India can be one of world's consequential AI environments: Rishad Premji

India has the opportunity to become one of the world's most consequential environments for AI application but the country's advantage will be defined by the choices it makes regarding where to apply, diffuse and responsibly deploy the new wave of technology to translate capability into real impact, Wipro Ltd Executive Chairman, Rishad Premji said on Thursday.

AI is once in a generation a technology that emerges which doesn't just change "what we do, it truly changes what we must do", he said while speaking at the AI Impact Summit.

"How we as a country, how India responds in the next few years, will shape not just our own economic trajectory, but our ability to solve problems that matter to over a billion people," Premji asserted.

 

Stating that the conversation on AI has fundamentally shifted from possibility to practicality, from experimentation to adoption, and from pilots to scale impact, he said this shift matters tremendously, because technology creates value only when it is applied to solve real-world problems, responsibly and at scale.

"It means India has the opportunity to become one of the world's most consequential environments for the application of AI, not just as a builder of the technology, but as a place where AI is tested against real-world complexity and made to work at scale," Premji asserted.

As we look ahead, he said,"India's advantage in AI will not be defined only by the size of our models or the scale of our infrastructure. It will be defined by the choices we make, about where we apply AI, how we diffuse it, how responsibly is it deployed and whether we can translate capability into real impact for governments, citizens and enterprises."  India's advantage will come from developing talent at scale, not just people trained on AI, but people who can apply it with context, judgement and an ability to adapt to change, he added.

Citing India's strengths why it is well-placed today to take advantage of AI, Premji cited the example of the success of UPI payments which has been adopted at mass scale.

"India also has one of the largest and fastest-growing pools of AI talent in the world. We are truly the AI and talent destination of the world. Approximately 6.5 lakh professionals in India work in AI-related roles today, and this number will double by 2027," he noted.

Citing government initiatives to train 10 million young people in AI, along with industry partnerships with universities which are expanding access to practical, job-ready training, he said many of the foundations to build out talent are already in place.

Stating that people are giving opportunities as apprenticeships to get exposure to real-world applications, he said, "This capability is reinforced by a vibrant innovation ecosystem. India is home, as many of us know, to the world's third-largest technology startup base, including more than 4,000 startups in the deep tech and AI space."  India's advantage will come from developing talent at scale, not just people trained on AI, but people who can apply it with context, judgement and an ability to adapt to change, Premji noted.

"That is why AI fluency must extend beyond engineers, to teachers, to nurses, to administrators, to supervisors, to small business owners, among everyone else. The dividing line will not be human versus machine, it will truly be between those who adapt and those who hesitate to adapt," he added.

Noting that technology shifts inevitably create uncertainty, but for countries that act decisively, they also create opportunity, he said,"India has embraced such shifts in the past and I believe we are really well positioned to do so again."  Citing the example of pioneering work done by Azeem Premji Foundation on early detection of tuberculosis using AI in a rural community in Tamil Nadu, he said it enabled early screening and faster referral, without requiring patients to travel.

"If successful, this approach can help detect TB earlier and extend the reach of healthcare into communities that need it most," Premji said, it can help the country overcome the challenges of shortages of doctors in India, which has a national doctor-to-population ratio of roughly 1:800  "AI does not replace care, it multiplies scarce expertise infinitely. The same last-mile challenges exist across other countries, in continents of Asia, Africa and Latin America, home to more than 4 billion people," he added.

Solutions that work here, in India, at scale, low-cost, multilingual and resilient, can travel far beyond its own borders, Premj said, adding "If we can do that, India's contribution can be vast, not just in building AI, but in applying it to solve problems for enterprises, for our own country and for the world at large, thoughtfully, inclusively and with impact, at scale.