Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has said that India is taking a different, more practical approach to building AI compared to some global players. Speaking to news agency ANI at the ongoing India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Vembu said that India is currently investing in smaller AI models that are efficient and cost-effective. He further stated that while these models may not be popular, they are effective for the country’s specific needs. “I think we are investing in lot of the smaller models. Those should be unglamorous right now, but they get the job done,” he told the news agency. Referencing the startup Sarvam as an example of a company launching models with a smaller footprint, he said, “This is going to be the norm in India where a lot of smaller resource efficient, energy efficient models and then we’ll scale up over time as the costs decline.”
Sridhar Vembu: India has most enthusiastic population in the world
As per the ANI report, Vembu also highlighted that India has a significant advantage due to its young population. “With our vast youth population, we have the most AI enthusiastic population in the world. We are adopting AI faster than any other nation,” he noted. He further said that the Indian youth is already leading in technology adoption and creating new opportunities.
Sridhar Vembu said Zoho is rapidly using AI to improve software development, adding that the company is seeing significant benefits from it. “Right now we are rapidly deploying AI in software development. We are seeing massive productivity gains in it,” he said.Zoho plans to expand this adoption across the entire company over the next year, he highlighted.On the effect of AI over workforce in India, Vembu said that previous technology waves have always created jobs and believes AI will do the same. “I think there will be new jobs created and software engineers have to get closer to the customer, solve customer problems,” he told ANI.
