IIM Ahmedabad Receives ₹100 Crore Endowment to Launch AI School

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad has received a ₹100 crore endowment to establish a dedicated School of Artificial Intelligence, marking one of the most significant private investments in AI-led management education in the country. The initiative signals a decisive shift in how India’s top business school sees the future of leadership: data-driven, algorithmically informed, and deeply embedded in real-world problem-solving.

Unlike conventional technology programmes, the proposed School of AI will sit at the intersection of management, public policy, and applied research. The focus, according to institutional sources, will be on translating advanced AI research into deployable solutions across sectors such as finance, governance, healthcare, manufacturing and climate resilience. The school is expected to host interdisciplinary faculty, industry collaborations and doctoral research with a strong practical orientation.

The endowment comes at a time when Indian higher education is racing to respond to the global AI boom, amid concerns that academic institutions risk lagging behind fast-moving industry innovation. By anchoring AI within a management framework, IIM Ahmedabad appears to be positioning itself as a bridge between technological capability and institutional decision-making.

More broadly, the move reflects a growing consensus within India’s elite institutions: artificial intelligence is no longer an optional specialisation, but a foundational capability. As AI reshapes markets, states and labour, IIM-A’s new school could play a defining role in shaping how India governs and profits from its algorithmic turn.