The AI Class We Are Bunking

ELF-DRIVING cars, drones that deliver vaccines to remote villages, financial systems that adapt real-time. These are no longer in the realm of science fiction; they're fast becoming a part of the global artificial intelligence landscape.

- MAMIDALA JAGADESH KUMAR

Yet, many in India, including our educators, are unfamiliar with 'agentic AI'—the specific kind of AI that underpins these technologies.

So, what is agentic AI? Think of it as a level up from traditional AI. These intelligent systems respond to data and can make independent decisions, learn from their environment, and interact with other intelligent agents. They don't just process—they adapt, plan, negotiate and sometimes even disagree. In essence, they behave a bit like us.

The current AI curriculums in many of our institutions are rich in machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing. Impressive? Yes. However, there's a noticeable gap in preparing students to design systems that can reason, collaborate, and operate autonomously in unpredictable settings. This isn't about just adding another topic to the AI syllabus. It's about recognizing a disruptive transition in how machines think and act—and ensuring India's future engineers are ready for it.

Agentic AI is more than a collection of algorithms. It draws from diverse disciplines—cognitive science, decision theory, robotics and ethics, to name a few. It's about creating intelligent entities that can make real-time decisions based on context, memory, internal goals and social cues. That is a complex task. And it requires a rethink of how we teach AI.