'India won’t lag behind in AI...': Nandan Nilekani says adoption in India will still need heavy lifting

Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani cut through the AI buzz with a candid reminder: despite the hype, integrating AI into real-world systems won’t be a cakewalk. Speaking at the Carnegie Global Tech Summit 2025 on April 11, Nilekani underscored the enduring complexity of implementation — insisting that effective adoption demands significant workflow changes in both enterprises and government.

Nilekani didn't mince words about the road ahead. “AI doesn't mean it's going to be easier to do. It's going to take the same effort, if not more effort,” he warned, framing AI not as a shortcut but as a challenge requiring deep operational shifts.

He pointed to a growing dilemma: as machines start making decisions, the stakes are higher. “One of the key differences between previous tech revolutions or advances has been, for the first time, we intend to place trust in non-human intelligence, or decision making,” he said. Unlike earlier, deterministic technologies, AI brings unpredictability, and people are less forgiving when machines slip up.

Still, Nilekani believes India is better positioned than ever to keep pace. “Because of India's situation today and the technological sophistication that we have been able to accomplish in the last 15 years or so, it is going to be much faster,” he said, predicting that the gap between global innovation and Indian adoption will be minimal.

But challenges persist — especially in the public sector. “So in general, enterprise AI is much harder and will take a long time, but the most difficult actually, is implementing AI in the public sector, because public sector has structural constraints, it has ministries, it has departments,” he noted.

Nilekani also pushed back on the urgency to build homegrown AI models akin to DeepSeek. “We should not be losing sleep because somebody has not built any AI models,” he said, highlighting India's Indian AI mission and urging a focus on scaling current efforts.

The ninth edition of the Global Technology Summit, co-hosted with India’s Ministry of External Affairs, is taking place in New Delhi from April 10 to 12.