New Delhi

Zoho Corporation co-founder Sridhar Vembu on Tuesday highlighted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, especially for rural students, stressing the importance of deploying purpose-built AI models to support teachers, enhance learning outcomes and encourage hands-on innovation among students.

Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit, Vembu said Zoho’s education initiatives are deeply rooted at the grassroots level, with a strong focus on rural communities.

“We serve a predominantly rural student population, so we have seen education from the ground up. The foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) challenge is where I am most excited to use AI tools — to help teachers better reach students. Teachers can use these tools to help students improve,” he said.

Vembu explained that Zoho is advocating the use of small, purpose-built AI models designed to solve specific problems effectively, rather than relying only on large, generic systems. He added that students are encouraged to work on real-world projects, ranging from software solutions to hardware innovations.

“We encourage our students to build projects. Nowadays, we are even building small-scale, custom electric vehicles. In this process, AI is working as a massive learning booster,” he said.

Commenting on the broader role of AI in India, the Zoho co-founder said the country’s large and youthful population places it in a unique position to adopt emerging technologies faster than most nations.

“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,” Vembu said.

He noted that AI is already being rapidly deployed in software development, leading to significant productivity gains. At the same time, he underlined that AI will reshape jobs rather than eliminate them.

“There will be new jobs created. Software engineers will have to get closer to the customer and focus on solving real customer problems,” he added.

India is hosting the India AI Impact Summit from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, bringing together governments, industry leaders, researchers, startups, students and citizens from across the world.

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The five-day summit is anchored in three core pillars — People, Planet and Progress — and aims to chart a roadmap for inclusive, responsible and development-oriented use of artificial intelligence.