India's AI moment: From adoption to leadership

The Industrial Revolution shifted economic power because some nations went beyond adopting new technologies. They went on to develop the talent, infrastructure, research ecosystems, and industries that enabled these technologies to shape the world.

Artificial intelligence represents a similar inflection point.

Every major technological wave has created new leaders, and AI will be no different. The defining countries of this era will not be those that use AI the most, but those that build computing infrastructure, create intellectual property, train talent, develop platforms, and shape applications on which the world relies. Increasingly, leadership will belong to nations that build these foundational capabilities.

India enters this moment from a position of strength.

India has one of the world's largest engineering workforces, a thriving start-up ecosystem, globally recognized digital public infrastructure, and experience deploying technology at scale. From UPI to Aadhaar, India has shown it can build digital systems that are inclusive, affordable, and scalable.

However, AI demands something more. The next phase of leadership will depend not on how many people use AI, but on who creates it. India must now shift from scaling digital adoption to building global AI capability.

The next AI race will be shaped beneath the application layer.

Much of today's AI discussion focuses on applications. However, every breakthrough relies on a deeper technology stack: semiconductors, systems architecture, networking, software frameworks, and computing infrastructure.

Without these foundations, AI cannot scale.

Semiconductors now define the potential of AI, rather than simply enabling it. Each new model requires more efficient architecture, improved memory systems, faster interconnects, and closer hardware-software optimization.

This presents an often-overlooked opportunity for India. For decades, India has quietly become one of the world's largest centers for semiconductor design and engineering. Thousands of engineers contribute to the processors and accelerators that power global AI systems.

India should become a hub where the next generation of AI computing architectures is conceived, designed, and engineered domestically. India's opportunity is not to master every layer of the AI stack, but to become indispensable in areas where it possesses distinctive strengths—including semiconductor design, advanced systems engineering, software innovation, and AI infrastructure. Advancing from engineering excellence to technology leadership is the next frontier.

Building the foundations that matter

India's rapid adoption of AI is an important milestone, but adoption alone does not establish leadership. Historically, nations that shaped technological revolutions were not always the fastest adopters; they invested early in the capabilities that allowed them to influence how technologies evolved. AI will follow the same pattern.

For India, the opportunity now lies in building the scientific, engineering, and computing foundations that enable contribution to the next generation of AI, rather than simply expanding AI usage.

The first foundation: talent

India produces one of the world's largest engineering workforces, but scale alone will not ensure AI leadership. The future will be shaped by engineers skilled in advanced computing, semiconductor architectures, distributed systems, hardware-software co-design, and model optimization. These specialized capabilities require sustained investment.

Developing this talent requires more than university education. It demands close collaboration among academia, industry, and government, as well as ongoing reskilling of the workforce. Platforms such as SWAYAM and DIKSHA offer a strong foundation, but must evolve to prepare engineers to build, not just use, AI systems.

The second foundation: research

Manufacturing is a national priority, but long-term technological leadership belongs to countries that excel at both design and production. Semiconductor fabrication builds capacity, while research and design drive differentiation. These activities generate intellectual property, system architectures, and engineering breakthroughs that create lasting value.

India has exceptional scientific institutions and engineering talent, but stronger connections are needed among universities, research labs, start-ups, and industry. Ideas should move seamlessly from research to prototypes, from prototypes to products, and from products to globally competitive technologies. This translation ultimately creates strategic advantage.

The third foundation: compute

If electricity powered the Industrial Revolution, compute will power the AI revolution.

Every AI breakthrough, whether in healthcare, manufacturing, climate science, or research, depends on access to advanced computing infrastructure. Researchers cannot train frontier models without compute. Start-ups cannot iterate rapidly without it. Enterprises cannot deploy AI at scale if compute is scarce or prohibitively expensive.

The IndiaAI Mission is an important step toward strengthening national AI infrastructure, but India's ambitions require infrastructure on a much larger scale. India needs broad, affordable access to advanced compute for enterprises, universities, researchers, and start-ups. Nations that build abundant compute capacity will increasingly shape the pace and direction of AI innovation. Expanding this capacity will require close collaboration among government, academia, and industry to ensure that advanced compute is broadly accessible across India's innovation ecosystem.

Another critical dimension that deserves equal urgency is energy.

Every effective AI strategy ultimately becomes an energy strategy. AI growth will depend not only on faster processors, but also on reliable, affordable, and sustainable power. Just as industrial economies relied on energy infrastructure, AI economies will depend on the ability to deliver compute at scale. Computers are fundamentally energy-intensive.

Finally, India must maintain the architectural principles that have defined its digital success.

India's most transformative digital platforms—Aadhaar, UPI, and ONDC—succeeded because they were built as open, interoperable ecosystems that encouraged innovation. AI should follow the same philosophy. Closed ecosystems may offer short-term efficiency, but open architecture fosters long-term innovation. Open systems give developers freedom to experiment, lower barriers to entry, and prevent dependence on a single technology stack. As AI becomes foundational infrastructure, openness will be a strategic advantage rather than just a technical preference.

The decisions India makes in the next decade will determine whether it shapes the future of AI or merely adapts to it. India's opportunity is not to replicate the models of the United States or China. Its strength lies in combining engineering talent, digital public infrastructure, and population-scale deployment in ways few countries can.

This is where India can establish a distinct global advantage.

India already has significant strengths in science, pharmaceuticals, space, manufacturing, and engineering. Combined with world-class AI research, advanced computing infrastructure, and semiconductor innovation, these capabilities position India to contribute meaningfully to the next wave of global scientific progress.

This does not mean India should pursue AI in isolation. No country—not even the world's largest economies—will build the entire AI stack alone. Leadership will come through partnerships

across industry, academia, and governments, with each nation contributing its unique strengths. India's opportunity is to become an indispensable contributor to the global AI economy, leading in areas where it can create lasting scientific, technological, and economic value.

The countries that define the AI era will not necessarily be those with the largest economies. They will be those that build capabilities others rely upon, foster innovation, and become indispensable partners in advancing global progress. India has the engineering talent, scientific foundation, entrepreneurial ecosystem, and digital experience to become one of those nations. The opportunity before India is not simply to participate in the AI revolution—it is to help shape it.

(The author is Country Head & SVP Engineering, AMD India. Views are personal.)