Artificial Intelligence is the representation of Human Intelligence performed by Machines or Robots. Devices can perceive its surrounding environment and can act according to it to maximize its chance of success and to complete its goals. The machines mimic cognitive functions such as learning & problem solving that is associated with the human mind. These functions differ from conventional machines. A machine is not able to adapt as per situations, it performs only a set of instructions given to it, but an artificially intelligent machine can adapt as per situation and can act as per it. Since the developments of computers from the 1940s, it has been proven that computers can be programmed for carrying complex tasks, e.g., discovering proofs of mathematics, proving a physics theorem, etc. with great proficiency. Still, no program could match up with human flexibility, and as a reason why in the developed 21^st century, we are still not yet fully dependent on the machine. Though the technology is advancing day by day, and machine have started to play a crucial role better than humans in some field, such as medical operation and diagnosis, which removes the limitations of human availability & maximize the efficiency. It is not perfect yet, improvements are required, and it has been carried out. AI has seen major developments during years.

We can clearly see the exponential development phase it went through to a level today that it is present almost in every industry one way or another. Every industry has a high demand of AI. Such as;

• HealthCare Industry – Personalized medicines & X-Ray readings etc.
• Retail – Virtual shopping, personalized recommendations, stock management etc.
• Manufacturing – Analyzing factory IoT data, forecasting demand, expected loads, etc.
• Banking – Fraudulent transactions, fast & accurate credit scoring, data management tasks etc.

As per surveys, it is expected that AI has crossed $14.69 billion in market revenue and is expected to cross $126 billion by 2025. The numbers & growth rate of 154% yoy are staggering & there lies a numerous opportunity in this field.

Source: Accenture

Revenue Prediction

Growth Rate

AI has become one of the leading innovative disruption the world has ever seen with revenue expected to be in billions of dollars by 2025, luring investors to hugely invest in startups, organizations, universities etc. The capital generated by this increases the speed of development & because of fast development, the speed of revenue growth has also increased, thus a cycle has been created. The world has moved from hype to reality with regards to AI, since real working solutions of AI has started entering in Market, e.g. face recognition, robotics, voice software etc. As per Accenture report, all Industry sectors will see immense growth as development of AI gets going; 

(Source- Accenture)

Education Sector –

Global Society is entering a knowledge-based development phase. The economy is changing, and knowledge plays a key role in it. According to world bank, knowledge is going to be one of the key factors of changing economy and will be treated as key to the wealth. With knowledge, comes higher education. Education leaders over the world suggests that expanding education sector can lead to income growth, skilled labor pool, increasing & expanding relevant skills that can overall help promote development. As per UNESCO Institute for statistics, in a long-term economic growth, faster rate of growth were associated with human capital, & countries with more rapid growth had more deployed secondary & tertiary system. As per UNESCO 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, under section 4, widely known as SDG4, Education comes. It state, “to ensure inclusive & equitable quality education & promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. As per UNESCO, the success of completion of this goal rely on national policies, plans & programs which will be monitored & reviewed using global indicators. SDG 4 includes, primary & secondary education; technical, vocational, tertiary & adult education; equity in education; literacy & numeracy; facilities & learning environment; scholarships; etc.

Why Education is Important?

• It can help people understand & respond to environmental issues
• Not to encourage unsustainable lifestyle
• To make production & consumption sustainable
• To provide green skills for industries & orient research, higher education towards green innovation
• It can help food production & farming more productive
• It contributes to economic growth
• It reduces poverty & closes wage gaps
• Gender equality & prosperity
• Improves health by giving relevant knowledge & skills
• Provides social development for all
• Contributes in political

So, in all there is no such field which is nit influenced by education, directly or indirectly. This sector is evergreen & due to continuous & consistent research, it keeps on developing with latest use of technology. Huge investment are being made in this sector. Below figures represent top 10 countries with highest GDP & population and their overall percentage of GDP which is spend on Education;

It was quite shocking to see that top 10 countries based on world highest GDP while in case of investment in education was in nowhere in top 30 countries with highest investment in education sector. The highest was of Brazil with 6.2% of its overall GDP invested in education & lowest by India at overall 3% spending of overall GDP on education. Looking at the size of population it is a cause of major concern & as a result of which India comes under one of the lowest literacy rates in entire world with just 71.2% of overall population which again directly results in the huge amount of people living under poor conditions & thus leads to all sorts of problems which India is currently facing such as high unemployment rates, low wage, health conditions, etc. which are needed to be tackle on.

Emerging trend in Education Sector:

• Artificial Intelligence – AI Driven Assessment, Remote Exam proctoring & classrooms, Augmented Analysis.
• STEM – Learning of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics in an interdisciplinary or integrated approach.
• Personalized Learning
• Cost Management
• Immersive learning Experience
• Online Education
• Wellness Program
• Continuous learning program for Teachers (etc.)

Discussion & Analysis:

Artificial Intelligence in Education Sector –

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) is one of the emerging fields in Education technology. It can bring a change in every aspect of our social interaction. Since 1956, various theoretical understanding of AI has helped various field such as chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, linguistics, etc. Most approaches provide limited perspective and limited help in nature. When AI is linked with education, it can’t ignore the cognitive aspect, the political, social, philosophical, & phycological aspects of humans. AI developments has been since past 30 years, the trend is changing. It has begun began its interaction with teaching & learning solution that are now undergoing testing and will soon be deployed on full scale. Many AI technology started to have a profound impact on Education, below figure represent the same.

