Key facts
- Experts urge India to use AI to become a product nation
- India currently dominant in IT services, not product development
- AI seen as lowering barriers to building global tech products
- Risk flagged of deepening dependency on Western AI platforms
India stands at a pivotal inflection point in the global artificial intelligence race and must use it to finally make the leap from a technology services powerhouse to a product nation, industry experts told The Hindu. The argument carries particular urgency now, as AI is fundamentally restructuring how software is built, distributed, and monetised — creating a window that may not stay open for long.
For decades, India's technology sector has been defined by services exports: Indian engineers building and maintaining software for foreign companies. While this model generated enormous wealth and employment, it left India with relatively few globally scaled product companies. Experts contend that AI changes this equation — the cost of building sophisticated software products has dropped dramatically, Indian language data offers unique training advantages, and domestic demand is large enough to validate products before global expansion.
The prescription from industry voices includes greater R&D investment by Indian companies, stronger collaboration between academia and industry, and government policies that incentivise product development over services contracts. Several speakers highlighted the risk that without deliberate effort, Indian firms could end up integrating Western-built AI tools into their services offerings, deepening dependency rather than reducing it.
The conversation reflects a growing consensus in India's technology establishment that the AI era demands a strategic reset. Whether the ecosystem — historically risk-averse and services-oriented — can execute that pivot will define India's technology standing for the next two decades.