India could be AI’s biggest bet: It has hordes of early adopters

The country’s multitudes could make excellent use of AI enablers

- MIHIR SHARMA

Everyone is looking for the next big AI bet. They're searching for energy-rich places that can run data centres cheaply, for bottlenecks in the semiconductor supply chain that will earn massive profits, or for companies that might own the next breakout algorithm.

Usually, India doesn’t feature in these conversations. It isn't going to be a chip-making superpower any time soon. And, although a couple of big data-centre projects have been announced, high energy costs and land scarcity limit its ambitions.

Yet, India may be the biggest, safest bet in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Not because it will build AI models, but because it will use them.

The world’s large language model (LLM) players already suspect this. In recent months, three companies have rolled out free access to their paid tiers exclusively in India. Open AI's lightweight ChatGPT Go plan will be available at no cost to Indians for a year; Alphabet’s Gemini Pro will be provided to every single one of Reliance Jio’s 505 million subscribers for 18 months; and Perplexity will offer its Pro version to Bharti Airtel’s 350 million users. That two of the three are going with Indian telecom providers is partly to build scale. Nobody gives you numbers like India does. And young Indians are particularly ferocious adopters of technology.