(Source- Deloitte)

AI has revamped the Education Industry & will continue to do so in upcoming years. Its application are so wide & broad that it will take years to fully understand, but once it started getting implemented it will prove to be highly advantageous in the education Industry. AI application can be applied in various learning process & has started penetrating it. Different from traditional education approaches, AI products can collect generated in teaching, learning, practicing, assessing, & testing, apply images & voice recognition technologies to analyze problems & develop customized solutions & generate feedback through deep learning, adaptations, & calculations. The learning process explained are;

There are other applications of AI given by prominent people, as per Luckin, Holmes, Griffiths (2016), categories of AI software application are;

• Personal Tutor
• Intelligent support for collaborative learning
• Intelligent Virtual reality

An intelligent tutoring system (ITS) can be used as one-to-one personal tutoring. Based on different models, algorithms they can decide and make the path of learning of an individual student, content to select, provide cognitive help, & to engage the student in dialogue. It has high potential, especially in a distance learning problem, which is gaining popularity nowadays. Human one-to-one interaction in distance learning programs is not possible as thousands to students in India alone are enrolled in such a program. Without Interaction & Collaboration, the learning curve is not complete, and hence proper education can’t be imparted. AIEd can contribute in this field, by supporting adaptive group formation based on learner modules, by facilitating groups, and by summarizing discussions that can be done via human tutor, thus a mix of AI with a human is the best way to proceed. An intelligent Virtual reality (IVR) system is used to engage & guide the student in an authentic lookalike virtual reality & game-based learning environment. AI can also provide just in time feedback. It doesn’t take rest and keep on working 24×7. In a recent report, Baker & Smith (2019) has approached Educational AI tools from 3 different perspectives;

• Learner facing AIEd
• Teacher facing AIEd
• System facing AIEd

Learner facing AI tools are software that students use to learn a subject or topic, i.e., adaptive or personalized learning management system or ITS. Teacher facing system is used to support the teacher and reduce his/her workload by automating tasks such as administration, assessment, feedback, or plagiarism check. Tools also provide insights into the learning process of the student so that teachers can proactively offer support or guidance. System facing AIEd provides information for administration & managers on an institutional level, such as to manage salary, monitor attrition rate, etc.

According to horizon report, Education experts report published by P&S Intelligence predicted AI in education sector to grow by 32.9% in the period of 2019-2030 starting at $1.1 billion in 2019 & is expected to attain $25.7 billion in which service component of AI is expected to grow fastest in Education Industry. Expected revenue growth is shown below;

As discussed in the Introduction of Artificial Intelligence, Education sector is one of the Industry with expected high growth with the development of AI. Not only this, AI offers unprecedented profitability opportunities. It is important to note that it is highest in Education sector at around 84%, followed by Accommodation & food service, Construction, Wholesale & Retail, Healthcare at 74%, 71%, 59% & 55% respectively. Below figure shows industry wise expected profitability growth index with the successful deployment of AI in their respective field. It has been concluded that AI is inexorably linked with future education. Heavy investment is being made by top companies such as Google acquired European AI startup ‘Deep Mind’ for $400 million. Other firms such as Apple, Microsoft and Facebook are also investing in this field. 

Many institution and universities have deployed versions of AI in their teaching & learning, one such university is Deakin University of Australia. They use IBM’s supercomputer “Watson” for providing advice to student. Universities such as Technical University of Eindhoven, Netherlands, announced in 2018 that they would launch an AI system Institute with 50 new professions for educations and research in AI. Such huge investment & programs trigger & show the development of AI in the education sector. All these clearly state the impact of AI on Education, changing the structure of quality of services, the dynamic of time within the university, & the structure of its workforce. The International AIEd (IAIEd) society got founded in 1997 & published the International journal on AI in Education. Since then, every year, the journal is published.

Some of the advantages & disadvantages due to presence of AI in Education Sector are as below;

Advantages of AI in Education Sector:

• Works in less Budget. An AI system can do multitasking at the same time thus saving monetary issues and is efficient
• Potential to advance capabilities of learning analytics and make job easy and efficient
• It led to personalization & customization
• Form adaptive groups with a student of similar skills
• No error in evaluation, objective & equal for all
• 24×7 response
• VR learning opportunity, going to places within minutes, expanding learning curve
• AI Saves time. The teacher no longer performs assessment & evaluation
• Better inclusive education to all even for specially able students
• Increase tech experience of student, confronting with latest technology

Disadvantages of AI in Education Sector:

• Due to budget cut, many staff, faculty members will be jobless, impacting their earning medium
• Require huge amount of data, including confidential information. Issue of data privacy and secrecy with AI is always there
• Can make student addicted to tech
• High electricity required
• Lack of personal Interaction with student
• Power runs in one hand, those who control AI, control all
• Machines are for convenience and shouldn’t be made a necessity
• Widens the rich-poor gap as some are not able to afford high tech educatio

Challenges Present for AI in Education –

Despite the ample amount of opportunities that AI can give to the Education sector, there are always some implications, and challenges are kept on coming. Artificial Intelligence must explain the following challenges which are present in the Education Sector. These are;

• Ensuring Inclusion & Equity in AI in Education
• Comprehensive public policy on AI for sustainable development
• Preparing stakeholders such as teachers, student, administration for AI-powered education
• Developing quality & inclusive data system
• Making research on AI wider & better
• Ethics & transparency in data collection, use & dissemination
• AI learns from data, any inaccuracy will lead to wrong results
• Leverage AI to enhance education & learning.
• Promote skill development for jobs.

Prepared by- Aradhya Gupta

Tags: artificial, Education, Education Industry, Online Education