Bengaluru — The Economic Times Education, in association with Google Cloud and Team Computers, hosted an exclusive leadership roundtable, “Leading with Gemini Enterprise: Reimagining Higher Education,” at the Google Office, Bengaluru, on 25th August 2026. The closed-door session brought together senior leaders from higher education institutions across the city to explore how artificial intelligence and specifically Google Cloud’s Gemini Enterprise is moving from isolated pilots to institution-wide strategy across academics, research, administration and the student experience.
The gathering was attended by a select group of Vice Chancellors, Pro Vice Chancellors, Registrars, Deans (Academics) and IT Heads representing leading institutions in Bengaluru’s higher education ecosystem, including Christ (Deemed to be University), Dayananda Sagar University, RV College of Engineering, Ramaiah Institute of Management, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, REVA University, CMR University, St Joseph’s University, MS Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, and several other prominent universities and institutes from the region.
A closed-door dialogue on institutional AI strategy
The session opened with a welcome address, followed by a leadership dialogue on AI and institutional transformation, a live demonstration of Gemini Enterprise, and a partner solution showcase, before concluding with a networking lunch. Discussions were structured around four key themes:
- AI as an institutional imperative — understanding how AI is reshaping higher education and institutional priorities
- Reimagining student & academic experiences — AI-led opportunities across learning, research, faculty productivity and student engagement
- Building intelligent institutional operations — leveraging AI to enhance productivity, knowledge management, collaboration and decision-making
- Scaling enterprise AI with Gemini Enterprise — moving from individual AI use cases to secure, connected, enterprise-wide AI adoption
Leaders explored how Gemini Enterprise is already reshaping the university experience for three core constituencies: students, who gain access to a 24/7 virtual tutor, exam preparation tools, interactive learning aids and career support; faculty and researchers, who save time on course design, content creation, literature review and grant proposal development; and administrative staff, who use AI to streamline documentation, admissions screening, enrollment forecasting and program evaluation.
Introducing Digital Campus on Google Cloud 4.0
A key highlight of the session was the introduction of Digital Campus on Google Cloud 4.0, Google Cloud’s flagship program designed to help institutions build future-ready students and AI-native campuses. The program offers institutions access to Gemini Enterprise for teachers and students, hands-on agentic AI training labs, on-campus hackathons, and pathways for students and faculty to earn Google Cloud credentials.
The program is structured across tiers including Agentic AI Premium and Agentic AI Elite offering institutions a graduated set of benefits based on scale of adoption, ranging from global certification vouchers, on-campus hackathons and Google Skills credits, to leadership visits to Google’s Executive Briefing Centers in Singapore and San Francisco, collaborative degree opportunities with Google Cloud, and published success stories on Google Cloud’s global case study platform.
Speaking on the occasion
Speaking at the event, Navisha Prabhakar, Regional Sales Leader – South & West, Education, Google Cloud, said:
“The next generation of universities will not simply use AI—they will be built around it. With Digital Campus on Google Cloud 4.0, our vision is to help institutions reimagine education end-to-end, transforming how students learn, faculty teach, researchers innovate and campuses operate. India has the scale, talent and ambition to define the global blueprint for the AI-first university, and we are excited to partner with education leaders to turn that opportunity into meaningful outcomes for millions of learners.”
The session also featured perspectives from Manish Kumar Saini, Technical Practice Head, Solutions and Delivery, Team Computers, who spoke on real-world deployment models for AI adoption across institutional operations.
Looking ahead
The Bengaluru roundtable is part of a series of closed-door engagements that ETEducation, Google Cloud and Team Computers are convening across India to help higher education institutions benchmark their AI roadmaps, exchange peer insights, and build a shared vision for the future of AI-led campuses. With institutions increasingly moving beyond experimentation toward institution-wide AI strategy, the session reinforced that India’s higher education sector is well positioned to lead the global conversation on AI-native university models.
