India is teaching Google how AI in education can scale | TechCrunch

"As AI races into classrooms worldwide, Google is finding that the toughest lessons on how the tech can actually scale are emerging not from Silicon Valley, but from India's schools. India has become a proving ground for Google's education AI amid intensifying competition from rivals, including OpenAI and Microsoft. With more than a billion internet users, the country now accounts for the highest global usage of Gemini for learning, according to Chris Phillips, Google's vice president and general manager for education,"

"The scale of India's education system helps explain why the country has become such a consequential testing ground. The country's school education system serves about 247 million students across nearly 1.47 million schools, per the Indian government's Economic Survey 2025-26, supported by 10.1 million teachers. Its higher education system is among the world's largest as well, with more than 43 million students enrolled in 2021-22 - a 26.5% increase from 2014-15 - complicating efforts to introduce AI tools across systems that are vast, decentralized,"

"One of the clearest lessons for Google has been that AI in education cannot be rolled out as a single, centrally defined product. In India, where curriculum decisions sit at the state level and ministries play an active role, Phillips said Google has had to design its education AI so that schools and administrators - not the company - decide how and where it is used."

India serves as a major proving ground for education AI, with the country reporting the highest global usage of Gemini amid competition from OpenAI and Microsoft. The school system covers about 247 million students across nearly 1.47 million schools with 10.1 million teachers, while higher education enrolls over 43 million students, increasing complexity. State-level curricula, active government roles, and uneven device and connectivity access complicate nationwide rollouts. Google has redesigned its education AI approach so that schools and administrators decide how and where tools are used instead of deploying a single centralized product.

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