Header image: STEM camp in Beijing, June 2026. VCG)
