In a classroom, a teacher wonders if AI can help plan better lessons. In a lab, a researcher looks at data that once felt hard to decode. Somewhere else, a cricket fan studies match patterns through numbers. For many such learners, AI feels useful, powerful and still slightly out of reach.

Often, the barrier is language.

That is what IIT Madras is trying to change.

With its ‘AI for All’ courses now available in Hindi on SWAYAM Plus, IIT Madras is asking what AI education can look like when learners begin in a language they are comfortable with.

Taking AI beyond coding screens

For a long time, AI has sounded like something meant for engineers, coders, and people who already speak the language of technology.

But AI is already entering spaces far beyond computer labs. A commerce student may use it to understand automation. A teacher may use it to plan lessons better. A chemistry researcher may use it to study reactions. A cricket fan may use it to read match patterns through data.

That is the gap IIT Madras wanted to address when it introduced the ‘AI for All’ initiative in May 2025, in collaboration with IIT Madras Pravartak. The idea was to take AI literacy to learners across disciplines, especially those who were curious about the technology but did not know where to begin.

The response showed how many people were waiting for such an entry point. The first edition drew over 42,000 registrations, while the second edition in September 2025 crossed 50,000 registrations.

Then, on 22 January 2026, the initiative took another important step. SWAYAM Plus launched the courses in Hindi, bringing AI learning closer to learners who may understand the concept better when it is explained in a language they are comfortable with.

The programme now offers six free, beginner-friendly online courses in Hindi: AI for Educators, AI in Physics, AI in Chemistry, AI in Accounting, Cricket Analytics with AI, and AI/ML using Python. The courses use hands-on activities, real datasets, and case-based learning. They require no prior coding knowledge and focus on how AI can be used in real situations.

“As the name suggests, we wanted to break the idea that AI is only for computer science professionals,” says Prof R Sarathi, Dean (Planning), IIT Madras. “We made it for everyone.”

Reinforcing this vision, Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, says, “As AI becomes all-pervasive, creating awareness at scale is crucial and making the courses bilingual ensures that both concepts and opportunities reach a much wider audience across the country.”

In that sense, ‘everyone’ includes the learner who once felt AI was too........

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