India: Future engineers use AI everywhere, except where their degrees and recruitments are held

A study of 23 Indian students and young graduates describes a large gap: AI-oriented companies, but exams and campus hiring tests that exclude it.

India's engineering schools have nearly 2.9 million approved places for the year 2026-2027, and their graduates are destined for a technology sector transformed by generative AI. Yet the gateway to this sector is through exams and selection tests held on campuses that, for the most part, prohibit AI. Researchers conducted interviews with 23 engineering and computer science students and graduates to understand how they navigate between these two worlds, in the absence of clear rules from their institutions.

Five themes, a fundamental question

The thematic analysis highlights five topics: the contrast between employers who rely on AI and recruitment tests that exclude it; how students prepare for these tests; their use of AI in lessons; the role of teacher authority and controls; and finally their concerns about their own preparation for the world of work. The authors note that research on human-computer interaction on this subject has so far mainly relied on Western and East Asian contexts.

Based on signal theory, the study asks a question that goes beyond India: what does a score or selection score still certify, if AI can help achieve it? It makes recommendations for employers, institutions, and developers of AI tools.