Imagine walking into a classroom where students are no longer just dependent on available resources to feed their curiosity; a student asks a question, and within a few seconds, ideas play out as stories, which unfold into designs - welcome to the new-age classrooms powered by generative AI.  

Generative AI is silently transforming classrooms from spaces of teaching into spaces of exploration. It is turning out to be a great tool for piquing curiosity, amplifying creativity, and turning every student into an active thinker.

So, what is Generative AI?

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI) is a subset of AI that helps create new content and ideas in the form of images, videos, stories, music, writing software code, designing products, and even conversational chatbots! The GenAI models use existing data and learn from the user prompts and patterns. Unlike the traditional AI models and applications that examine, process, and interpret existing data to find patterns and solutions, GenAI produces new images, new content, and new codes. Some of the examples include ChatGPT, Midjourney, Google Gemini, DALL-E, Claude, Runway, Suno, GitHub Copilot, etc.

Although AI and its offsets have been around for quite some time now, GenAI rose to prominence during the 2020s because of the unprecedented growth of AI through Large Language Models (LLMs), deep neural networks and other advanced, and sophisticated technologies.

Generative AI in education

a. It is seen that, globally, 86% of students worldwide use AI tools for their studies; 83% of K-12 teachers employ generative AI for planning and feedback, but the percentage of adoption in higher education is relatively lower.

b. India has witnessed 3.6 million GenAI course enrollments in 2025, which is the highest globally. Over 60% of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) permit student AI usage, 57% have AI policies and restrictions, and 53% of students use GenAI for learning and research.

c. India’s AI in the education market is one of the fastest-growing regions in Asia Pacific and worldwide and is projected to steeply rise from USD 196.4 million in 2024 to about USD 1140.3 million by 2030.

The application of generative AI being in classroom environment, the advantages, and the challenges in India -

In the Indian context, GenAI is being primarily used for personalised or individualised learning, content creation, research, and teaching support.

Students are using OpenAI chatbots like ChatGPT and tools like Midjourney -

1. For writing assistance.

2. To break down complex explanations.

3. To sum up, condense, and simplify lengthy and intricate texts.

4. For translations.

5. Differently-abled students use it for text-to-speech and translation support.

6. To research and fetch high-quality content from across the web.

7. For drafting reports and creating content in the form of images, videos, artwork, etc., for assignments and various events and occasions, which would have otherwise run into several hours, thereby reducing the time and effort.

8. Generative AI is seen to assist and expand the imagination of students by challenging the existing scenarios, helping them to think creatively, even in terms of prompts to get the best answers and content!

Key applications by educators –

1. Generative AI is a great tool for teachers to analyse individual student data, check for gaps, and design and customise lesson plans for tailored teaching. Through gen AI, they can easily identify each student’s strengths, weaknesses, and abilities and design plans to suit their learning styles.

For instance, if a student is preparing for exams and is struggling with quadratic equations but finds geometry relatively easier, AI can identify this pattern and suggest and create short videos, simpler practice questions, simplified explanations, and quizzes for difficult topics, and make it even more interesting for easier ones.

2. Create interesting learning materials, such as notes, quizzes, and presentation slides.

3. Studies show that 38% of the HEIs in India use GenAI for automated grading and feedback.

4. Educators in schools are using it for language practice sessions, to create interactive simulations, to drive teaching through virtual labs, and to address resource gaps.

5. Educators find this as a great support to boost engagement and enhance students’ academic performance.

6. It saves their time and effort on administrative tasks.

With every technology and progress, there come challenges.

1. Educators have constantly witnessed the reliance of students on generative AI for assistance in every single aspect of their studies. From writing assignments to solving math problems to performing experiments to summarising chapters and coming up with presentations.

That which involved careful and thoughtful examination and research to arrive at conclusions, and final outputs is now taking a few minutes, which is leading students to curb their thinking! They are heavily dependent on AI for every aspect and are not just using it as a support but as an end-to-end tool to think, analyse and execute all projects. This is a scary situation.

2. AI models are constantly learning from the existing data and user patterns, and hence they can be prone to providing misleading information, wrong data, miscalculations, and, as seen in some instances, some harmful data as well!

3. The tool is indirectly seen to dwindle the relationship between teachers and students. As all information is available at the click of a button, students often do not pay attention and do not treat what the teachers teach them with respect, and in turn, the respect towards teachers could slowly die down!

4. Students are resorting to the company of virtual assistants for all their personal and academic challenges and issues, thereby reducing the interactions between friends and peers.

5. Students are seen to directly copy their assignments and projects from AI sources without changing a word of it or are smartly submitting with a few tweaks, and are not bothered about the actual meaning of the project and the outcome of it. This can cost them a great deal in the future.

In essence -

Time and again, it is seen that technology changes every few years. But what remains and what can lead students and graduates towards a successful future is their ability to think critically, to employ analytical and logical reasoning, cultivate soft skills, emotional intelligence, creativity, technical skills, be open to learning, and resilient to bounce back after failure. It is against the law of nature for students and professionals to give up on their inherent abilities and depend on something transient.  

Schools and HEIs should strictly implement restrictions and limitations on the use of AI and Generative AI. There needs to be a balance between innovation and integrity. These have to be used as tools only to support and enhance our innate skills, and not replace them.

Disclaimer

The blog is curated by referring to various credible sources and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of QS I-GAUGE. The information provided is for general informational purposes only, readers are advised to conduct their own research and seek professional advice before making any decisions.