Customer engagement software maker Talisma plans to invest $20-30 million in the next two years as it sees rising adoption of its technology by higher education providers, both in India and across the globe.
Homegrown Talisma, which was founded at the turn of the century and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based Campus Management Corporation, will make these investments in the Indian market.
“India has the talent pool that can design technology-based solutions for this purpose,” said Raj Mruthyunjayappa, MD, Talisma Corporation & Campus Management Corporation (EMEA & APAC).
However, he did not comment on the total number of engineers the company plans to hire.
By hiring engineers, the company is planning to develop technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), for both Indian and global institutions.
“When you look at where the education industry is headed, you think how you can leverage bots, ML and AI to enable students to be future ready,” said Mruthyunjayappa.
As an example, he pointed out that technology can help in identifying and recognising students whose performance is at risk. “With this (technology) we can say which students might find it difficult to pass the institution, if they need career counselling to go in a different direction, what kind of segments of students we have to focus on, where they are lacking, and how they can improve,” he added.
Talisma, and several of its peers, believe technology can solve a lot of problems plaguing the education sector, from streamlining internal operations to helping students.
Globally, higher education institutions are stepping up their tech investments. According to market research firm Metaari, across all markets for learning technology, worldwide funding reached a record $9.52 billion in 2017, up 30 per cent from 2016.
India’s National Skill Development Centre has tasked Talisma to centralise and monitor all the skilling programmes across ministries and centres.