New Delhi: India must urgently realign its education, skilling, and hiring systems to keep pace with the rapid transformation of work driven by artificial intelligence, according to a new report released by AI4India. The study outlines a set of imperatives for policymakers, educational institutions, industry, and EdTech platforms, warning that fragmented or delayed responses could leave millions of graduates ill-prepared for the AI-era job market.
The report, Future of Employability in the Age of AI: India’s Playbook for Students, Institutions, and Industry, draws on insights from more than 85 interviews conducted between November and December 2025 with leaders from industry, academia, government, EdTech firms, staffing companies, and student communities.
The urgency of the research stems from three intersecting crises which, if left unaddressed in 2026, could lead to a fundamental decoupling of Indian higher education from the global economy, directly impacting the employability of an entire generation of graduates, the report asserted.
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At the policy level, the report urged the government to declare AI literacy a national baseline across disciplines rather than limiting it to technical education. It also called for public funding of shared compute infrastructure and device-support schemes to bridge hardware gaps, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 institutions. Incentivising assessment reform instead of banning AI use, and supporting Indic-language AI ecosystems, were highlighted as critical steps to ensure inclusive participation in the AI economy.
Universities and colleges are encouraged to shift from “policing” AI to actively teaching with it. This includes redesigning assignments to reflect real-world, AI-augmented workflows, ensuring minimum access to devices and computing resources, and investing in faculty training and communities of practice. “Shift from policing AI to teaching with AI through redesigned assignments and transparent usage norms,” the report stated.
The report further recommended that policymakers declare AI literacy a national baseline, fund shared compute and device-support schemes, incentivise assessment reform instead of AI bans, support Indic-language AI ecosystems and Indian datasets, and set a goal for sovereign foundational models under the IndiaAI Mission. It also suggested professionalising AI pedagogy through recognised faculty certification programmes.
Industry stakeholders, particularly chief human resource officers (CHROs) and hiring leaders, are urged to play a more active role. The report recommended rewriting job descriptions to reflect AI-augmented responsibilities, adopting portfolio- and task-based hiring models, and launching structured AI apprenticeships for early-career talent. Employers are also encouraged to co-design micro-curricula with universities and share anonymised use-case libraries to better align classroom learning with workplace needs.
EdTech and skilling platforms, meanwhile, are advised to move beyond tool-centric tutorials toward capability-building programmes that emphasise reasoning, evaluation, and multi-tool orchestration. The report stressed the importance of integrating Indian sector-specific challenges into learning pathways and designing mobile-first, multilingual experiences suited for low-bandwidth environments.
