India’s Private Universities Must Teach AI and Robotics—Or Become Irrelevant
Rana Dutta
Building AIRL by Morning Bay Confitech & General Balance - Combat Intelligence Platform -Nvidia Inception Member | Sovereign Technology, AI Policy, Digital Disruption, Geo Policy, Modern Warfare | Ex- Tiyo, Movinture.
In a nation where 65% of the population is under the age of 35, the biggest systemic failure unfolding is not unemployment—but unemployability. Despite hosting over 1,100 private universities and nearly 40,000 affiliated colleges, India’s higher education system continues to churn out graduates who are fundamentally misaligned with market realities. The mismatch is not just academic—it's economic, strategic, and increasingly existential.
Nowhere is this misalignment more glaring than in the lack of institutional adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics education as a core, not optional, curriculum. As the global economy pivots towards intelligent automation, India’s private higher education sector finds itself underprepared, under-invested, and alarmingly unaware of the storm that’s already arrived.
A Tsunami of Disruption, Poorly Anticipated
In 2023, the World Economic Forum forecast that 44% of core job skills would change by 2027. Meanwhile, India’s AI sector alone is projected to create 2.3 million jobs by 2027 (NDTV, 2025). These jobs will not be in government offices or call centres—they will demand competencies in machine learning, data science, robotics, algorithm design, and systems integration.
Yet only 3% of Indian engineering students graduate with any familiarity with these technologies, let alone mastery. The figure drops to below 1% when considering students from non-engineering streams such as commerce, humanities, and general sciences—ironically the largest academic cohorts in the country.
India is not lacking in ambition. It seeks to become a $5 trillion economy. It aims to build a semiconductor fabrication ecosystem. It talks of digital public infrastructure with the same confidence as Silicon Valley. But the foundation—the raw, adaptable, trained talent—is crumbling. Because the institutions meant to produce this talent are failing to modernize.
The Industrial Revolution Is Happening Again. But Most Universities Are Still on Coal.
In 2022, McKinsey estimated that 70% of global companies were exploring the use of AI in at least one business function. India’s IT sector, with its $254 billion export economy, is undergoing a seismic transformation where productivity will be judged not by lines of code but by the efficacy of co-working with generative AI agents. According to an EY India report, Generative AI could boost IT sector productivity by 45% by 2026 (Reuters, 2025).
But educational institutions are stuck in their own version of technical debt. Most private universities still teach "C programming" using compilers from the 1990s. Robotics is often treated as an extracurricular interest, tucked away in labs that are better funded by student clubs than by the university itself.
A review of over 200 course catalogs from Indian private institutions shows that fewer than 5% offer mandatory coursework in AI/ML. The remaining treat these as elective or postgraduate specializations—effectively too little, too late.
Cost is Not the Problem—Vision Is
A mid-sized private college typically spends between ₹3 crore to ₹5 crore annually on campus maintenance, marketing, and events. Establishing an AI and robotics lab costs less than ₹50 lakh, with partnerships available from tech firms eager to expand academic ecosystems. Free-to-use APIs, open-source tools (like TensorFlow, Hugging Face, and OpenCV), and cloud credits from Amazon, Microsoft, or Google drastically lower the barrier to entry.
Yet academic councils remain fixated on MBA expansions, international MoUs that produce no tangible results, and sports infrastructure that impresses parents during campus tours. The tragedy is not the lack of money—but the lack of alignment.
A case in point is India’s most promising experiment in AI education—Universal AI University, the first of its kind. Another, Woxsen University, has embedded AI across disciplines, from business to architecture. These institutions have not only outperformed their peers in placement packages but are now attracting faculty from global AI hubs. They are the exceptions. The rest are sleepwalking.
The Student-Centered Argument: Dreams Versus Degrees
Indian students, particularly from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, enroll in private colleges to escape poverty, join the global workforce, and pursue dreams. Their parents invest life savings, expecting a return in the form of employability.
But 75% of graduates from private colleges fail to meet the basic expectations of job-readiness, according to Aspiring Minds’ National Employability Report. In contrast, students exposed to hands-on training in AI and robotics during their undergraduate years see a 3x higher job conversion rate during campus interviews, and a 70% better CTC range in tier-1 hiring categories.
Moreover, future-readiness is no longer optional. Roles like "Prompt Engineer", "AI Workflow Architect", and "Ethical AI Compliance Officer" didn’t exist two years ago. In 2026, they will be foundational roles in digital-first enterprises. If students are not prepared to occupy these roles, someone else—possibly in Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia—will be.
The Institutional Argument: Accreditation Without Innovation is Hollow
The National Education Policy 2020 encourages "multidisciplinary education" and "skills integration". Yet there is no enforcement mechanism to ensure that AI and robotics form part of that skills base. Accreditation bodies like NAAC and AICTE focus on paper-based inputs—number of workshops conducted, number of PhDs hired—not outcomes or student competitiveness in emerging sectors.
Private colleges must voluntarily lead where regulations are failing. Building AI-focused departments, introducing real-world project credits, launching industry co-designed curriculum, and making robotics a core part of engineering and design education must become non-negotiable.
Institutions that invest in such transitions will do more than stay relevant—they will become export factories for 21st-century talent.
A National Security and Sovereignty Concern
Let us not forget that AI and robotics are not merely economic levers. They are strategic assets. Nations are now judged by the number of AI patents they file, the quality of autonomous systems they develop, and their capacity to defend against algorithmic warfare—economic, cyber, or psychological.
India cannot afford to be a back office to a world led by algorithms it does not author. For that, the pipeline starts in classrooms. If our students don’t learn to build intelligent systems, they will end up being managed by them. This is not a theory—it is the observable trajectory of the last five years.
What Must Be Done—Immediately
A Final Word: The Disruption Will Not Wait
In 1991, Indian industry was liberalized. In 2023, AI liberalized global opportunity. If Indian private higher education does not now disrupt itself, it will be disrupted—not by regulation, but by relevance. Students will vote with their feet. Employers will bypass campuses. AI-native colleges will rise in Vietnam, Kenya, or Latin America. And India, despite its demographic dividend, will witness its youth become economically obsolete before the age of 30.
Private colleges must act—not to stay in business, but to stay in history.
Citations & References
Sales & Marketing professional with 25+ years experience in Pharma, FMCG, Telecom, Franchising, Higher Education, Edtech, Channel Management!!
3moInsightful piece, Rana! Totally agree that private universities must urgently integrate AI & robotics to stay relevant and prepare future-ready graduates. Point is, aren't they aware about it already. Why do you think Indian universities, despite knowing the urgency, remain so poignant and slow to act on integrating AI and emerging tech into their curriculum?