Are we even ready to embrace the pace of AI in Education?
Who do we hold responsible?
Who should be responsible for teaching them? Where should they enrol? And when is the right time to start?
AI has opened the floodgates of knowledge, but we still struggle to manage it effectively. We risk burdening the next generation by relying on traditional methods and limiting knowledge within the walls of the institutions under the pretext of certificates or degrees. Meanwhile, the Western world continues to heavily invest in technology and power to maintain its global leadership, even implementing restrictions to limit the spread of new technologies to other regions.
The key question for parents, teachers, and children is how to adapt as we move into a world with evolving dynamics. Schools and NCERT are still working on finalising the syllabus, yet in some top Indian schools, students have no finalised books for their courses, even as exams are scheduled in the coming weeks. Recently, a leading school in Chandigarh provided students with a list of books to purchase, including one on AI for Class 9. However, the AI course was later dropped, and IT was introduced as a compulsory subject instead. Yes you heard it right - now let's share some updates from industry data as of May 8, 2026 - where AI has already replaced existing IT jobs and if not will replace them in some time.
- In the first quarter of 2026, we have already lost 1 lakh jobs - Even if we ignore what happened till Dec 2025.
- Cloudflare, Meta, Oracle, and a few others have recently downsized their manpower in IT, with AI first approach’
- Indian IT giants, where innovation is still scarce and no real AI movement is being seen have reported a reduction of employees in FY26.
- Entry-level jobs have been reduced as recent data suggests that only 15% IT aspirants have been placed.
- With startups not behind on layoffs, reskilling is becoming mandatory for survival across industries, and if AI data is considered, lakhs of legacy IT jobs are going to be phased out in the next 2 years as the focus shifts to outcomes.
Our education system is still rigid in its approach where a school is still dictating teh boundaries of teaching. If a top prominent school faces such issues, it highlights even greater challenges in other schools. While this may be an isolated incident, many parents can relate as such issues are too common, with roughly 90% of the system struggling to keep pace with the rapid changes around them. Who will teach AI when the entire industry is facing a shortfall? And do we even think an AI expert will invest time in a school when he has other options to use his skills and earn multiples? The answer to the same may be very simple: open the doors of knowledge in schools rather than confining it. But is anyone listening ? The one who dont understand AI or Asking AI is not the solution. With Elon Musk already propagating that ‘Jobs’ is going to be just an option in future - are we even ready to acknowledge that?
Let's read forward as we try to decode the same. The path of future education is ONLY SKILLS and not Theory ( read our article coming out on 31st May 2026)
AI has penetrated the education system in a way that is now irreversible. Much like calculators reduced the emphasis on manual arithmetic, AI has simplified complex academic tasks for learners. As per the survey by Zendy, almost half of the 1500 surveys conducted,participants agreed to using AI for literature review, researching and understanding difficult topics, and around 40% participants frequently use AI tools for writing and editing. In 2024, more than 86% of the students were using AI in their studies.
We now exist in a paradigm where humans resemble the child and AI assumes the role of the parent, possessing a vast, ever-expanding bank of knowledge that often surpasses individual human capability.
However, this relationship is fundamentally different from a traditional human one: while parents nurture and protect the child, AI does not assume responsibility—it merely responds to a query, no matter the consequences. AI has no emotions and no filters, and sometimes this filtration is necessary.
The education department and our society at large approach AI as though humans will teach its skills and guide its development. But the reality is shifting in the opposite direction. Today, newer, smarter AI systems, are autonomously identifying critical cybersecurity vulnerabilities at a scale and speed no human team could match. In a competition organised by DARPA in 2024, the AI software was able to find real vulnerabilities in the systems, which would traditionally require experts weeks to complete. Anthropic’s Mythos (unreleased model), is another such latest model by Anthropic. It is so potent that leading tech companies are developing methods to secure it and shield it from hackers. A few weeks ago, it autonomously identified thousands of zero-day vulnerabilities across ‘every’ major operating system and web browser, including Google, Microsoft, IBM, and any major tech company currently running the world. Such vulnerabilities are rare to find (usually companies find 60-100 in a year, Mythos found thousands in a few days). and tech companies invest billions in protecting their systems against such vulnerabilities. In fact, in 2025, 74% of top tech companies were confident in their ability to detect and respond to such threats. So, when an AI system can discover hidden vulnerabilities inside the world’s most secure and advanced infrastructures, then the assumption that education is merely preparing students to “use AI tools” becomes dangerously outdated. Our education system must train the students to build, analyse, and control these tools, not just prompt them.
The collapse of Linear Learning Processes:
The modern education system, often shaped by Western practices, traditionally follows a step-by-step learning hierarchy. In the past, students would first learn a subject, then a tool, followed by a method, and finally practice to produce an outcome or project. This hierarchy is now outdated. Today, learners have simultaneous access to the subject matter, tools, methods, and processes. The idea of linear progression no longer applies. AI integrates subject explanations, practical exercises, methods, examples, corrections, and final outputs all within a single interaction. This means students no longer need years of sequential learning to master each layer of competence, as was required in traditional classrooms.
