Microsoft President Smith visits Delhi govt school, launches plan to skill 20 lakh teachers in AI

Tech giant Microsoft on Friday launched "Elevate for Educators in India", an initiative designed to skill 20 lakh teachers in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and reach 2 lakh schools and educational institutions by 2030, top officials said.

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith launched the initiative during his visit to a CM SHRI school in the national capital. India is the first country in Asia to launch the programme, which is set to be scaled across all 75 CM SHRI schools here.

"As AI becomes part of everyday learning, we want to ensure it strengthens education, preserves human judgment, and earns the trust of educators and learners. By taking AI at this scale across India, we want it to open new opportunities and deliver meaningful outcomes for teachers and students," Smith said.


According to the Delhi government, CM SHRI Schools are designed as comprehensive institutions aligned with the vision of a developed India by 2047, focusing on knowledge, skills and values.

The model brings together eight components - AI-based smart classrooms, career counselling labs, ICT labs, digital libraries, multi-sectoral skills labs, language labs, resource rooms for inclusive education and a digital portal for competitive exam preparation.

Microsoft Elevate for Educators is designed to embed AI literacy, computational thinking, and responsible technology use into everyday teaching and learning, supporting India's ambition to become an AI-first nation while ensuring that AI adoption remains trusted, inclusive and human-centred.

The programme will be delivered in partnership with Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET), the Directorate General of Training (DGT), and state education and skilling departments, expanding equitable AI opportunities for eight million students across school, vocational and higher education systems.

"Skilling is the cornerstone of India's AI transformation. As intelligence becomes widely available, the real differentiator will be how confidently and responsibly people can use it-and that starts with educators. With Microsoft Elevate for Educators, we are investing in teachers as the architects of India's AI-first future, enabling AI to reach people at a population scale by embedding AI literacy and computational thinking into everyday learning," said Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia.

Beginning this academic year, AI and Computational Thinking will be embedded into the school curriculum from Grade 3 onwards under the country's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

According to officials, Elevate for Educators takes a system-level approach to support this transition, working in long-term partnership with national and state institutions to turn policy intent into classroom practice at scale.