AI EdTech Dialogue urges a re-think of education in the AI era
Mumbai, January 13, 2026 - Reliance Foundation and Central Square Foundation (CSF) hosted a high-level roundtable at Jio Institute, Navi Mumbai, as an official pre-summit event for the India AI Impact Summit 2026. Over 50 leaders from philanthropy, EdTech, academia, and industry focused on one outcome: make AI-enabled education deliver equitable, measurable learning gains at scale.
The group emphasized sustained collaboration across governments, innovators, researchers, and funders so AI strengthens public systems instead of adding one-off tools. The session closed with strategic insights to feed national and global conversations at the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
Grounding innovation in learning impact
Participants agreed: better tech does not automatically mean better learning. The priority is to match AI with learning science, equity, and outcomes that matter-especially in low-resource, multilingual contexts.
Dr. Shailesh Kumar, Chief Data Scientist, Jio and Dean, Jio Institute, said: "It is time to re-imagine our Education System - what should it look like if it was born today - in the post connectivity and AI era? It is time to bring Personalised Education to every child on the planet." He called for moving beyond one-size-fits-all, "just-in-case" models to student-centric systems that build mastery and thinking skills with contextual pedagogy, enabled at scale.
Where AI adds value today
- Personalised instruction that adapts to a learner's current level.
- Teacher support: planning, content curation, feedback, and remediation prompts.
- Assessment: quicker diagnostics, formative feedback, and progress monitoring.
- Home-based learning, with a focus on early childhood and foundational literacy and numeracy.
Scaling these use cases requires clear cost structures, multilingual content, offline/low-bandwidth options, reliable data infrastructure, and fit within government and community delivery models.
Philanthropy's role: from ideas to evidence
Philanthropy can de-risk early bets, fund long-term evidence, build organisational capacity, and convene the ecosystem. The LiftEd EdTech Accelerator-a multi-year initiative led by CSF and British Asian Trust with founding partners Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Reliance Foundation, and UBS Optimus Foundation-has reached over 3 million children, especially in underserved school and home-learning contexts.
"Building AI and EdTech for impact is not just about the technology itself - it is about understanding the ground realities of implementing it in classrooms, homes, and communities. Learnings from the LiftEd EdTech Accelerator show how contextualised design and evidence-led approaches can support quality learning at scale," said Dr. Vanita Sharma, Advisor - Strategic Initiatives, Reliance Foundation.
From pilots to system adoption
Participants noted that scale is a systems challenge. Success depends on policy fit, pedagogy, delivery capacity, research partnerships, and statewide adoption paths. Design must reflect India's diversity: multilingual content, offline or low-bandwidth access, shared-device usage, and alignment with state curricula.
"The next frontier for EdTech is not just innovation, but scaling proven, contextualised solutions through government systems and community adoption to drive learning outcomes at scale," said Gouri Gupta, Senior Project Director, EdTech, Central Square Foundation.
Priorities the group will carry into the India AI Impact Summit 2026
- Center learning outcomes (not reach) as the measure of scale.
- Keep teachers and parents at the core, with AI as a supportive layer for feedback and personalisation.
- Invest in multilingual, context-aware content and pedagogy for FLN and early years.
- Ensure offline/low-bandwidth access and shared-device design.
- Adopt clear data use, privacy, and safety guardrails for children and educators.
- Build evidence: rigorous pilots, independent evaluations, and transparent reporting.
- Create cost-effective models and procurement pathways for government systems.
- Promote interoperability standards and open architectures to avoid vendor lock-in.
- Use philanthropy to de-risk innovation and bridge research-to-implementation gaps.
- Strengthen workforce capacity: teacher development, school leadership, and district-level support.
What educators can do now
- Define a narrow learning goal (e.g., letter-sound fluency, basic numeracy) and choose an AI-enabled tool that directly serves it.
- Pilot in one grade or cluster for 8-12 weeks with a clear baseline and endline. Track simple, comparable measures.
- Equip teachers: short, job-embedded training, classroom routines for use, and quick-reference guides.
- Plan access: multilingual content, offline packs, shared-device schedules, and parent communication for home practice.
- Review data weekly. Keep or cut features based on learning gains and teacher feedback, not novelty.
- Document costs and conditions for scale (time-on-task, device needs, support required) to inform state adoption.
Next stop: India AI Impact Summit 2026
Announced by Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the India AI Impact Summit (February 2026, New Delhi) is the first global AI summit hosted in the Global South. Anchored in People, Planet, and Progress, the summit aims to democratize AI resources for social good. Insights from this roundtable will inform sessions on AI in education and system-wide adoption.
About Reliance Foundation
Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries Limited, works across rural transformation, education, health, sports for development, disaster management, women empowerment, urban renewal, and arts, culture and heritage. Led by Mrs Nita M Ambani, the Foundation has touched the lives of over 88 million people across India, in over 91,500 villages and urban locations. More on reliancefoundation.org.
About Central Square Foundation
Established in 2012, Central Square Foundation (CSF) is a non-profit focused on system-led reforms to improve learning outcomes across India. CSF prioritises Foundational Literacy and Numeracy and Early Childhood Education, partners with 11 state governments, advances EdTech integration and evidence-based practice, and supports high-potential students from underprivileged backgrounds. More on centralsquarefoundation.org.
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