Education is widely considered to be the foundational solution to many of the country’s most pressing problems. Despite this, bringing quality education within reach for India’s vast and diverse population remains to be a significant hurdle. India has several educational institutes of global repute, including the IITs and IIMs. But, access to those is only for a select few. A majority of learners still attend average institutions, creating a challenge of equitable access. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can prove to be a game-changer. Globally, the number one use case for Generative AI tools like ChatGPT is education, with India leading in student usage. This phenomenon points to the urgent need and potential for AI to bridge the quality gap and create an AI-literate workforce.
Two organisations that have worked in this domain have been recognised for their work in the recent Mint All About AI Tech4Good Awards, sponsored by Salesforce. While Niveda Foundation bagged the Gold award, Udhyam Learning Foundation got the Silver in the Best Use of AI for Education & Livelihoods category. Both winners demonstrated how ethical AI solutions can transform outdated models into personalised and highly impactful learning ecosystems for underserved communities and the youth.
Watch the highlights from the Awards Summit below,
Gold Winner: Niveda Foundation
Niveda Foundation addressed a significant challenge that an evolving job market like India is facing, especially for youth from underprivileged backgrounds and women. There is a disconnect between the vocational training they get and the practical skills required on-the-job. The core finding was that traditional skilling programs for underprivileged youth and women have low retention and limited livelihood outcomes. The reason for this is lack of personalised learning and real-time support, further deepening this inequality.
The foundation recognised the need for an AI-driven and market-relevant learning ecosystem that is accessible to everyone. Their winning solution leverages AI to deliver personalised learning experiences at scale, something that conventional models are unable to achieve. AI offers the ability to analyse learner data, identify patterns, predict learner needs, customise training, track progress in real time and connect skills to market opportunities.
The results are visible. Before adopting AI, training programs followed a uniform approach with limited tracking, resulting in high dropout rates of about 40 per cent and low job conversions. After integrating AI-driven learning analytics and adaptive modules, dropout rates reduced sharply to 12 per cent, while course completion rose by 60 per cent and job placements improved by 45 per cent.
Real-time dashboards can also help track learner performance and offer personalised support adapted to the needs of individual learners. The solution uniquely blends social impact with technology by using predictive analytics, adaptive learning and local-language support, ensuring inclusivity and relevance. Furthermore, the model is fully scalable.
In the era of data safety, Niveda Foundation ensures ethical use of AI through strict data privacy, transparency and human oversight. They collect only essential learner data with consent, and AI recommendations are reviewed by trainers and coordinators to avoid bias or exclusion, ensuring their systems are designed for fairness and accountability.
Silver Winner: Udhyam Learning Foundation
India is suffering from a youth opportunity crisis. About 12 million young people enter the workforce each year, of which approximately 90 per cent end up in informal, unpaid work. The problem is systemic – we have an exam-focused school system which often produces job seekers rather than problem solvers, Udhyam Learning Foundation aimed to address the systemic gap by integrating their Entrepreneurial Mindsets Curriculum (EMC) into Government schools nationwide.The aim is to make India entrepreneurial by integrating practical, real-world projects into government schools, fostering initiative, resilience and value creation nationwide.
The major challenge they faced was one of scale. With over 3.9 million students across 12 states, teachers simply couldn’t provide the timely, personalised and domain-specific guidance required for students to develop real ventures. As a result, less than 40 per cent of projects reached full implementation due to teacher bandwidth issues. Udhyam found that AI was a practical way to democratise high-quality, equitable, 24/7, context-aware, hyper-personalised support.
Udhyam’s winning solution is the AI Mentor, a WhatsApp chatbot assisted by a web application that provides support, assesses submissions, delivers personalised feedback and offers timely nudges and resources. The 24/7 AI support and a rubric-based validation process, along with feedback on WhatsApp, accelerated the iteration and scale of the curriculum. The impact was felt very soon. In just the first week, 15,000 student teams made 37,500 attempts, submission quality rose by approximately 30 per cent, and 20 per cent of teams re-submitted to improve their work even after receiving a “valid” submission, demonstrating high student agency.
The system is already supporting over 350,000 students and 23,000 teachers on a scalable serverless stack. It is solving for India’s problems of scarce human mentorship by creating a new public-education infrastructure for entrepreneurial learning. The solution is built with ethics by design, employing three guardrail layers including input screening for relevance and safety, behavioural guardrails using prompt architecture engineered for an empathetic persona and strict data privacy measures that block PII by default, ensuring responsible, safe, and ethical use of AI.
The recognition of Niveda Foundation and Udhyam Learning Foundation in the field of Best Use of AI for Education & Livelihoods proves that AI is capable of transforming education and livelihoods to ensure a more inclusive and future-ready nation. The Mint All About AI Tech4Good Awards, powered by Salesforce, celebrate the transformative power of AI in driving societal impact across critical areas.
Note to Readers: All About AI is a Mint editorial initiative, sponsored by Salesforce.
