India: Testbed or AI trailblazer?

INDIA HAS LONG been the market where global tech giants experiment with affordability.

- SUDHIR CHOWDHARY

Whether it was telecom pricing, streaming subscription, or smartphone launches, the market has consistently been the playground for testing low-cost models.

The same story is unfolding with artificial intelligence (AI). OpenAI's new ₹399 ChatGPT Go plan shows how affordability remains the most important lever to drive adoption in India. While it doesn't offer access to GPT-5's advanced reasoning, users stand to benefit with higher message limits, more image generations, increased file uploads and extended memory.

As per a Microsoft study, India is the fastest-growing AI adopter, with 65% of people using AI tools, double the global average and a 30% adoption rate among businesses. India is a key market for OpenAI, being second only to the US by user base.

However, OpenAI is not alone in making AI more affordable. Perplexity, through its partnership with Airtel, has made Pro access free for 390 million subscribers. Google's Gemini is being embedded across Android and core Google services. Lastly, Microsoft's Copilot is positioning itself as a productivity layer within Office and Windows.