COVID-19 posed plenty of challenges for folks around the world, but parents of school-aged children had a particularly hard time. As millions of students were forced to attend virtual school, many parents were too busy with their own WFH woes to keep constant tabs on what their kids were doing. Many schools, likewise, were ill-prepared for the realities of digital learning, and keeping kids engaged in virtual lessons was difficult. It came as no surprise, then, when declines in learning relative to previous years were observed in students. In June 2021, market research firm Ipsos surveyed US parents with school-aged kids on the future of education.

The Indian edtech giant Byju's keeps getting bigger, having raised more than $4.5 billion since it was founded 10 years ago. This month the company made clear its ambitious research agenda: to achieve the science-fiction dream of building next-generation teaching aids with artificial intelligence. Specifically, the company announced a new research-and-development hub, with offices in Silicon Valley, London and Bangalore, that will work on applying the latest findings from artificial intelligence and machine learning to new edtech products. The new hub, called Byju's Lab, will also work on "moonshots" of developing new forms of digital tutoring technology, said Dev Roy, chief innovation and learning officer for BYJU's, in a recent interview with EdSurge. "Edtech is one of the slowest adopters of AI so far, compared to some of the other industries out there," Roy said.

Several acquisitions are taking place in the AI field of India as it is growing to be the future of the country. Here are some of the vital acquisitions of AI companies that took place in 2021. Spotmentor is an end-to-end skilling platform to help businesses identify skills required for the future of work, upskilling, and reskilling talent at scale. It leverages emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to help close the critical competency gaps in an organization, the statement said. "It remains our priority to enable clients with tools and resources to help them adapt to rapid changes and navigate market disruptions in the new normal," Rohan Sachdev, Partner and Consulting Leader at EY India, said.

It offers courses in data science and business analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, design thinking, cloud computing, cyber security …