KARNAL, India — Farmer Bir Virk tapped the iPad mounted beside his tractor’s steering wheel and switched the vehicle to automatic mode. The machine moved forward and began harvesting potatoes on its own in the fields of Karnal, a city in northern India.
Some 145 kilometers (90 miles) away in the country’s capital of New Delhi, educator Swetank Pandey employed similar automation at his coaching academy. He used algorithms to scan and grade handwritten exam papers from candidates for India’s competitive civil services.
In both cases, the same invisible hand was at work: artificial intelligence.
From farms to classrooms, AI is fast emerging as a tool for many Indians to boost efficiency and cut time, costs and labor. Early adopters, like Virk and Pandey, say the technology is helping them boost productivity as they test AI’s potential to find solutions at work.
“I am able to farm very efficiently and I feel very happy that I do the work what my grandfather and father used to do. Now I am carrying the tradition forward with the right technology,” said Virk.
As AI use surges across the globe, the technology is steadily gaining ground across India as businesses, startups and individuals experiment with new ways to improve efficiency.
The Indian government is also rolling out national initiatives to fund research and train workers in AI. That push is on display this week as New Delhi hosts a five-day AI summit, which is being attended by heads of state and top tech CEOs.
With nearly a billion internet users, India has also become a key focus for global tech companies to scale their AI businesses in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets.
Last December, Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India. It followed Google’s $15 billion investment over five years, including plans for its first AI hub in the country.
“There’s some good use cases that have started. There are these scaling platforms that are now embedding AI into them,” said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at NASSCOM, a prominent body representing India’s technology industry.
India’s adoption to AI, however, has its constraints.
The country still lags in developing its own large-scale AI model like U.S.-based O