The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) has confronted educational systems with a generation that exhibits distinctive cognitive, behavioral, and value-related characteristics. Research evidence and reports from international organizations indicate that educational structures grounded in industrial-era paradigms have fallen behind in meeting the needs of this generation, and in Iran this misalignment has been further intensified by constraints on financial and human resources. This article aims to provide an interdisciplinary analysis of the dimensions of this misalignment by integrating insights from educational sciences, generational sociology, cognitive science, futures studies, and science and technology policy, and to design a phased set of solutions for harnessing AI within Iran's pre-university education system. The study employs documentary analysis; its corpus comprises reports from UNESCO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the World Economic Forum, alongside recent systematic reviews and official Iranian statistics, which were purposively selected and subjected to thematic analysis. The findings show that the new generation—characterized by parallel information processing, interactive learning, and a preference for short-form content—faces six gaps within the educational system: technological, skill-related, methodological, applicational, motivational, and cultural. International experience suggests that success in narrowing these gaps depends on national consensus, infrastructure development, teacher empowerment, and a flexible curriculum. The study concludes that the digital transformation of the educational system requires a three-stage roadmap that begins with short-term skill enhancement in technology adoption and progresses toward personalized learning and a redefinition of the teacher's role—a trajectory in which educational policy must position AI not as a replacement for the teacher but as an enabler of the teacher.