AI: INDIA'S $1-TRILLION OPPORTUNITY

Software and services expertise will help define its AI future.

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Alok Goyal Partner, Stellaris Venture Partners

OVER THE PAST THREE decades, India has established itself as a global force in the digital economy. The internet era, beginning in the mid-1990s, enabled the rise of an industry with a market value of $500 billion-plus, spanning IT services, business process outsourcing (BPO), and global capability centres (GCC). By leveraging a vast, English-speaking talent pool and cost advantages, India became the operational backbone of global enterprises. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) represents the next great technological shift. Yet, instead of optimism, much of the commentary is laced with apprehension. The concern: AI threatens to automate precisely the rules-based, repetitive tasks—customer support, document processing, software testing, data entry—that form the core of India's services economy. And since India neither manufactures GPUs nor leads in foundational model development, some fear it will be left behind. That view is shortsighted.

India's AI advantage lies in human-in-the-loop systems