Has India lost the AI race? NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant answers

India has not lost the artificial intelligence (AI) race and could emerge as the next major destination for the technology, said former G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

Speaking at Business Today India@100 during a session titled ‘The Future of Make in India’, Kant said India’s biggest advantage in AI is its human resource and technical talent.

While key components such as chips and lithography machines are being developed in other countries, India could play a major role in providing the data and talent needed to build and deploy AI applications.

“Many people think we have totally lost the AI race, which is totally incorrect to my mind,” Kant said, adding that India is expected to provide 22% of global data.

He said India’s technical talent, progressive policies and the expected investment in data centres could give the country a significant advantage as its AI infrastructure expands.

“Almost $200 billion of data centres are going to be set up here,” Kant said. According to him, such an investment would mean that more data will be processed in India, while AI-related talent and businesses also develop around that infrastructure.

INDIA’S TALENT COULD BE A KEY ADVANTAGE

Kant said AI talent from across the world is increasingly coming to India, with professionals moving from the US to work with Indian startups and global capability centres (GCCs).

He said this talent pool could help India move beyond developing AI technology itself and focus on how it can be applied across sectors.

Moreover, Kant pointed to areas such as agriculture, learning outcomes, healthcare and nutrition to get a boost, as he calls for greater use of AI in manufacturing.“The application world is open to India,” he said, adding that this is where the country should focus its efforts in the coming years.

His comments come as the global AI race continues to be dominated by the US and China, particularly in the development of large language models and the infrastructure required to train them.

Kant acknowledged that India may not be competing with the US and China on the same terms when it comes to large language models. But he said that does not necessarily close the door for India, as the wider application of AI remains an open field.

AI TO BREED NEW SET OF SKILLS

During his address, Kant raised concerns around AI-driven job losses, saying similar fears have emerged with every major technological shift in the past. However, in his observation, previous technological changes ultimately created more jobs in the long run, although they also changed the skills required from workers.

He said there is already a shortage of AI engineers, machine learning professionals and data scientists, making skilling a critical part of India’s AI strategy. “India needs to completely transform its curriculum and skilling for the AI world of tomorrow,” Kant said.

He added that India could provide around 30% of the world’s skilled manpower, making education and workforce development important not only for India’s own AI ambitions but also for the global technology industry.

For Kant, India’s opportunity in AI therefore lies less in replicating the US and China’s race to build the largest AI models and more in using its talent, data and growing digital infrastructure to build applications across industries.

– Ends