This research delves into the global understanding of smart education from various perspectives, including expert viewpoints, policy dimensions, public datasets, and visions of equity and inclusion. Multiple webinars have revealed that the concept of smart education with a shared vision of quality education in the age of AI is being understood by different countries through diverse cultural, technological, and pedagogical lenses. We collected 48 topical digital education policies from Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe and conducted coding analysis on inspective digital education policies for smart education to find that creating a high-quality, inclusive, and sustainable digital education ecosystem is the main concern in digital education policy vision and plan. Infrastructure development and human capacity building are also integral to digital education policies. Analysis of public datasets identified a global framework for tracking smart education encompassing 10 indicators and 30 sub-indicators was identified which coincide well with the GSE datasets covering 58 observing data points. Additionally, we organized a series of webinars with participants from 13 countries and explored specific cases to find pathways to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4.