New Delhi, Oct. 29 -- MBD Group, a New Delhi-based education and publishing company, is scaling its technology-led business, using artificial intelligence (AI) across content development, assessment and learning analytics. It aims to expand its digital education platform AASOKA to 20,000 schools over the next 2-3 years.
The platform business' revenue has grown from Rs.10 crore to Rs.100 crore over four years, while its learner base has expanded from around one lakh in 2021 to more than 10 lakh in 2026, Monica Malhotra Kandhari, managing director of MBD Group, said in an interview with Mint CIO Circle.
The expansion reflects a shift in the company's operating model, from selling educational content to building a digital platform that integrates learning resources, assessments, analytics and teacher tools.
"The larger shift for MBD is therefore not from print to digital. It is from being primarily a content provider to building a more complete learning ecosystem," Kandhari said.
For the company, AI adoption extends beyond introducing new features to its platform. Generative AI can accelerate research, editing, translation and content adaptation, reducing the time required to produce learning resources across formats and languages. This could also alter the economics of educational publishing, where the ability to generate basic content quickly is becoming less of a differentiator.
"Simply having the ability to create more content will no longer be a strong differentiator," Kandhari said, adding that credibility, curation, curriculum alignment and educational usefulness would increasingly determine the value of professionally developed material.
The technology strategy also places greater emphasis on data-led decision-making. AASOKA's adaptive assessments and AI-based student performance analytics are designed to help educators identify learning gaps and tailor interventions. The platform supports more than 5,500 schools, covers CBSE, ICSE and around 17 state boards, and trains one lakh teachers annually, Kandhari said.
The broader business challenge is integrating these capabilities into existing workflows while ensuring that technology improves productivity rather than adding to operational complexity.
Industry demand for AI capabilities is reinforcing the need for workforce readiness. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 identified AI and big data among the fastest-growing skills expected by employers through 2030, alongside technological literacy. For education businesses, this has implications for both internal capabilities and the design of digital learning products.
Kandhari said teacher readiness remains central to adoption, with schools increasingly seeking technology that fits their teaching processes and reduces administrative burden.
AI deployment in education also requires safeguards around accuracy, bias and data privacy, particularly when platforms process information relating to children. "In education, a wrong explanation can become a wrong concept in a child's mind. That makes validation extremely important," she said.
MBD expects print to remain important while digital learning, assessment and teacher development expand. Partnerships may support the next phase of growth, although the company has not disclosed specific investments or deals.
"Technology is an important enabler, but it is not the strategy by itself," Kandhari said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from MINT CIO CIRCLE.