Why current education model won't work in AI age, explains PM-EAC member Sanjeev Sanyal

Economist Sanjeev Sanyal has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) will disrupt the education sector "very dramatically". He argues that the traditional lecture-based model of teaching is becoming increasingly obsolete as students can now access lectures from around the world on platforms such as YouTube.

Speaking with Professor Simrit Kaur, Principal of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Sanyal said AI is unlike previous technological revolutions because it is disrupting education itself.

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"Major technological shifts are disruptive by definition," Sanyal said when asked whether one should call it an advent of artificial intelligence or the onslaught of artificial intelligence within the educational systems. "But artificial intelligence is interesting because it disrupts something that has, broadly speaking, not been disrupted for decades now."

According to Sanyal, who is also a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, the modern university system remains largely rooted in 19th-century European models, with lectures continuing to be the primary method of imparting knowledge.

"What is the primary mode in which we impart knowledge? It's through a system of lectures," he said. "It is actually possible now for every student to listen to whatever lecture they want on the planet on YouTube."

He argued that AI is increasingly capable of providing more personalised learning than many educators can offer. "No lecturer would be able to, on a sustained basis, provide the kind of personalised attention that artificial intelligence can do."

Rather than viewing AI as a threat, Sanyal said universities should adapt by shifting their focus away from simply transmitting existing knowledge. "Put much more emphasis on research," he said, arguing that academic resources should go into creating new knowledge "rather than regurgitating old knowledge".

He also called for more hands-on, project-based, and tutorial-driven learning.

Sanyal said the pace of technological change means academic curricula will struggle to remain relevant.

"If technology is going to move very quickly, there is no way on earth that curriculum can keep up with it. In any case, we are training students for activities of the future that will change through the course of their curriculum. So this idea of loading all the knowledge gathering to the beginning of a person's life and then expecting them to sort of use that over the rest of the career over 30-40 years is perhaps not viable," he said.

Instead, Sanyal suggested a more flexible model in which higher education is spread across a person's lifetime. "Perhaps we should think of, for example, doing a bachelor's degree as something that people routinely do while they are working," he said, adding that people could return later in life for master's degrees and additional learning supported by AI. "AI allows us to think of tertiary education completely differently."

Sanyal's suggestions come amid growing debate over the impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and skills.

The International Monetary Fund earlier warned that AI could affect up to 40 per cent of jobs globally, with advanced economies particularly exposed as automation increasingly takes over tasks traditionally performed by humans. Entry-level and routine positions are likely to be the most vulnerable.

For Sanyal, that means education can no longer be viewed as a one-time phase completed in youth. "We need to begin to think about education in a much more disaggregated way as part of the way we live life, rather than as a silo that one does right in the beginning."