Mark Lee, deputy prime minister and professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Birmingham, highlighted India’s “excellent position” in the field, as entrepreneurs predict India could surpass the US in AI adoption within a decade and the country seeks $200 billion in AI investment.
“I don’t know if any country is truly ready for what’s on the horizon with AI. But India is in a great position, especially because of our students,” Lee told the audience at the lecture. AI to IPO: How big can India’s edtech space become? Session at PIE Live India.
“Indian students are ambitious, curious and ambitious. We teach many Indian students, including through our partnership with IIT Madras where we teach data science and AI. They are eager to learn the latest technologies and become employable in AI.”
Jobs of the future will not be based solely on knowledge, but on skills.
Ravneet Poha, Deakin University
India’s rise as an AI hub is evident from hosting the Global South’s first AI Impact Summit, and panelists said universities have a role to play in enabling technology to meaningfully enhance pedagogy.
“When 70% of jobs are robotized, 30% of people will require advanced skills. The jobs of the future will be based on skills, not just knowledge. Skills will need to be upgraded to make a difference,” said Ravneet Pauha, Vice-Chancellor (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia) at Deakin University.
The Australian university, the first in the country to open a branch in India, will launch new bachelor’s and master’s programs in artificial intelligence for entry in 2026, which Professor Poha said will move away from “theoretical degrees” and focus on industrial transformation.
“AI professors around the world need to think about how to leverage AI in ways that actually make a difference and impact the world, so that today’s students are equipped with the skills and ready to respond to that change,” Poha said.
“It’s really important to think about AI embedded throughout the program, the ethics of AI, and applied problem-solving assessment that aligns with AI technology as it grows on its own.”
Meanwhile, India’s edtech sector will see a 56% drop in funding from the previous year in 2025, with major companies such as Byju’s and Unacademy facing losses and scaling back their operations. However, the industry is still expected to grow to more than $61 billion by 2035, and many platforms are eyeing IPOs as they rethink their business models.
Edtech unicorn UpGrad is reportedly planning a $350 million to $400 million IPO in 2027, but Praneet Singh, vice president of product and strategy for the company’s study abroad division, said the organization is currently prioritizing long-term value creation and predictability of outcomes over an IPO.
In line with these ambitions, Mr. Singh highlighted how AI is being leveraged to make learning faster, more accessible and valuable to learners, and directly linked to skill development, in India’s ‘printing press moment’.
“One of our initiatives is a PhD in AI, which is not a traditional PhD or DPA, but rather a proof of concept where mid- or top-level management professionals spend two to three years working on breakthrough solutions that can transform business models,” said Singh.
“About 1,000 students completed the program. We have since expanded to about 100 cities in India and established small centers for microlearning and one-year intensive AI skills development.”
With approximately 90 million jobs expected to be lost to AI worldwide by 2030, and up to 40% of employers expecting to cut jobs in certain fields, universities need to strengthen their technology systems and AI-enabled tools to help faculty effectively teach and prepare students for an evolving employment environment.
According to Venkat Yellapragada, CEO of CampX, a SaaS-based platform for Indian higher education, Indian universities are actively implementing technology, including AI, in their daily operations. However, for AI to be truly effective in education, teachers need tools with specific features and capabilities, a challenge that has not yet been fully resolved.
“Current educational institutions are unable to provide AI agents with the right context at the right time, which appears to be slowing adoption. But they are not slow in their journey. Having a strong digital backbone can speed up the process, and we are already seeing pilots move into production deployments,” Yellapragada said.
But as Indian universities ramp up their AI efforts, reliance on India’s own systems will become important, Lee said.
“The other part of the equation is sovereign AI. Unfortunately, all countries other than China rely too much on big tech. Sovereign AI should be discussed in both the UK and India,” Lee said.
From a business perspective, participants said having the right platform is key to scaling and providing accurate information to students.
“With the support of our platform, we can provide information to students at scale in a way that would not be possible manually. This is hugely transformative for learners, especially since they are no longer dependent on coming into the office for counseling and want to do their own research,” said Gaurav Batra, Founder and CEO of Infinite Group.
“Of course, there are challenges when you want to scale up or try something different, but with the right technology and team, there’s no problem you can’t solve.”