According to a study conducted among university students, 88% of students acknowledged using AI tools for graded assessments, with the survey noting that AI usage among students has increased from 66% in 2024 to 92% in 2025. And it is not the only study. The internet is filled with similar datasets, which time and again prove that the linear model of learning has already collapsed in practice, even if the institutions have not acknowledged it in policy.
This is, in some ways, a return to old age.
In earlier times, before school education, religious institutions were the primary source of education. Gurukulas, Panchayats, churches, and monasteries used to be the mainstream before the current era walked in. While the system has its limitations, it was solely focused on ‘skills-based learning, driven by the specialised interests and skills of each learner. If a learner was skilled in swordmanship, he was trained accordingly. If someone was proficient in archery, they were taught to shoot.
The entire education system was personalised, and every part of learning was connected to roots and cultural values. But the limitations were huge, as it did not offer any landscape for improvement or standard, as exposure to other media was limited and lacked scaling.But its intention was something the current system has largely lost: meeting the learner where they are.
AI offers personalized, yet boundaryless education:
AI is restoring the personalisation in learning. Studies highlight that AI powered tutoring systems improve student engagement and performance by as much as 30% and platforms like Coursera are already serving more than 200 million learners globally. The classroom by contrast still operates on the assumption that one person speaks and everybody listens. some retained, most of them forgot, and all crammed up before an exam - The only way of assessment for all- Surprising, right? But we followed it till now.
We have to understand that AI is a factory and not an individual. Thus, students can't focus on a single stream for specialisation, as a factory can do hundreds of jobs, and as individuals, in order to adapt to the new mechanism, we have to start engaging at least in a few more verticals than just one. The fact can also be corroborated by the fact that since education is now accessible beyond the walls of an institute, it is at the highest risk. Education is no longer locked and is adaptable to students in their own languages.
The shift from Scarcity of Knowledge to Abundance:
“Education for all” said our government to us, for generations.
The intent was right, as access to education and healthcare are the two primary drivers for individual and national growth. Education was scarce locked inside the walls of colleges available only within fixed hours to those who could afford it or reach it.
With AI, knowledge is now available beyond the boundaries of any institution 24 hours a day in every language on every subject imaginable. While we also understand the limitation of AI being accessible to only those who have access to technology which also remains one of the biggest limitation of AI adoption.
However according to the World Economic Forum 29% of court jobs are expected to change significantly by 2030 and AI and Big Data remains the top on the list of what employers are currently asking for. The global market value of AI education is expected to increase from 3.6 billion in 2023 to 73.7 billion by 2033.
Our education system has not yet honestly answered: do we need our students to write a 2000-word or 10000-word essay, or should we start just asking them to evaluate data and mistakes of available data that they pick up from their searches? Look to identify gaps, and that is where the human brain will still be sharper to analyse and identify the limitations.
Earlier the education system operated on a clear business model knowledge is a proprietary ownership and institutions held the knowledge, offering access to it and build the entire education system around it. Students were issued credentials as proof of participation for a long time that model served a purpose but has since converged into a business model, rather than a public good.
The same system is now attempting to adapt to AI, but the approach is largely reactive rather than proactive. The AI courses are being added as elective subjects, institutions are largely lacking AI instructors, Teachers are trying to teach AI through printed books, and AI detector tools are being deployed against students. AI use is being policed as cheating rather than channelled as capability. The education departments are trying to fix AI into the old platform instead of building a new system around what AI makes possible.
Education is now accessible across different domains which were not even accessible a few years ago. For example, South Korea has launched AI Power personalised digital textbooks in all primary and secondary schools, and China has made AI a compulsory subject in every primary and secondary school in September 2025. India has also mandated AI education in schools from April 2026. The question for the education system is not whether AI will change education; it has already changed the education. The question is whether we will design for the change or keep reacting to it.
We are not preparing students for a world where they will use AI. Instead, we are unprepared for a world where AI already surpasses humans in tasks once thought to be exclusive to humans. Rather than preventing students from using AI tools, educators must recognise AI's current capabilities and identify which human tasks are now performed by AI, as well as determine what kind of learning is necessary for humans to remain ahead of AI technology.
Our current panel of researchers is working to identify the most effective methods for students and aspirants to keep up with teh pace of AI,and how the education system can be built around it. We will delve into this topic in our upcoming blog as we believe that future generations need all the support they can get and are relying on us.
The key idea is that it will be interesting to observe what an AI does when asked how humans can remain relevant in a world dominated by AI. Even after reading the article, many of us might still search for answers by asking the AI, 'How can we stay relevant?' and then follow its guidance. This highlights the paradox of our current society.
