Two of India's brightest young engineers-to-be prepared for JEE Advanced 2026 under the same Kota hostel roof but took very different routes when it came to technology. All India Rank 1 Shubham Kumar and AIR 2 Kabeer Chhillar, who studied at the same coaching institute and lived in the same hostel building in Kota, told The Indian Express that while one leaned on artificial intelligence tools during preparation, the other chose to stay away from them altogether.
In their interview with The Indian Express, the toppers said they studied under the same teachers and followed similar test schedules, yet their views on AI were very different. AIR 1 Shubham said, “I used AI tools like Claude and NotebookLM almost every day. I uploaded PDFs of textbooks and coaching materials to NotebookLM and created quizzes or summaries for quick revision. I also used Claude and sometimes Gemini to organise coaching material into clean PDFs and question papers. Sometimes I even created computer-based tests from raw questions so that I could attempt them in an actual examination format."
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The AIR 2 Kabeer told The Indian Express, “I didn't do any of this. I never used AI."
AIR 1 rank achiever, Shubham said, “AI should be constructively integrated into the coaching ecosystem. Students should not misuse it simply for answers. Instead, it can be used for learning, creating quizzes, analysing papers and improving preparation methods. That could bring a significant change to the industry."
Their contrasting choices on AI played out against the backdrop of one of the toughest exams in the country. JEE Advanced 2026, conducted by IIT Roorkee, tested Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics across two papers in a single day, with a combined maximum of 360 marks. Only candidates who first cleared JEE Main and ranked high enough were allowed to sit for the exam, and just a fraction of those who appeared ultimately qualified for IIT counselling.
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Shubham and Kabeer, both from the IIT Delhi zone and both studying at Kota's coaching ecosystem, ended up separated by just one mark at the very top of all‑India list, and are expected to choose computer science at IIT Bombay.
Their story suggests that at the highest level, AI is not a magic shortcut or a guaranteed edge; it is simply one more tool, and students can reach the summit with it or without it, as long as their basics, focus and discipline are in place.
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