As Harvard launches course with AI professors, what is the future of teaching in India?

HBS Foundry is an online programme designed to train aspiring entrepreneurs. It guides participants through building a start-up, from developing an idea to pitching it to investors and customers. Its importance lies in extending Harvard Business School’s entrepreneurship training beyond the students it can admit in person.

The programme combines Harvard course material, AI agents trained on faculty expertise, a community of entrepreneurs and simulated video conversations with AI avatars. Participants can pitch an idea to an avatar modelled on a real professor. The avatars imitate professors’ knowledge, intellectual authority, gestures and classroom mannerisms.

This approach makes the experience more personal than simply watching a recorded lecture. During trials, users became more interested when chatbot advisers were given a professor’s appearance. Yet the programme also exposes a tension: AI gains much of its appeal from the human professors whose teaching and reputations it imitates.

HBS Foundry costs $699, or roughly Rs 67,000, and runs for eight weeks. It is designed to take Harvard Business School’s entrepreneurship training to far more people than the school’s roughly 900 admitted students each year. The figures show its focus on expanding access through technology.

Participants move through the start-up process online. They refine an idea, work with course material and AI agents trained on faculty expertise, join a community of fellow entrepreneurs and practise simulated video conversations. They also pitch their ideas to investors and customers. The programme therefore combines instruction, advice, practice and peer interaction.

The scale is important because prestigious universities usually teach limited numbers of students directly. HBS Foundry offers a way to distribute some of that expertise to a much larger audience. However, the article also warns that access may remain unequal when students lack reliable technology, digital skills or suitable educational content.

Prestigious universities use professor-like avatars because education involves more than delivering information. A recorded lecture can present content, while a chatbot can answer questions, but an avatar can make the interaction feel more like meeting a respected teacher. This matters because universities draw part of their reputation from celebrated professors.

During HBS Foundry trials, users became more interested when chatbot advisers were given the appearance of a professor. The avatars imitate professors’ knowledge and intellectual authority, along with gestures and classroom mannerisms. They therefore combine AI-based guidance with visual signals associated with teaching and expertise.

The approach also helps universities extend their reach. Students who cannot attend a professor’s direct classes may interact with an avatar based on that teacher. Still, the article presents this as a limited substitute. Students may value the professor-like format, but warmth, trust, personal connection and the physical classroom experience remain difficult to reproduce.

AI professors could help address teacher shortages by making specialised instruction available beyond places where qualified teachers are scarce. The article cites a Tata Institute of Social Sciences survey that found shortages of mathematics and science teachers in schools across 10 states. It also recorded more multi-grade classrooms in rural government schools.

An AI avatar created from a teacher’s expertise could give students in different parts of India access to explanations from an otherwise unavailable educator. In a multi-grade classroom, it might provide structured content or guidance for learners studying different subjects or levels. Students may also find an avatar easier to learn from than a recorded lecture.

The benefits would depend on infrastructure and access. Online teaching favoured students with high-speed internet, devices, electricity and digital skills. High-quality content in Indian languages is also lacking. AI professors could widen educational access, but without those foundations they could deepen inequality rather than remove the teacher shortage.

The digital divide describes unequal access to the tools needed for online learning. The article identifies high-speed internet, devices, electricity and adequate digital skills as important conditions. Students who have these resources can benefit more from AI-powered education, while others may be excluded even when the programme itself is available online.

The problem could become a new “AI divide.” In India, high-quality AI educational content in Indian languages is still lacking. Students with access to English and technology, especially upper-caste and middle-class students, may gain more from AI systems than students who study in under-served languages or lack reliable equipment.

The Covid-19 experience offers a warning. Online classes did not benefit all students equally, and some became distracted without a teacher’s physical presence. AI could broaden educational access, but only if infrastructure, digital skills and language support are addressed. Otherwise, it may widen existing educational inequality.

A human teacher offers more than information. Teachers can build warmth, trust and personal connection with students, becoming formative presences in their lives. Their physical presence can also help students stay attentive. The article notes that some students fell asleep or became distracted during online classes without it.

Human teachers can draw on their own knowledge and perception to push students to think critically, make connections and join broader discussions. They can encourage learners, respond to classroom energy and develop social relationships. One student described the missing “vibe” of sitting before a teacher in a physical classroom.

AI avatars may provide explanations, advice and simulated interaction, but the article says they cannot yet perform these human functions fully. It suggests that teachers may increasingly become facilitators of social development, mentors and friends. Technology could change how teachers work, but it does not remove their relational role.

AI education depends on human teachers because the technology learns how to teach from human expertise. HBS Foundry’s agents are trained on faculty knowledge, and its avatars draw appeal from professors’ academic authority, gestures and classroom mannerisms. The technology therefore imitates a model created by people rather than replacing the source entirely.

The programme’s experience illustrates this paradox. Students can use AI, learn from it and enjoy its interactions. Yet HBS Foundry professor Thomas Eisenmann observed that the experience keeps coming back to humanity. The avatars may simulate a professor’s presence, but they do not independently create the warmth, trust or personal connection formed in a classroom.

The article suggests a changed role rather than the disappearance of teachers. Human educators can act as mentors and friends, support social development, encourage critical thinking and lead broader discussions. AI can provide information and scale access, while professors remain essential for judgement, relationships and the human model behind the technology.