'AI Is a Massive Learning Booster': Sridhar Vembu On Transforming Rural Education At India AI Impact Summit

Zoho Corporation co-founder Sridhar Vembu on Tuesday highlighted the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, particularly for rural students. He emphasised deploying purpose-built AI models to assist teachers, boost learning, and enable students to develop practical projects, including small-scale innovations like custom electric vehicles, describing AI as a "massive learning booster."

Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit, Vembu emphasised that Zoho's initiatives are focused on grassroots education, saying that the company has "seen education from the ground up.

"We serve a predominantly rural student population, and so we have seen the education from the ground up.The FLN challenge is where I'm most excited to use AI tools: to help teachers better reach students. Teachers could use tools to help the students improve.These are purpose-built, small models that can solve a specific problem well. We encourage our students to build projects... Nowadays, we are even building small-scale, custom EVs.. Here, the way AI is working is as a massive learning booster," he said.

Addressing the broader role of AI in India, the ZOHO founder said the country's young population is uniquely positioned to embrace new technologies.

"With our vast youth population, we have the most AI-enthusiastic population in the world. We are adopting AI faster than any other nation. Our youth are at the forefront now... Right now, we are rapidly deploying AI in software

development. We are seeing massive productivity gains in it... There will be new jobs created, and software engineers have to get closer to the customer and solve customer problems," he told ANI.

India is hosting the India AI Impact Summit from February 16-20 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, bringing together governments, industry leaders, researchers, startups, students, and citizens from across the world.  The India AI Impact Summit is a five-day programme anchored in three foundational pillars, or "Sutras": People, Planet, and Progress.

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