AI edge on EMI—India's skilling loans soar for a career push
₹50,000 and ₹2 lakh for courses on AI.“In 2025, the loans taken for educational courses was around ₹2 crore a month, of which 60% is for upskilling courses, largely AI-related. In 2026 January, the loan amount became ₹9 crore, and again 60% was taken for a tech-related upskilling course,” said Ankit Mehra, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of GyanDhan, an NBFC specializing in education loans.Propelld, another NBFC in the segment,has noted how upskilling courses are getting tweaked to include more AI-related teaching that is expected to prepare candidates for a higher success rate.“Most of the programmes are redesigned and remarketed as AI programming.
A data science and data analytics programme will now include more AI-related skillsets and are then offered to students,” said Victor Senapaty, chief executive officer of Propelld. The NBFC offers loans for upskilling to about 150,000 students a year and the median ticket size is ₹1-2 lakh per student.“Taking loans for upskilling has consistently been a key use case among customers availing personal loans from us,” said Ajay Pareek, chief business officer at SMFG India Credit.The company said it is now seeing increased demand driven by AI-led upskilling, particularly among salaried individuals earning between ₹30,000 and ₹75,000 a month.Recruiters have noticed the rising demand for candidates with some proficiency in AI.“Clients have asked us if we can test whether the candidates have a basic understanding of AI and are comfortable with vibe coding, and can use a NotebookLM for research, business analyst roles.
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