One of the problems which India is witnessing is the imbalance between school enrolment and higher education enrolment. Interestingly, about 25 crores students take admission in the schools every year, and just about 28% continue the higher studies, as per the TG Sitharam, chairman of the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). This lag is primarily due to the economic constraints. The majority of the students find it extremely difficult to deal with the massive fee for higher studies, leaving millions of bright minds outside the opportunity spectrum. Perhaps, AI is the medium through which this problem can be addressed. It is providing affordable, accessible, and high-quality learning platforms. Students can pursue higher education irrespective of their geographical or financial limitations through AI-enabled platforms. It can potentially increase the percentage of higher education enrolments and offer more equitable access to learning.

Also, another issue that poses a significant challenge is the shortage of quality teachers. According to the UNESCO study, India has over 1 million unfilled teaching vacancies, and approximately 1.1 lakh schools carry out functions with only a single teacher. This problem mainly exists in remote regions across the country. Sadly, about 65% to teaching staff remains unfilled in these towns. Now, AI’s role in this scenario becomes extremely useful, as it acts like a supplementary teaching tool. With the shortage of this level of teachers, AI-powered platforms can serve as virtual teaching assistants, helping bridge the gap by providing students access to learning coursebooks, personalised guidance, and more interactive learning experiences.

Beyond just the technological progress, AI also stands as a powerful tool that has the capability to democratise education. Tools like adaptive learning technologies can modify lessons for individual students, enhancing their educational journey. Adaptive learning, a fundamental aspect of AI in education, allows platforms to adjust the difficulty of the material based on a student’s progress. Popenici and Kerr (2017) describe how the applications of AIED are rapidly evolving, reshaping how education is delivered. Generative AI technologies, which create interactive and engaging content, are attracting significant investment and are instrumental in the growing development of the AIED industry. AIED’s adaptive learning techniques have proven to boost test results by 62%, with AI-driven learning improving overall student performance by 30% and reducing anxiety by 20%.

To better understand AI’s impact on education, let us take the example of OpenAI’s introduction of ChatGPT Edu in May 2024. The edition of ChatGPT has been specifically designed for the higher education institutions. Its fundamental idea is to boost the privacy features along with security. This signifies that how AI is flexible and adjusting to the education scenario. These innovative offerings imply that how AI can bring a paradigm shift the future classrooms. Such innovations clearly reflect the potential of AI to shape future classrooms. It makes learning experiences efficient, tailored, and engaging at the same time.

In fact, our country, AI could be just what the education system has desperately craved for. With the high growth rate in population, facilitating quality, low-cost education becomes a hurdle. AI thus presents a promising solution. It helps to scale learning opportunities, making them more accessible and affordable. AI-based platforms create personalised learning paths tailored to each student’s needs, interests, and experience, unlike traditional classrooms that use a one-size-fits-all approach.

AI is making education much more accessible. For students with disabilities, tools like text-to-speech and speech recognition give them the chance to interact with lessons in ways that suit their needs. AI also helps non-native speakers by translating educational content into different languages, removing language barriers that often hold students back. In many cases, traditional classrooms can’t fully address the unique needs of all students, especially those with disabilities or language difficulties. AI fills in these gaps, making sure that education reaches more people and is more inclusive. It’s not about replacing teachers or changing the core of learning but about giving more students a better chance to succeed, regardless of their abilities or language skills.

AI also augments the process of assessment. Through adaptive assessments, AI can adjust the level of difficulty of tests and quizzes based on previous submissions. Students are constantly given the prospect and motivation to learn and improve in specific areas, as they receive timely and relevant feedback on what needs to be changed. On the other hand, traditional evaluations are more static and it offers minimum feedback. It doesn’t offer any bigger scope to self learning. Also, for a teacher in a traditional classroom set up, to closely monitor each student’s progress and learning style, especially in large class sizes. However, AI enables platforms to monitor each student’s learning patterns, evaluating how they interact with the content and making recommendations for improving learning outcomes. It is nearly impossible to duplicate this level of thorough understanding in a conventional learning environment. AI provides quicker, more accurate support while also saving time for both teachers and students.

AI has much more unique features than traditional methods in the form of gamified learning and interactive content. AI technologies can formulate content that recreates a stimulating environment in which students are more than passive recipients of information while learning something new. We are very much aware that the traditional learning is mainly restricted to classroom lectures and textbooks, but AI enables to engage in much effective way to comprehend some of the complex subjects. This method helps students only to keep the information in a better way but also inspire and motivates them.

Moreover, the rise of AI in education does not mean that it will replace teachers; rather, it improves their role. By handling tasks like grading and administrative duties, AI frees up educators to focus on mentoring and personalised student interactions—areas where human connection is essential. In other ways, we can simply put out that AI is like an instructor in the classroom, which provides real-time recommendations/suggestions and feedback to help the students.

AI eliminates the hurdles which the traditional learning usually faces. These are restricted due to cost and location. Moreover, it encourages more inclusive and accessible educational experience. The best part is that students can have this opportunity to learn as per their wishes.

Conventional classroom education methods bank on lectures which is not always the best way to learn, but AI tools are able to meet the needs of all students. Time and the availability of the teacher also become limitations for today’s traditional classrooms. On the other hand, technology allows students to access learning materials whenever they want. Traditional forms of evaluation are unable to provide detailed feedback on the student’s performance, but AI enables students to get immediate feedback and understand how to improve even before the action.

As India gets ready to flag its position in the global edtech market, AI can help overcome important education challenges like teacher shortages and high costs. By making use of AI, India can offer quality education to millions of students, making learning fairer and more effective for everyone. The future of education is digital, and AI is leading the way.

This article is authored by Diwakar Chittora, CEO, Intellipaat.