A conversation with Manish Bakshi, Managing Director, BenQ Middle East
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming classrooms around the world, and across the Middle East, BenQ is playing a leading role in this shift. Through AI-powered interactive displays, culturally responsive features, and tools designed to support both teachers and students, BenQ is redefining learning for a digitally advanced era.
Education UAE spoke with Manish Bakshi, Managing Director of BenQ Middle East, to explore how AI is influencing education and how BenQ is embedding intelligent, locally relevant solutions into its latest generation of interactive boards.
The Role of AI in Education
“AI is going to influence every single aspect of education inside and outside the classroom.”
According to Mr Bakshi, AI in education is no longer a future concept. It is already delivering practical benefits by enhancing personalisation, accessibility, and efficiency across schools and universities. AI strengthens the role of educators by providing tools that support differentiated instruction, reduce administrative burden, and offer data-driven insights into student performance.
Rather than replacing teachers, AI enables them to focus on what matters most, meaningful engagement, creativity, and student development.
Personalised Learning and Teacher Empowerment
One of AI’s most significant contributions is personalised learning. AI systems can analyse student performance and learning behaviours, allowing teachers to tailor lessons to individual strengths, needs, and learning styles.
AI also helps educators automate routine tasks such as lesson preparation, documentation, and scheduling. By reducing administrative workload, teachers gain more time for interactive teaching and creative lesson design. Another key advantage is content generation. AI tools can quickly produce quizzes, worksheets, lesson plans, and interactive activities, encouraging experimentation with gamified and immersive learning approaches.
Adaptive AI and Real-Time Responsiveness
Mr Bakshi explains that BenQ’s interactive boards are designed to be adaptive, not just AI-enabled.
“Our systems learn from the classroom itself. They analyse engagement, highlight learning gaps, and adjust lesson delivery in real time. This means teachers can intervene faster, personalise instruction more effectively, and ensure no student is left behind.”
Adaptive AI also supports inclusive education. It can simplify language for learners of English as a second language, convert text to speech for visually impaired students, and introduce interactive elements for younger learners. By aligning with national education strategies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, BenQ ensures its AI solutions remain globally advanced while locally relevant.
This approach reflects BenQ’s belief that technology should support people, with teachers remaining central to the learning experience and AI acting as an enabling partner.
How AI Is Reshaping Student Learning
AI is also transforming how students learn and prepare for future careers. Automation of routine tasks is already underway across the region, with schools and universities adopting AI for grading, attendance, and admissions. BenQ Interactive Displays support this shift through features such as instant annotation, cloud storage, and automated lesson recording, freeing up classroom time for collaboration and discussion. Preparing students for future workplaces is another priority. With Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the UAE’s AI Strategy 2031 emphasising innovation and problem-solving, employers increasingly value collaboration and communication skills. BenQ’s ClassroomCare technology, EZWrite software, and InstaShare wireless sharing tools foster teamwork across physical and virtual learning environments. MagicSchoolAI integration further prepares students for human and AI collaboration through adaptive feedback and critical thinking prompts.
Traditional rote learning is gradually giving way to project-based and experiential models. Through partnerships with platforms such as MagicSchoolAI, BenQ enables schools to integrate adaptive quizzes, personalised learning pathways, and AI-supported lesson planning into daily teaching. Students learn to evaluate and refine AI-generated content, building digital confidence and creative thinking.
AI-Powered BenQ Boards and Smart Classrooms
BenQ’s latest range of Interactive Displays, including the Essential, Master, and Pro Series from 65 to 98 inches, has been developed with AI at its core. The 86-inch BenQ Board RP8604 stands out as the first interactive display in the industry to operate on Android 15 with Google EDLA certification. Designed for collaborative classrooms, it enhances engagement, connectivity, and classroom management.
This year also marks BenQ’s fifth consecutive year as the number one Interactive Display brand in the Middle East, with more than 60,000 units sold across the region. Mr Bakshi attributes this milestone to the trust educators place in BenQ’s reliable and forward-looking solutions.
Localised Innovation and Cultural Relevance
A defining feature of BenQ’s regional strategy is cultural awareness. One example is the Prayer Time integration within X Sign Broadcast, developed specifically for Islamic schools. The feature allows institutions to automatically display reminders for the five daily prayers across connected BenQ Boards and smart projectors. This initiative reflects BenQ’s commitment to global innovation with local sensitivity, ensuring technology supports cultural identity as well as educational progress.
The Future of AI in Education
Looking ahead, Mr Bakshi expects AI to continue reshaping education through immersive learning, gamification, virtual and augmented reality, and enhanced early years tools that combine visual and auditory learning. Real-time analytics will support adaptive curriculum development, while secure, cloud-based systems will become standard as schools continue their digital transformation. Despite rapid innovation, one principle remains constant. AI will not replace teachers. It will empower them. BenQ remains focused on creating learning environments where educators feel supported, students feel inspired, and technology remains inclusive and culturally aware.
To support schools on this journey, BenQ has published a comprehensive AI Tool Guide, detailing how features such as MagicSchoolAI, ClassroomAI, EZWrite AI, and localised integrations can be applied in real classroom settings. The guide is available for free download.
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