Fortune India Startup Summit: AI ecosystem moves beyond hype as founders focus on driving disruption
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India’s AI startup ecosystem is moving beyond hype, with founders increasingly focusing on workflows, data, and real-world applications to drive disruption, speakers said at the Fortune India Startup Summit on Thursday.
Addressing concerns around job losses, Saurabh Pandey, Founder and CEO of Eloelo, said AI is more likely to enhance productivity than replace creative professionals. “AI can assist, but it cannot yet deliver deep storytelling. What it does is improve output. Our team now produces five to seven times more content,” he said.
When asked what the key challenge is distinguishing truly AI models from those that simply add a layer of technology to existing ideas, Haren Chelle, co-founder and CEO of PulseGen.io, said, “Startups should prioritise experimentation over comparing models.”
“It is not about which model is better, but about what works for a specific use case. Most AI applications today rely on multiple models working together,” he added.
Chelle noted that his company deploys 25–30 AI agents orchestrated into a single workflow. “Each model has its own strengths. The key is to test widely but build on what delivers consistent outcomes,” he said.
Pandey highlighted entertainment, education, and conversational AI as areas witnessing rapid disruption. His company’s platform, Story TV, has scaled production significantly using AI-led workflows.
“Six months ago, we were producing 20–30 dramas a month. Last month, we produced around 200 micro-dramas. These are emerging as a major category, with a combined market run rate of around $700 million,” Pandey said, highlighting how generative AI has reduced costs across scripting, production, and post-production.
Role of India in the global AI landscape
On the role of India in the global AI landscape, Chelle said the country is both a creator and a consumer. “There are companies building multilingual models tailored for India, but the larger opportunity lies in application-layer companies serving a vast user base,” he said.
Data will be the biggest differentiator
Both founders noted that data will be the biggest differentiator going forward. “As companies become more open to sharing data, the quality of AI outcomes will improve significantly,” Chelle said.
They also agreed that building foundational AI models may not be viable for most startups on higher costs. Instead, the focus should be on developing proprietary workflows. “The real advantage lies in how you fine-tune models and integrate them into your systems,” Pandey added.