On AI Appreciation Day, tech leaders call for inclusive, human-centric innovation | Mint-OxBig News Network

New Delhi [India] July 16 (ANI): As India observes AI Appreciation Day, industry leaders from across the technology, startup, and enterprise landscape highlighted the transformative role of artificial intelligence in shaping the country’s digital future, adding that AI has become an enabler of growth and innovation.

From startups to multinationals, the leaders say AI is no longer just a tool; it is a catalyst for inclusive progress, digital equity, and sustainable innovation.

AI Appreciation Day celebrates the country’s growing role in the global AI landscape. The AI journey of India commenced in the 1960s with early computer science research. A significant step came in 1986 with the Knowledge-Based Computer Systems project.

In the 1990s, organisations like C-DAC advanced supercomputing and early AI work. By the 2000s, IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, and Wipro began investing in AI, while universities built a strong talent pool. The Digital India push in 2015 and NITI Aayog’s 2018 AI strategy accelerated growth.

“AI is an enabler of growth and innovation for every corner of India,” said Ganesh Gopalan, Co-Founder & CEO of Gnani.ai, emphasing AI’s unique potential in India’s multilingual and digitally diverse environment.

“On AI Appreciation Day, we celebrate the incredible strides made in voice AI, small language models, and generative AI that bridge linguistic diversity and democratise digital access,” he said.

Contentstack Co-founder & CTO Nishant Patel sees AI as the silent enabler behind modern digital innovation.

“AI has become the engine room of modern digital innovation, quietly removing friction, automating the mundane, and letting creators and developers focus on what truly moves the needle,” Patel added.

India has emerged as the fastest-growing developer population globally and ranks second in public generative AI projects on GitHub. The country is home to 16 per cent of the world’s AI talent, showcasing its growing influence in AI innovation and adoption.

For HerKey CTO Murugan Anjunan, AI plays a pivotal role in reshaping the workplace for women. “We don’t view AI as a disruptor in isolation, but as a dynamic partner in progress… The future of work is not just AI-powered, but it is human-first, AI-enabled.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Divye Agarwal, Co-founder of BingeLabs, emphasised AI’s impact on creative inclusion across geographies. “AI has become one of the greatest equalisers of our time… From generating content in local languages to pushing it in culturally relevant ways, AI is breaking down barriers that once felt immovable.”

Manish Jha, CTO of Addverb, outlined how AI is redefining automation while keeping humans at the center. “We see artificial intelligence not just as a tool, it’s a catalyst that brings intelligence, adaptability, and a human-centric focus to automation.”

From an ecosystem perspective, AI&Beyond CEO Jaspreet Bindra offered insights into India’s growing AI startup landscape. “It’s been a good year for Indian AI startups, with funding increasing by about 40 per cent in 2024 to nearly USD 800 million.””Funding is still very selective, and the number of large deals has actually declined. Startups continue to face issues around data access and quality, a significant talent and skills gap, as well as limitations in GPU availability and compute infrastructure. Most importantly, early-stage funding hasn’t been as encouraging as expected. That said, there’s a lot of excitement around the space, and we could see an even better year ahead,” Bindra added.

Apart from the private sector funding, the government has approved an allocation of over ₹10,300 crore for the IndiaAI Mission, marking a significant step towards bolstering India’s AI ecosystem.

Praveen Kumar V, Founder & CEO of Thriftizer Solutions, said AI is reshaping digital commerce. “AI, for me, has automated a multitude of tasks, unrestricted the elbows on my mental framework, and let me direct my capabilities toward addressing real challenges… I expect AI to integrate fundamentally into the convention of designing and fortifying the infrastructure of digital commerce.”

Meanwhile, Prashant Singh, CEO & Co-Founder of Blue Planet Environmental Solutions, emphasised AI’s environmental impact. “We are now at a pivotal moment… AI now helps industries transition from ‘hindsight’ to ‘foresight’, fragmentation to integration… Waste management goes far beyond disposal; it involves tracking the waste’s journey, reuse, and providing value at every step, which relies on AI.” (ANI)