AI bridging gap between India and rest of world, Nadella says

India’s fast growth in artificial intelligence (AI) is bridging its gap with the rest of the world, Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella said.

“This is the first time I feel what is happening in India and the rest of the world. There is no gap. If anything, the use cases here are so unique and pave their own path,” Nadella said while speaking to top Indian CEOs at the Microsoft CEO Connection event in Mumbai.

Nadella reinforced the company’s commitment to supporting India’s transformation into an AI-first nation.

The India-born CEO of the tech giant said there is an immense potential of artificial intelligence in propelling the country’s economic growth as it targets a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

Presenting data from the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity), the Microsoft chief said the AI GDP will be $500 billion by 2025, 10% of India’s overall GDP.

As more Indian brands adopt AI technologies like Microsoft Copilot, India is poised to become a global leader in AI-driven economic growth, Nadella said.

“You can only talk about tech as a real thing if it is going to have a real impact on the overall growth of an economy. Definitely today this is the highest growth market. You can see the buoyancy of it. The government and all of you have high ambitions of what’s going to happen by 2025 and what percentage of that growth is going to be driven by AI,” he said.

Drawing a parallel with the industrial revolution, Nadella said. “In the United Kingdom, during the height of the industrial revolution, they spent 10% of GDP on the railroad system and the rest is history.”

“When you have a new general-purpose technology, how intensely you invest and deploy cross-sectorally inside an economy, I think, makes a difference to a country’s prospects going forward,” Nadella said of AI. 

Nadella, who is on a two-day visit to the country, said India and the US need to cooperate on framing regulations on AI, stressing that the new-age technology can “equally distribute” growth.

Asserting the importance of upskilling, Nadella announced Microsoft’s ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative to provide 2 million people in India with AI skilling opportunities by 2025.

This will help to close skills gaps across the nation and strengthen India’s ability to thrive in the AI era, the company said. 

“India is uniquely positioned to make the promise of AI a reality,” said Nadella, adding, “We are committed to partnering broadly across the public and private sector to help close the nation’s AI skills gap and create new opportunity throughout the country.”