The piece notes that past government skill-building efforts often fall short, arguing that empowering people will be decisive for AI-driven growth while acknowledging risks to traditional jobs.

NITI Aayog projects AI-driven productivity gains could reach about half a trillion dollars to six hundred billion dollars in India’s output by 2035, largely by boosting informal sector efficiency, though these figures may be optimistic given past skill-development challenges.

Projections from NITI Aayog also suggest AI could triple productivity in the informal sector and add hundreds of billions to GDP by mid-decade.

AI-enabled language models and multilingual capabilities may flatten the skills curve, enabling people with limited formal education to perform more sophisticated tasks and expanding service reach across diverse populations.

Growth prospects include telecom-enabled AI services (such as AI assistants) and government-backed initiatives like the IndiaAI Mission to build AI research and applications.

India’s real edge lies in its people—an adaptable, language-diverse workforce—potentially driving widespread economic transformation through scalable AI-enabled competence rather than relying on infrastructure alone.

Adoption challenges include the urban-rural digital divide, AI literacy gaps, linguistic and cultural diversity, policy and infrastructure needs, and governance concerns around data privacy and algorithmic bias.

Recent moves by OpenAI, Alphabet, and Perplexity to offer free or bundled AI access through Indian telecom operators point to a scale-driven strategy aimed at mass adoption and data generation.

Global AI investment patterns show Europe prioritizing ethical governance, the U.S. and China pushing commercialization, and the UAE expanding AI infrastructure.

Overall, there is cautious optimism that AI can catalyze broad-based economic transformation in India if adoption and skills development keep pace with deployment.

OpenAI’s IndQA initiative is highlighted as a move toward multilingual AI accessibility to address India's linguistic diversity.

Telcos see AI add-ons as utilities to boost subscriptions and enable rapid rollout across India’s large, young, tech-savvy user base, driving network effects.

Indian telecoms are embedding AI tools into core services, turning AI into a basic utility and expanding access across urban and rural areas.

The government, with support from NITI Aayog, views AI as a driver of inclusive growth and positions India as a living laboratory for large-scale AI deployment.

India is emerging as the world’s largest potential AI market due to its billion-plus tech-savvy users, creating a unique environment for widespread adoption and productivity gains.

The country could become the world’s biggest AI opportunity by prioritizing adoption over building models or hardware, leveraging its vast user base.

India is launching a large-scale social experiment with AI, aiming to transform sectors such as healthcare, education, finance, and agriculture through widespread AI integration, and offering potential global lessons on responsible deployment.