Ashok Krish, Global Head, Advisory and Consulting, AI Cloud, Tata Consultancy Services and a popular content creator, spoke about building a scalable ecosystem of AI agents and what it will take to power India’s next technological leap at ThinkEdu Conclave 2026, organised by The New Indian Express.
Krish opened his session, titled “From Classrooms to Creators: Building India’s AI-Ready Talent at Scale”, in a tongue-in-cheek manner. “How many of you know me through Instagram and YouTube? And how many of you know me as the Head of AI Practice at TCS?” he asked the audience, drawing an immediate contrast between his online persona and corporate role.
Reflecting on the current phase of AI development, he said that people are living through a rare and transformative technological moment. His presentation featured around 20 AI agents capable of conducting research, reading scientific papers, performing fact-checking, and carrying out analytics, among other tasks. These tools, he explained, help him manage time more effectively within a demanding corporate schedule.
In one demonstration, an AI agent placed a phone call to a restaurant owner to verify an address and other details. The system, he noted, had been built within 48 hours by a 21-year-old TCS employee.
Krish argued that major technological innovations over the past 500 years have consistently expanded human capability. The printing press made knowledge widely accessible, electricity reduced dependence on physical labour, and the internet connected the world. In his view, AI represents the next stage in that trajectory, democratising access to technical knowledge.
He described AI as a system that reasons and acts, serving as an amplifier of both human ability and human ignorance. AI, he suggested, occupies a space somewhere between humans and traditional technology, and cannot be used in the same way as conventional software. He called it “a very forgetful teammate who has a PhD in every subject and can occasionally get things wrong in very bizarre, unpredictable ways”, adding that artificial intelligence has compressed the nature of work itself.
Citing employer data, he pointed out that there has been a rapid decline in degree requirements for AI-exposed jobs. This, he said, raises a larger question about what a professional degree will signify in the years ahead.