Over 51 AI programmes in IITs now: A decade of change in India's top classrooms

AI-heavy courses are being discussed in IIT classrooms, students are chasing the Artificial Intelligence dream, prioritising new-age learning, and that is how the top institutes are preparing their new-age curricula.A decade ago, India's top institutes, the IITs, were asking a question that had no easy answer: how will artificial intelligence rewrite the curriculum of the future?The question was not limited to classrooms. Industry was changing, technology was moving faster than textbooks, and the debate around the National Education Policy had already begun putting greater emphasis on skills, flexibility and new-age learning.Then AI arrived, and kept evolving.The first wave raised questions. The second started changing workplaces. And with generative AI now entering almost every sector, another question has moved to the centre of the discussion: what should a student learn today to remain relevant tomorrow? Inside the IITs, the answer is increasingly visible in the programmes being introduced.A review of the current academic offerings of the 23 IITs shows roughly 50 degree-level programmes with AI, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Intelligence or closely related AI-and-Data-Science themes. The IIT Council's academic-programme database, for instance, lists dedicated offerings such as B.Tech Artificial Intelligence and Data Engineering and M.Tech Artificial Intelligence at IIT Ropar, while IIT Mandi offers a B.Tech in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.AI IS NO LONGER JUST A COMPUTER SCIENCE SUBJECTAt IIT Delhi, the School of Artificial Intelligence has built programmes around Machine Intelligence and Data Science, with an M.Tech and MS(Research) route alongside its doctoral work.The institute's own academic material tells research spanning deep learning, reinforcement learning, computer vision, natural language processing, responsible AI, healthcare, manufacturing and intelligent robotics.IIT Madras has taken a similar approach, but with an even wider reach.Its B.Tech in Artificial Intelligence is designed around both the fundamentals of AI and building applications, with internships and undergraduate research built into the learning ecosystem.The institute is also pushing AI beyond the conventional four-year degree.In 2025, IIT Madras introduced a web-enabled postgraduate diploma with an Artificial Intelligence specialisation, allowing fresh graduates and working professionals to study online and potentially upgrade to a Web-Enabled M.Tech.And the institute's SWAYAM Plus platform has taken AI learning even further outside the traditional campus. In 2025, it launched five beginner-friendly AI courses for students, faculty and working professionals.These included AI in Physics, AI in Chemistry, AI in Accounting, Cricket Analytics with AI and AI/ML using Python.By September 2025, IIT Madras had expanded the initiative with AI for Educators, taking the programme to school teachers as well.By April 2026, three more courses, AI for Aspiring Engineers, AI for Administrators and Prompt Engineering, had been added. IIT Madras said its AI-for-All initiative had already crossed significant registration numbers, while SWAYAM Plus had grown to more than 500 online courses across 15 sectors.The race to secure AI seat using the Computer Science as the baseline in the IITs is getting tougher and brutal. Here the IIT Madras director helps us get the reality check.“99.9% of JEE (Advanced) toppers are choosing computer science,” leaving core engineering branches like civil, mechanical, and electrical behind. He argues that AI is not a replacement but an enabler: “People who are adept in one branch of engineering with knowledge of how to use AI, that’s a very good market.”THE IIT CLASSROOM IS EXPANDING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM“The new-age classrooms are evolving, and AI has the larger pie. We are taught the core as well as the advanced concepts, with real-life workshops, hackathons and several international-level AI-related curriculum additions shaping the science and technology landscape. In the classroom as well, AI tools are demonstrated to teach AI, the kind of ecosystem that is required can be found inside these AI classrooms,” says Sarthak, a Delhi-based student in his third year at IIT Mandi.AI is being introduced alongside a wider set of emerging fields.IIT Madras' programmes for 2026–27 include areas such as robotics, semiconductor materials technology, public policy, sustainable engineering, offshore and maritime engineering, sports analytics and AI, quantitative finance and computational engineering.Its 2025–26 additions included Computational Engineering and Mechanics and Instrumentation and Biomedical Engineering — programmes that bring together classical engineering with computational tools and AI, while opening applications in areas such as healthcare and medical technology.IIT Bombay's recent expansion tells a similar story.Its 2024–25 academic report records new programmes in Applied Geophysics, Climate and Sustainability, semiconductor materials, computational materials engineering, MEMS and AI and Data Science. The institute also launched an 18-month executive postgraduate diploma in AI and Data Science, designed for early and mid-career professionals and covering machine learning, deep learning, generative AI and AI/ML in practice.The institute has also moved into shorter, industry-oriented learning. In 2025, IIT Bombay launched a four-month online Leadership with AI course aimed at helping professionals lead and scale AI initiatives.- EndsPublished By: Rishab ChauhanPublished On: Aug 24, 2026 05:00 IST