How Language LLMs Will Lead the AI Leap in India

An AI model that doesn't understand a citizen's language is not just ineffective. It's dangerous.

- Charles Assisi

The next great power struggle in technology won't be about speed or scale; it'll be about whose language AI speaks. Because trust in technology begins with something deeply human: being understood.

You trust a doctor who speaks your language. You trust a banker who understands your context. So why would you trust an algorithm that doesn't know who you are, where you're from, or what your words mean?

This question is being asked by governments, developers, and communities across the Global South who have seen how powerful large language models (LLMs) can be—and how irrelevant they often are to people who don't speak English or live in Silicon Valley.

In India, the response until now has been BharatGPT. This is a collaboration between startups like CoRover.ai, government-backed platforms like Bhashini, and academic institutions such as the IITs. Its aim is not to chase ChatGPT on global benchmarks. Instead, it hopes to solve problems at home—helping citizens navigate government forms in Hindi, automating railway queries in Tamil, or enabling voice assistants in other regional languages. CoRover has already deployed multilingual chatbots in sectors like railways, insurance, and banking. The value here isn't just in automation. It's in comprehension.