This article was originally published on Rest of World and focuses on the impact of technology outside of the Western world.
Keshef Dutt spends several hours every night at his home in northern India teaching small business owners in Bangladesh and Nepal how to use artificial intelligence. Not for coding or building chatbots, but for something more basic: AI in Excel.
At a cost of $30 per person for the three-month program, Dutt, 28, runs classes on Zoom as well as WhatsApp and Facebook groups. He teaches how to use AI-powered spreadsheet tools like Copilot to automate inventory logs, generate invoices, analyze sales patterns, and build customer databases. Group sessions are 60 to 90 minutes long and are held twice a week.
“Most of my students run small shops, clothing stores, tire repair units and beauty salons,” said Dutt, who completed a master’s degree in computer applications. Rest of the world. “They say to me, ‘I don’t want to learn AI for a big tech job. I want to use AI to run my business better.'”
Since introducing the class in March, Dutt said he has trained about 50 people. Many people are signing up for additional modules.
Indian Tutor has been offering math, science, and technology classes on YouTube for years, building a reputation for affordable and accessible lessons. The demand for AI tutorials distributed in a similar manner on social media platforms reflects the growing interest in AI and its implementation.
This has led to a booming informal economy of tutors like Dutt in the city of Jalandhar, far from the tech hubs of Bengaluru and Hyderabad. We offer affordable, personalized AI lessons to students, business owners, and freelance workers in South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.
Bisma Wani, located in the Kashmir city of Srinagar, offers classes to those seeking remote work on global platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork. Wani said he teaches AI to beginner freelancers for 500 to 800 rupees ($6 to $10) for a group session. Rest of the world. Most of her students are from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
Typical sessions, attended by a dozen students, are one hour long and focus on AI tools such as ChatGPT, Canva, Adobe Express AI, and Midjourney. Wani said he is helping the students. Build your portfolio. Engineers drive design and copywriting. Create AI-generated business labels, posters, and content For social media. Set up automated workflows to accelerate project delivery.
“They’re not trying to become data scientists. They just want to be better digital workers,” says Wani, 27, who holds a bachelor’s degree in computer applications. She says she receives 10 to 15 new inquiries each week.
The Indian edtech market is worth around $7.5 billion and is expected to reach around $29 billion by 2030 due to the adoption of digital devices and cultural shift towards online learning. Formal AI courses are offered at academies, colleges and edtech platforms, but Wani says they cost hundreds of dollars, well beyond many people’s budgets.
Unlike registered ed-tech platforms, tutors like Dutt and Wani primarily operate through private Facebook groups and WhatsApp channels. Word of mouth is the main driver of registration and gives a more personalized feel to your sessions.
The Indian government is also promoting AI literacy and has several programs targeting schools and the wider population. The Yuva AI for All program is a free foundational course that enables learners to “incorporate AI into their learning, work, and daily lives with confidence.” A new initiative backed by Microsoft aims to equip 20 million workers with essential AI skills by 2030.
While formal AI courses and government programs are important, informal tutorials can help fill a critical gap, said Anirudh Govind, an AI researcher and consultant in Bengaluru. Rest of the world.
“People think AI education has to be like a computer science degree, but most small business owners and freelancers only need the 5% of it, the part that saves them time and makes them money,” he said. “These low-cost tutors have made AI less intimidating and more practical. This suggests that AI adoption in developing countries is happening bottom-up rather than top-down.”
The sector is unregulated and can pose risks to registrants, Govind said. “There is no quality control. Some instructors are good and some are not.”
For learners with few other options, lessons can lead to increased income.
For Aditi Thapa, a freelance content creator and designer based in Nepal, Wani’s module has helped her secure more clients, she said. Rest of the world. “My monthly income went from $70 to $250,” the 24-year-old said. “I didn’t need a big AI course. I just needed someone to teach me something that would lead to a job.”
Farid Ahmed, who runs a stationery shop in Dhaka, recently took a tutorial from Dutt. Before registering, the 38-year-old said, he had never used a computer for anything other than basic billing. Rest of the world. After three weeks of lessons, Ahmed said he was able to automate inventory using an AI-powered spreadsheet tool, which helped him track fast-moving items and plan inventory ahead of the festival.
“Profits have increased,” he said.
For Dutt, tutorials are a small but growing side hustle. He believes that even if formal programs proliferate, there will always be room for people like Ahmed because of their needs.
“They’re teaching advanced AI. I’m teaching someone how to run a ledger-based store with an AI-powered spreadsheet,” he said.
“The biggest misconception is that small business owners in developing countries will be the last to adopt AI. I believe the opposite is true,” Dutt said. “They’re the first to implement it because for them, even a small increase in efficiency makes a big difference.”
Tauseef Ahmad Freelance journalist based in Delhi.
Sajid Raina Freelance journalist based in Delhi.
This article was first published Rest of the worldcovering the impact of technology outside the Western world.
