Zoho rolled out Classes 2.0 on Wednesday, an overhauled learning management system with artificial intelligence built into lesson planning, grading, and a subject-restricted AI tutor for students. The platform, developed over five years through conversations with more than 1,000 teachers, targets three groups that the company says are struggling with the current education system: students, teachers, and institutions.
The launch reflects a growing push to bring AI for Education into classrooms, focusing on practical tools that address administrative overload and student disengagement. Dev Anand Ramasamy, vice-president of product management at Zoho who led the product's development, said the redesign is built on the idea that AI placed at the centre of the student-teacher-institution triangle can ease friction on all sides.
Three problems, one AI-driven fix
Ramasamy framed Classes 2.0 around three groups. Students, he said, are "digital natives" who disengage quickly in traditional classrooms. Teachers in India often lack the administrative support common elsewhere, handling grading, lesson uploads, and compliance work alone. Institutions face growing reporting demands from bodies like the All India Council for Technical Education, with penalties for those that fall short.
"If we put AI in the middle of this mix," Ramasamy said, "it can help students learn better, free up teachers' time, and help institutions manage compliance." That philosophy drove the product's redesign from a simple assignment-collection tool built during the pandemic into a full academic platform now used by state governments, universities, schools, and colleges.
What's new in Classes 2.0
The updated system introduces an AI tutor tailored to each student's enrolled subjects, deliberately restricted to prevent open-ended general chatbot use. "It will first show you the subjects that you are being allotted… anything outside that will not be supported," Ramasamy said. A Duolingo-style micro-learning feature adds daily questions and streaks, while an AI-based career counselling tool and an AI course builder round out the student-facing additions. The course builder can generate a full course with description, learning outcomes, and a thumbnail image in under 30 seconds, in any of 22 Indian languages, though Ramasamy stressed that teachers still review the output.
For teachers, the platform automates lesson planning and offers AI-assisted grading for computer science assignments. Ramasamy estimated that automated grading could eliminate roughly 150 hours of manual grading work per teacher per semester, time that could shift back to classroom engagement. AI-generated feedback is not sent directly to students; the teacher edits it first. For educators building these skills, an AI Learning Path for Teachers can provide structured training. Institutions get a course-outcome mapping tool designed to generate the data needed for accreditation reports.
Language support, accuracy, and privacy
Classes 2.0 supports 22 scheduled Indian languages. The interface translation was handled separately, while the AI features draw on the underlying language model's multilingual capabilities rather than a translation layer. To reduce factual errors, Zoho uses narrow, context-specific prompting-restricting the AI tutor's responses to a student's specific course and semester. "We haven't received any complaints of such cases so far," Ramasamy said.
On privacy, the platform is designed to make clear to students that their activity is visible to their institution. "You cannot use it like your own personal chatbot," Ramasamy said. Institutions can disable AI access for students entirely if they choose. Offline access is limited: the mobile app can cache content for temporary viewing but does not support full downloads due to storage and hardware constraints on many student devices.
Pricing and access
Zoho is offering Classes 2.0 free to central and state government institutions, a decision Ramasamy linked to a goal of not letting budget constraints limit access to education technology. Individual teachers, including those at institutions that haven't adopted the platform, can also use it free for up to 100 students. Private schools, colleges, and universities are charged Rs 500 per teacher per month, with a separate professional tier and custom-development option for institutions that want additional features. Zoho does not plan to charge for the core product licence, though it may bill for services such as dedicated regional-language support staff in specific cases.
Why this matters for education professionals
Classes 2.0's automation targets a persistent pain point: the administrative grind that eats into teaching time. The estimated 150-hour reduction in manual grading per semester is a concrete number that administrators and faculty can weigh against current workloads. The platform's free tier for individual teachers lowers the barrier to experimentation, while the course-outcome mapping tool addresses a growing compliance burden for Indian colleges. For educators evaluating AI tools, the takeaway is clear-products that handle repetitive tasks and generate accreditation-ready data can free up hours for direct instruction, without requiring institutions to sacrifice control over what students see.
"Education has been a great leveller," Ramasamy said. "AI is just going to enhance that further."
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