At most global AI summits, the conversation revolves around scale, speed and disruption. This week, however, a grassroots education nonprofit shifted the narrative.
Pratham Education Foundation (PEF) has been recognised in AI Impact Casebook in Education, one of the six knowledge compendiums on AI launched by the Government of India at the India-AI Impact Summit 2026, for integrating artificial intelligence into classrooms in ways that deepen – rather than dilute – learning.
At the heart of the recognition is Pratham’s collaboration with AI research company Anthropic. The partnership focuses on designing AI tools that prompt deeper engagement rather than shortcut thinking.
The partnership will introduce Claude – Anthropic’s large language model – as the underlying AI engine across several Pratham initiatives.
One of the key programs set to benefit is Pratham’s Second Chance program, which supports dropout girls and women preparing for India’s Grade 10 board examinations. More than 5,000 learners in this program will see the technology adapted to their needs.
Second Chance is proudly supported in Australia by Pratham AUS, one of the international chapters of PEF – making the global recognition not just institutional, but deeply personal for the diaspora-backed initiative.
“We at Pratham are delighted with Anthropic’s announcement at the AI Summit of its partnership with the PEF to deploy its new AI-powered tool, Claude, across Pratham institutions,” Pratham AUS Director Sarita Chand told Indian Link. “It marks Anthropic’s first strategic AI lab collaboration with one of India’s largest education nonprofits.”
In a policy climate often fixated on automation, the recognition signals something more human-centred: AI as a support system for foundational education.
From AI engine to classroom tool
While Claude provides the AI backbone, the classroom innovation recognised at the summit includes tools such as the “PadhAI” and “Anytime Testing Machine” – AI-powered assessment platforms developed for Indian classrooms.
Unlike conventional digital testing systems that rely heavily on multiple-choice questions, the Anytime Testing Machine generates curriculum-aligned prompts and allows students to respond in their own words. Using AI models such as Claude, it evaluates responses and provides personalised feedback based on each learner’s level.
The philosophy behind the design is deliberate.
Speaking on the sidelines of the summit, Elizabeth Kelly of Anthropic said that AI in education should be built to “generate questions, not just answers.” In an era of instant search results, that shift is significant. It positions AI not as an answer-machine, but as a thinking partner.
Reflecting on the collaboration, Pratham AUS described the Anthropic partnership as a critical step in ensuring cutting-edge AI reaches learners often excluded from technological advances.
“Embedding Claude within community-based programs like Second Chance demonstrates that frontier AI research can align with grassroots education,” Sarita Chand noted.
A different kind of AI story
Pratham’s recognition highlights a broader shift in India’s AI narrative. While global conversations frequently focus on productivity gains and workforce displacement, this initiative foregrounds inclusion and social development.
India has one of the world’s largest school-age populations – alongside persistent learning gaps in foundational literacy and numeracy. Scalable, affordable and adaptive learning tools are essential.
What makes this moment distinctive is that it challenges the assumption that AI innovation must be urban, elite or English-medium to be transformative. Here, advanced AI research meets community classrooms: a global AI lab collaborates with a nonprofit working at the margins of formal education.
For Pratham AUS, which has been raising funds and awareness in Australia for twelve years now, the summit recognition affirms the tangible outcomes of sustained diaspora engagement.
At the summit, in a hall filled with talk of disruption, Pratham’s message was steady and grounded: the most powerful AI is not the one that replaces people, but the one that helps them learn – and live – better.
Read more: Pratham Australia 2024: Bondi has never seen this much colour
