ITRA Jamnagar's Ayu-Tech Navonmesh 2026 puts AI on the Ayurveda agenda

The Institute of Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (ITRA) in Jamnagar, Gujarat, held a national conference on bringing artificial intelligence into Ayurveda, titled "Ayu-Tech Navonmesh 2026", to mark its sixth Foundation Day. The event was announced in an official release on Friday, 16 October 2026, and reported on 17 October. Experts discussed how AI could be used in Ayurvedic research, teaching, drug development and health services, with stress on ethical and scientific use, and AI-based chatbots and other digital tools built for Ayush services were shown to participants.

Ayurveda rests on a large body of classical texts, case records and clinical observation built up over centuries. Much of that knowledge is scattered across manuscripts, textbooks and individual practice, and it is hard for a young doctor or researcher to search it quickly. Machine learning tools can sort, compare and summarise large amounts of text and patient data, which is why Ayush institutions are now asking how such tools could help, and where they should not be used.

ITRA is not a minor player in this debate. Parliament passed a law in September 2020 that formed the institute by merging a cluster of four Ayurveda institutes on the Gujarat Ayurved University campus in Jamnagar, and gave it the status of an Institution of National Importance, the first in the Ayush sector. That status lets it set its own courses and research agenda, so what it chooses to teach about AI is likely to influence other colleges.

According to the conference reports, Prof. Tanuja Nesari, the institute's director, described the event as an important platform for innovation and collaboration for the future of Ayurveda. Naman Goyal, an Officer on Special Duty with the Ayush Grid, the ministry's digital health programme, walked participants through the basic ideas of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Dr Geetha Krishnan, who heads the traditional medicine research, data and innovation unit at the WHO Global Traditional Medicine Centre, said AI has strong potential to help people understand Ayurveda better and apply it more effectively, while stressing that technology should support the core principles of traditional knowledge rather than replace them.

That caution matters. An AI tool trained on poorly checked material can repeat errors with great confidence, and health advice is an area where mistakes cost more than in most fields. The emphasis at the conference on ethics and scientific checks suggests the institute sees AI as an aid to trained practitioners and researchers, not a stand-in for clinical judgment.

Short-term: Students and faculty at ITRA and visiting experts were introduced to working AI tools, including chatbots built for Ayush services, and to the basic concepts behind them. The conference gives the institute a starting point for courses, projects and partnerships in this area.

Long-term: If AI tools become part of Ayurvedic training and research, they could make classical knowledge easier to search and help researchers organise evidence for formulations. The value will depend on the quality of the data the tools learn from and on clear rules about how they are tested before use with patients. Details of how the chatbots shown at the event work, who built them and when they may be available to the public were not part of the reports.

Who is affected: Ayurveda students, teachers and researchers; practitioners who may use digital tools in clinics; and patients who use Ayush services, which the government is linking to its digital health platforms.

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