India, May 7 -- For years, conversations about artificial intelligence in education have swung between evangelism and alarmism. At one end, sweeping claims that algorithms would personalise learning and reinvent the university. At the other, warnings that machines would erode scholarship itself.

Most academics have heard both versions often enough to be skeptical.

And fairly so. Much of the early promise around AI in education was overstated. Universities were told technology would transform classrooms; in many places it mostly added another layer of tools to manage.

But beneath the hype cycle, something quieter is happening. In some corners of higher education, these tools are proving useful -- not as grand disruptors, but as practica...