Nasscom, Govt to Revise AI Curriculum for UG Degrees
11 Jul 2026
Nasscom is working with the government to overhaul the AI curriculum across all undergraduate programmes, according to industry leader Rajesh Nambiar. The revision, expected to take around six months to finalise, comes amid growing recognition that a standard computer science degree alone may no longer be sufficient to make graduates employable in an AI-driven job market.
What's happening
According to Nambiar, the government and Nasscom are jointly reviewing and updating the AI curriculum for undergraduate programmes—not limited to computer science, but across degree tracks. Nambiar framed the urgency in stark terms: AI is increasingly relevant to every job, and traditional CS training alone may not guarantee employability for graduates going forward.
This undergraduate push follows an earlier initiative at the school level. In October of last year, the government announced plans to introduce AI education into school curricula starting from class three, signaling a broader, multi-tier strategy to build AI literacy from an early age through to higher education.
Separately, in the same period, IBS Group announced the launch of Naviq Technology, a vertical AI company—an example of the kind of specialized AI ventures that could shape demand for AI-skilled talent going forward.
Timeline
- October (last year): Government announces plans for an AI curriculum in schools starting from class three.
- Present (2026): Government and Nasscom begin work on revising the undergraduate AI curriculum, with a six-month completion estimate.
- Present (2026): IBS Group launches Naviq Technology, a vertical AI company.
Risks and open questions
The report flags several unresolved issues. Students currently graduating under the old CS curriculum may face reduced employability as AI skills become more central to hiring decisions. The six-month timeline for curriculum revision could also mean a lag before the current student cohort is adequately prepared for AI-related roles. It remains unclear how quickly universities will be able to adopt and roll out the revised curriculum once finalized.
Several details are still missing from the public record: the specific content changes planned for the undergraduate curriculum, which government body is leading the initiative alongside Nasscom, how implementation will be coordinated across universities, and what progress—if any—has been made on the school-level AI curriculum announced last October. The relationship between Naviq Technology's launch and the broader curriculum initiative is also unclear.
Why founders should care
For early-stage founders, this signals a talent pipeline in transition—one that will likely take time to mature. It's plausible that curriculum reforms could gradually shift the skill profile of new graduates toward more AI-relevant capabilities, but founders probably shouldn't expect to see this reflected in the hiring pool for at least the six-month revision window, and likely longer once university rollout is factored in.
In the near term, founders evaluating entry-level talent may want to account for a possible skills mismatch, given that current graduates were trained under a curriculum industry leaders suggest may be insufficient on its own. This could mean budgeting for interim upskilling of new hires rather than assuming AI fluency out of the gate.
At the same time, the emergence of vertical AI companies like Naviq Technology suggests the AI sector may continue to specialize, potentially creating niche demand for talent and partnership opportunities worth monitoring—even as the broader talent supply catches up to industry needs.
Bottom line
The curriculum revision reflects a broader acknowledgment that AI skills are becoming table stakes across roles, not just specialized ones. But with implementation details still unclear and a multi-month timeline ahead, founders should treat this as a longer-term structural shift rather than an immediate change to the hiring landscape.