India is better placed than it thinks in the AI race
India is better placed than it thinks in the AI race
India is currently hosting the Global AI Impact Summit at a crucial moment when the global technology industry is in a state of flux. While some technology leaders believe artificial intelligence will eliminate a large number of white-collar jobs, others argue it will create even more opportunities. Against this backdrop, India stands at the cusp of a deep transformation driven by AI.
First, India’s $290-billion IT services industry is aggressively collaborating with global AI platforms such as OpenAI, Anthropic and others to deliver AI-led offerings to enterprises. Over the past few days, several such collaborations have been announced.
This indicates that Indian IT companies are now playing the AI game on the front foot.
Importantly, the key architects of India’s IT revolution are once again taking charge of this transition. Reports suggest that Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran is personally overseeing AI-led strategies at TCS.
Chandrasekaran, who led TCS for decades, is widely seen as one of the principal architects of the company’s market leadership.
Similarly, Nandan Nilekani’s recent remarks at Infosys’ investors’ meet underlined that AI-driven changes are being pushed from the board level.
This appears to be the case across other large and mid-tier IT firms as well.
These developments augur well for India’s IT services industry, which contributes around 7.5–10 per cent to the country’s GDP.
Second, India has emerged as a global hub for Global Capability Centres (GCCs). As a result, much of the cutting-edge work in AI implementation is likely to be driven out of India, with global enterprises co-innovating through their India-based centres.
This places the country in the driver’s seat, as AI-powered services and platforms solving real business problems will increasingly be created here.
Third, India now has one of the world’s largest pools of AI talent, supported by its growing IT services, SaaS, GCC and startup ecosystems.
The massive number of registrations for the India AI Summit in New Delhi reflects the enthusiasm among startup founders, technology professionals and students alike. When a country’s intelligentsia is eager to ride the AI wave, it is unlikely to fall behind.
While India does not yet have a homegrown large language model comparable to those in the US or China, a new generation of promising deeptech startups is emerging, leveraging AI in innovative ways.
These gaps in the ecosystem are likely to be bridged over time.
In addition, the Indian government is playing a proactive role in accelerating AI innovation and adoption. By cutting through bureaucratic inertia, policymakers appear increasingly serious about AI’s role in India’s growth story.
Finally, many of the leading innovators shaping the global AI industry are of Indian origin — from Anthropic and OpenAI to Google and Microsoft. This represents a form of technological soft power.
It is reasonable to expect that these leaders will support India’s ambition to play a significant role in the AI era.
All in all, India has many of the essential ingredients to succeed in the AI race — provided it plays its cards right.
