AI as a catalyst for Viksit Bharat: Transforming India’s digital future

India today stands at a crucial demographic and economic inflection point, even as it makes decisive strides towards the Viksit Bharat 2047 ambition articulated by PM Modi. AI plays a critical role in enabling this vision, as it delivers not only massive productivity gains but also innovation and growth.

For India to make the leap towards becoming a $5 trillion economy, AI must be co-opted as an essential force multiplier across areas such as economic growth, governance, and social inclusion.

India is well-positioned to harness the benefits of AI, given the vast volumes of data across sectors, a strong demographic dividend, and a vibrant innovation ecosystem. Combined with initiatives like Digital Public Infrastructure, this creates fertile ground for scalable AI systems.

At the same time, India’s linguistic, cultural, and socio-economic diversity presents both challenges and opportunities for AI systems. Encouragingly, initiatives such as the MANAV Vision national framework for ethical and inclusive AI governance are helping address bias in locally relevant ways.

Preparing for the era of agentic enterprises

The conversation around AI itself is evolving as AI systems shift to more autonomous, action-oriented systems or ‘agentic enterprises’. This holds immense promise for sectors such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and public services.

But unlocking this potential requires a strong foundation that spans technological, organisational, and human aspects. It must combine both structured and unstructured data in an accessible and secure manner, while keeping governance at the centre is also a critical part of this.

Organisations often deploy a proliferation of AI agents and siloed applications, leading to inconsistent decisions, duplicated efforts, and ultimately, diminished returns on AI investments.

Also, as AI systems become more powerful, safeguards against bias, misinformation, and misuse must evolve in parallel. This is particularly important in a diverse country like India, where poorly designed systems can inadvertently exclude or disadvantage certain communities.

Without a unified approach, AI systems may remain efficient in isolation but fail to deliver meaningful, nation-wide impact. Therefore, a cohesive foundation that integrates data, models, and workflows into a seamless ecosystem is extremely crucial.

If India hopes to realise its ambition of securing a position among the top three AI superpowers globally, as envisioned by PM Modi, timely steps to build on the necessary foundational elements are extremely critical. These include:

• Democratisation of Data

Data must become universally accessible, rather than being restricted to specialised teams or technical experts. For example, when employees within an organisation can interact with, interpret, and derive value from data across functions, they unlock faster decision-making and broader innovation.

This democratisation is not just about access, but also about usability. It requires tools and platforms that enable intuitive engagement with data. Users must be empowered to ask questions, test hypotheses, and generate insights without heavy technical dependence. In a country like India, this also means ensuring accessibility across languages and digital literacy levels.

• A Strong Organisational Backbone

For a country like India, designing for scale is also crucial. The Government’s IndiaAI Mission, with an outlay of over ₹10,000 crore, is working to democratise access to AI resources.

At an organisational level, a unified control plane that connects data, AI models, and applications into a cohesive system is critical. This architecture should be composable and interoperable to enable seamless integration across diverse tools, platforms, and ecosystems.

Equally important is governance. Embedding guardrails ensures that decisions are explainable, auditable, and aligned with policies. Real-time observability, security controls, and risk management frameworks are essential to maintain trust and compliance.

• People at the Core

Perhaps the most critical pillar is the human one. As AI takes on a larger share of execution, the nature of human contribution is evolving, although not diminishing. Skills such as judgment, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and relationship management are becoming more important than ever to enterprises and the government alike.

As AI makes it easier to generate outputs, the real differentiator lies in the ability to challenge AI systems, contextualise insights, and take ownership of outcomes. Therefore, workforce transformation cannot be treated as separate from technology adoption. It must be deeply integrated into it.

The road ahead

AI is already demonstrating tangible impact on India’s transformation journey, whether in enabling early detection of diseases such as tuberculosis or personalised learning platforms for students in rural and government schools. Even grassroots initiatives are leveraging AI to empower communities. For example, dairy farmers are receiving real-time insights on livestock management.

Yet, technology alone will not determine success. The success of India’s AI aspirations will depend on a combination of strong foundations, thoughtful governance, and human-centric design that will define outcomes.

With the right investments in infrastructure, data, and skills, India can leverage AI not just for efficiency, but for inclusive growth to bridge development gaps, expand access, and create new economic opportunities for a Viksit Bharat.

By Vijayant Rai, managing director- India, Snowflake