'India can be the most important country in the world for AI'

Betting on AI-powered search, Kirthiga Reddy, CEO and cofounder of AI-focused technology companies OptimizeGEO and Verix, is helping brands navigate how consumers build trust, relevance, and business in an AI search-led world. In a face-to-face interview with Peerzada Abrar, on the sidelines of the Bengaluru Tech Summit, Reddy, who was Facebook's India MD and also their first employee in the country, discusses why Indian tech companies aren't moving fast enough and why she believes India could be most important country in the world for AI. Edited excerpts:

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Given the current debate in India about AI investment—with government officials warning that Indian tech firms aren’t investing enough—what's your assessment? Are Indian companies moving fast enough, and what would you advise established IT services firms to do differently?

I think no matter how fast someone thinks, they are moving and how deep they think they are, honestly none of us are doing enough. Because the pace of this technology is well beyond what any one of us can imagine. So, each of us has to be thinking about not just 10x but 100x our pace of innovation. But that doesn’t mean hiring many more people. It actually is about becoming super-efficient. We have now two or 10 people companies that are hitting tens or hundreds of millions of revenue as very small teams. This is about how it is that you can truly leverage the AI revolution.

We're seeing hundreds of billions flowing into AI in the US and China, but far less in India. As someone who's operated in both Silicon Valley and India, what are the structural barriers holding back Indian AI investment, and can they be overcome?