AI & Work: Ask What People Can Do, Not What Degree They Hold

Anyone who has sat through a conference on AI and education in India knows how it goes. Someone cites the National Education Policy. Someone else brings up Finland. Everyone agrees that rote learning is a problem, that critical thinking matters, that change is long overdue.

The session wraps up, the minutes get circulated, and by Monday, coaching institutes are running exactly as before.
This is not due to lack of effort or thought – the problem is structural. Policy conversations are built around what can be measured and defended in a budget cycle. The consequences of getting AI and education wrong are largely seen as being a decade away, and a decade away is someone else’s problem. But the effects are already being felt, and conversations are skipping over certain elements.