Who is Mitesh Khapra? The IIT Madras professor featured in TIME Magazine’s top 100 AI leaders

Mitesh Khapra, Associate Professor at IIT Madras, has been named in TIME magazine’s 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in AI, joining global leaders such as Elon Musk and Sam Altman.

Recognised for his pioneering work in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, Khapra has made significant contributions to advancing AI for India’s linguistically diverse population. His work focuses on building AI systems that understand and process India’s 22 official languages, addressing challenges that English-centric AI models often overlook.

Academic foundations at IIT Bombay

Khapra’s journey in AI began at IIT Bombay, one of India’s premier engineering institutions.

He completed both his MTech and PhD degrees there, earning his doctorate in January 2012. His PhD thesis focused on reusing resources for multilingual computation, aiming to develop efficient methods to process multiple languages simultaneously. This work laid the foundation for his later focus on multilingual AI and language-specific datasets, which are crucial for applications in education, governance, and voice technology in India.

From software engineering to applied AI

Before fully entering the research and academic world, Khapra gained practical experience as a software engineer at Infosys Technologies in Pune (2002–2004). During this time, he worked on web services development and large-scale software systems, learning the practical challenges of deploying technology solutions. This industry exposure allowed him to later combine theoretical AI research with real-world applications, a rare skill that has shaped his research approach.

Career at IBM Research India

After completing his PhD, Khapra joined IBM Research India, where he worked for over four years. His research spanned machine translation, deep learning, multimodal learning, and argument mining, areas critical to natural language understanding and AI reasoning. At IBM, he published extensively in top-tier international conferences and journals, building his reputation as a thought leader in AI for language technologies.

His research contributed not just to academic knowledge but also to practical solutions for text and speech processing in multiple languages.

Academic leadership at IIT Madras

Currently, Khapra is an Associate Professor at IIT Madras’ Department of Data Science and AI (DSAI), part of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI. His research group focuses on neural machine translation, speech recognition, multilingual AI models, and natural language understanding.

Khapra mentors students and collaborates with researchers globally, helping to shape the next generation of AI scientists in India.

AI4Bharat: Making AI accessible for India

One of Khapra’s most impactful initiatives is AI4Bharat, an open-source project that builds datasets, tools, and models for all 22 official Indian languages. The project has recorded thousands of hours of diverse speech across nearly 500 districts, enabling startups, researchers, and government initiatives to develop AI systems tailored to local languages.

Notably, AI4Bharat’s datasets have been integral to the government’s Bhashini mission, which seeks to deliver AI-driven digital services to citizens in their native languages.

By reducing reliance on English-focused AI, Khapra is helping bridge the digital divide and making AI accessible to millions.

Awards and recognitions

Khapra’s contributions have earned him multiple prestigious awards:

His inclusion in TIME’s 2025 AI 100 list highlights not only his individual achievements but also India’s growing global influence in AI research, particularly in creating solutions that cater to local needs rather than replicating Silicon Valley trends.

A vision for India’s AI future

Khapra’s work exemplifies the power of combining strong academic foundations, practical industry experience, and visionary research. By addressing India-specific challenges in AI, particularly in linguistics, he is shaping a model for how countries with rich linguistic and cultural diversity can innovate in technology while maintaining local relevance. His recognition in TIME magazine underscores that impactful AI research is no longer the domain of a few global tech giants—it can emerge from India’s premier institutions and vision-driven researchers.