Governance of AI

Our angle

A4G is not a technology institute and not a policy shop. We are a small, specific kind of thing. A collective that looks deeply at the economic and sociological shape AI is giving to work, and then guides governments and policymakers on what to build in response.

Our foundational method is patient research combined with convening. We run the Governance Dialogues podcast with thought partners including Dr Vivienne Ming, Prof Soumitra Dutta (Dean, Saïd Business School, Oxford), Dr Rajiv Kumar (former Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog), Prof Cary Coglianese (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School), Gaurav Rastogi and Dr Shakti Goel. We hold national convenings with government and industry participation.

The Governance work is led by our co-founders Nitin Dhawan and Aarti Ahuja, with Charu Thukral as Research Scholar anchoring the empirical work.

Our research priorities

Four research priorities we are organising a fellowship programme around.

Real-time tracking of AI-driven job displacement in India. Building the country’s first high-frequency data infrastructure to measure how AI is reshaping formal employment. Combines CMIE-CPHS household surveys, EPFO provident-fund records, and enterprise hiring data. Separates real AI substitution from cyclical slowdowns. This is the empirical foundation the other three priorities build on.

What happens to unabsorbed graduates. A 24-month longitudinal study following engineering graduates from Tier-2 and Tier-3 institutions who did not receive a placement. Tracks where they go — gig work, migration, informal employment, skill decay — and what those trajectories mean for the middle-class social contract.

Income support systems for the transition years. Comparative policy design adapting Singapore’s SkillsFuture (portable training credits) and Germany’s Kurzarbeit (transition subsidies) to Indian fiscal conditions. Includes design work on a National AI Displacement Insurance Fund co-funded from IT-BPM sector revenues.

Higher education after LLMs. Curricular research with Indian universities on what to teach when codified technical knowledge is exactly what AI replicates best. Focus on judgment, cross-domain reasoning, and continuous self-directed learning as the durable human skills for a post-LLM economy.

How the programme runs

We are convening a design workshop this year that brings labour economists, HR institutional leaders, government policymakers, and Indian founders together to draft the first-generation response for India. The workshop is invitation-based and will produce a public design paper.

We are launching an A4G Fellowship Programme to build the research team behind the four priorities. Fellows will be drawn from Indian universities, doctoral programmes, and mid-career institutional practice. Themes for the fellowship draw from our upcoming Intelex essay contest topics and align with the current global research frontier including Anthropic’s five priorities on the economic impact of AI.

How to engage

The five-to-seven year window is real. The design work that shapes India’s response to AI in the labour market must happen now.

We are inviting researchers, academic partners, policy analysts, and Indian institutions into three specific channels.

Academic partners can discuss co-authorship, data-sharing pipelines, and visiting fellowships. Policy and industry partners can join our pilot tracking arrangements. Fellows can submit applications for research stipends aligned with the Intelex topics.