Start with work that saves staff time without risking students: admissions answers from your own prospectus, messages to parents, and lesson preparation that a teacher checks. Add a student AI-use policy, since many students now have free premium chatbots, and plan for the parental-consent rules due by May 2027.
Start with work that saves staff time without putting students at risk: answering admissions and fee questions from your own prospectus, drafting messages to parents, and helping teachers prepare lesson plans, quizzes and study guides that a teacher then checks. Alongside that, write a clear AI-use policy for students, because many now have premium chatbots for free, and design anything that handles under-18s' data around the parental-consent rules that take effect by May 2027.
The tools are no longer the hard part. Through 2025 Google made its classroom AI features free for educators on Workspace for Education, and Google and OpenAI made premium assistants free for many Indian students. The harder questions are about data, assessment and trust. Here is what changed, what the new data rules mean for institutions, and where a school, college or coaching centre should begin.
- Budget 2025-26 outlay for a Centre of Excellence in AI for education
- ₹500 crore
- Budget 2025-26 outlay for a Centre of Excellence in AI for education
- Gemini in Classroom features Google made free for educators with Workspace for Education accounts in June 2025
- 30+
- Gemini in Classroom features Google made free for educators with Workspace for Education accounts in June 2025
- Students whose data needs a parent's verifiable consent under the DPDP Act and Rules
- Under 18
- Students whose data needs a parent's verifiable consent under the DPDP Act and Rules
- When the DPDP consent, notice and security duties take effect
- 13 May 2027
- When the DPDP consent, notice and security duties take effect
01
What changed for schools and colleges in 2025
Policy money came first. The Union Budget 2025-26 announced a Centre of Excellence in artificial intelligence for education with a total outlay of ₹500 crore, and a Bharatiya Bhasha Pustak scheme to provide digital books in Indian languages for school and higher education.
Then the tools became free. On 30 June 2025 Google made Gemini in Classroom, more than 30 AI features for drafting lesson plans, quizzes and rubrics, available at no cost to all educators with Google Workspace for Education accounts, rolling out first in English, with NotebookLM study guides and custom student assistants to follow. In July, Google offered students in India aged 18 and over a free year of its AI Pro plan if they signed up by 15 September. In October, Google and Reliance announced 18 months of AI Pro for Jio Unlimited 5G users, starting with those aged 18 to 25. From 4 November, OpenAI made ChatGPT Go free for 12 months for users in India.
The practical result is that many college students now carry a premium AI assistant at no cost, and teachers at institutions on Google Workspace for Education can use one inside software they already have. Any plan has to start from that reality.
02
Admissions and enquiries: the quickest return
Admissions is where an assistant pays back fastest, because the questions repeat every season: courses, eligibility, fees, scholarships, hostel, transport and dates. A coaching centre in Thrissur, for example, might put an assistant on its website and WhatsApp that answers only from the current prospectus and fee sheet, replies in English or Malayalam, and passes warm enquiries to a counsellor the next morning with a summary of what the family asked.
Two design rules matter. Ground the assistant in your approved documents and nothing else, so it cannot invent a fee or a deadline, and let it say it does not know. And collect the parent's details rather than the applicant's at the enquiry stage, because a minor's data will need a parent's verifiable consent. To connect forms, your CRM and reminders without custom code, see our no-code automation stack.
03
Teaching and learning: assistant, not replacement
For teachers, the useful jobs are preparation: first drafts of lesson plans, question banks at several difficulty levels, rubrics, and revision notes built from the institution's own material. Every draft needs a subject teacher's review before it reaches students, because fluent output can still be wrong.
For students, the question is no longer whether they use AI but how. Write a short policy, and move some assessment towards work that shows thinking: drafts with feedback, in-class writing, oral explanations and projects built on local data. A good policy covers five points:
- Which tasks allow AI help, such as brainstorming, practice questions and language polishing.
- Which tasks do not, and why, so the rule makes sense to students and parents.
- How students declare AI use, in one line at the end of the work.
- What staff may and may not paste into AI tools, especially student records and marks.
- Who to ask when unsure, and when the policy will be reviewed.
04
Student data under the new DPDP Rules
Under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, anyone under 18 is a child. Before processing a child's personal data you need verifiable consent from a parent, and the Rules published on 13 November 2025 require you to check, using reliable identity and age details, that the parent is an identifiable adult. The Act also bars tracking, behavioural monitoring and targeted advertising directed at children. These duties apply from 13 May 2027.
Educational institutions get a narrow exemption: tracking and behavioural monitoring for their educational activities, or for the safety of enrolled children, does not need parental consent. Transport operators engaged by a school may track a child's location during the journey. The Rules define an educational institution to include vocational education, but an expert quoted by MediaNama said it is unclear whether edtech apps or private tutors are covered.
| Situation | What the Rules say | Practical step |
|---|---|---|
| A minor's details at enquiry or admission | A parent's verifiable consent is needed first | Have the parent submit the form and confirm their identity |
| Tracking or behavioural monitoring by the institution | Exempt only for its educational activities or the safety of enrolled children | Use that data for those purposes alone |
| School transport location tracking | Exempt for tracking during travel to and from the institution | Do not reuse trip data for anything else |
| Targeted advertising aimed at under-18s | Barred under the Act | Address marketing to parents, not pupils |
| Edtech apps and outside tutors | One expert calls the exemption's reach unclear | Assume consent rules apply and ask vendors in writing |
Live monitoring does not create safety.
05
Where to start in 2026
Treat this as an admissions and operations investment rather than an IT project, and take it one step at a time:
- Pick one office workflow, usually admissions enquiries or fee reminders, and measure it for a month first.
- Build the source pack: prospectus, fee structure, calendar and approved answers, in English and Malayalam.
- Route enquiries through parents, with a consent step designed for the 2027 rules.
- Give teachers one approved tool inside accounts the institution manages, with training on reviewing outputs.
- Publish a student AI-use policy and redesign a few assessments around visible thinking.
- Audit every app that touches student data, including what each vendor does with it.
- Review each term what worked, what failed and what parents asked.
If enquiry handling is your first step, our AI and automation team can scope it against your current enquiry volumes.
Sources
Facts current as of 9 January 2026. Offers and rules change, so check providers' current terms and MeitY notifications.