Agentic AI reminds me of the early days of the automobile. Back then, cars were just carriages without horses, essentially the past, wrapped in the promise of the future. True innovation only began when we stopped mimicking the old model and reimagined everything, from propulsion to navigation to intelligence. Today, our educational institutions stand at that very crossroad.
What they need isn’t more digitisation. What they need is a fundamental rethink, powered by a new kind of intelligence: Agentic AI.
Now what is Agentic AI and why it matters
If the Artificial Intelligence (AI) we’ve known so far is like a highly skilled assistant, Agentic AI is a digital team mate who takes initiative and complete ownership. Unlike rule-based systems that follow pre-written instructions or reactive AI that only responds to input, Agentic AI understands context, learns continuously, makes autonomous decisions, and proactively drives action.
It’s not just answering questions, it’s asking the right ones before you even realise there's a problem.
Let’s contrast it with what we already know:
Rule-based AI is rigid. It operates on predefined logic: “If A, then B.” It's like an obedient clerk who never steps outside the rulebook, even if the building is on fire.
Generative AI, like large language models, is creative and can synthesise content or ideas. It’s helpful in automating content or brainstorming, but still largely reactive, it needs prompting.
Reactive AI, such as basic chatbots or search assistants, waits to be asked. It doesn't have memory or a goal.
Agentic AI, on the other hand, is goal-driven. It monitors the environment, predicts what might happen, and acts in service of its mission, whether that’s improving student success, boosting admissions yield, or optimising learning paths.
In plain terms, Agentic AI isn’t another tool in the kit, it’s a collaborator. One that’s quietly aware, constantly learning, and tireless in its pursuit of outcomes. And if there’s any sector that could truly benefit from such intelligence, it’s education.
So why education is a fertile ground
Education is a system of systems. It's vast, complex, emotional, high-stakes and deeply human. Here’s why it’s the perfect stage for Agentic AI:
Scale and complexity: Institutions juggle thousands of students, dozens of departments, fluctuating enrolment patterns, and evolving curricula, all while ensuring quality and compliance.
High-stakes, human-centric decisions: Whether it’s nudging a potential dropout back to class or helping a student find the right course, decisions in education carry life-altering consequences.
Fragmented tech ecosystems: LMS (Learning Management System), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), and SIS (Student Information System) — most systems don’t talk to each other. Agentic AI can operate across these silos, acting as the connective tissue between them.
But more than that, education is about transformation. Not just of knowledge, but of people. Agentic AI aligns beautifully with that mission. It doesn't replace humans; it amplifies them.
A glimpse into the self-driving campus
Let me take you on a short tour of what a self-driving campus might look like, not in 2040, but in just the next few years.
Admissions on autopilot but with empathy: Imagine an AI agent spotting a sudden dip in application velocity from Tier-2 cities. It doesn’t raise a ticket or send an alert, it takes action. Within minutes, it tweaks the campaign creatives, reallocates budgets on Meta and Google, and deploys student testimonials via WhatsApp to create instant social proof. Admissions officers don’t have to react they get to steer with better visibility.
Dropout prevention as quiet intervention: A student’s attendance drops. So, do engagement levels on the LMS. But instead of escalating after a semester, the agent connects the dots in real-time. It nudges the student gently with personalised messages, notifies a faculty mentor, and offers a quick, anonymous survey to understand the underlying issue. Before a dropout becomes data, an intervention becomes possible.
Faculty scheduling without the chaos: No more whiteboards filled with sticky notes and last-minute shuffles. Agentic AI analyses historical energy levels of faculty (from feedback, wearable data, and session feedback), syncs with student learning rhythms, and even factors in seasonal events like festivals or sports tournaments. The result? A timetable that actually works for everyone, not just the admin office.
And concluding, its shifting time from automation to autonomy
For the last decade, the big promise of education technology has been digitisation. And we’ve made progress, manual records are now digital dashboards. But if digitisation was about efficiency, the next frontier is about intelligence.
Agentic AI isn’t just an evolution, it’s a shift in mindset. We’re moving from “doing things faster” to “doing the right things before we even realise we need them.” As education leaders, the question we must ask ourselves is no longer “How can AI support us?” but “What if our institution could think, adapt, and act on its own?”
Because the campuses of the future won’t just be smart. They’ll be self-aware. And in that awareness lies the next big leap in human learning.
(Naveen Goyal is the CEO of Meritto (A Product Of NoPaperForms). Views expressed are his own.)
