Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionising classrooms by making learning efficient, accessible, and personalised. AI-enabled tools such as intelligent tutoring systems and adaptive learning software, monitor students’ performance and provide customised study plans, allowing students to study at their own pace. Virtual assistants and chatbots offer instant feedback and guidance in communication, and computer grading lightens the administrative load for faculty members, permitting them to devote their time to teaching and advising. Outside the classroom, AI is transforming access to learning. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech functionality facilitate learning for disabled students, and textto-language programs aid in breaking down multilingual classroom barriers. Such technologies promote accessibility and inclusion of foreign students in education. However, integrating AI with education may also be fraught with danger. Issues such as privacy of information, digital disparities, and reduction of the human element in education need to be addressed. AI technologies are not equally accessible to all, which may cause them to widen educational disparities instead of reducing them. It is emphasised that ethical AI innovation, wise policymaking, and digital infrastructure investments be used to ensure that AI is accessible to all students on an equal basis, irrespective of their backgrounds. This study examines the potential of AI to revolutionise learning into possibilities and opportunities intertwined. It is hoped that AI improves future learning and customised education as well as becomes inclusive, if policymakers, educators, and technologists join hands in a collective effort.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become an essential technology for improving business efficiency and competitiveness. However, many Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) continue to face challenges in adopting AI due to financial limitations, lack of technical expertise, and uncertainty regarding return on investment. This demonstration study proposes an AI Readiness Framework and presents fictional survey data from 150 SMEs to illustrate how such a study may be structured. The findings indicate that while business leaders recognize the strategic importance of AI, implementation readiness remains moderate, emphasizing the need for affordable AI solutions, employee training, and organizational planning.

This editorial examines the expanding influence of artificial intelligence on contemporary social, professional, cultural, and environmental life. It considers both the opportunities and risks associated with the rapid development and normalization of AI, with particular attention to human connection, critical thinking, artistic expression, employment, algorithmic bias, discrimination, and environmental sustainability. The discussion highlights concerns surrounding dependence on personalized AI systems, the reproduction of biases through data driven algorithms, the growing resource demands of data centres, and the changing nature of employment in an increasingly technology driven economy. Alongside these contemporary concerns, the issue of the Indian Journal of Social Enquiry presents a diverse collection of scholarly contributions addressing education, history, democracy, gender, environmental movements, public finance, literature, ecology, and community based conservation. The featured studies examine theatre based education, the historical contribution of Zorawar Singh, democratic legitimacy among youth in Nepal and Sri Lanka, ecofeminist interpretations of Indian environmental movements, the fiscal impact of GST in Gujarat, poetry and ecological conflict in Northeast India, and community conserved areas. Collectively, the issue encourages critical social enquiry by connecting contemporary challenges with historical experiences and emerging perspectives on progress, development, citizenship, culture, and sustainability.