India’s artificial intelligence ecosystem is entering a decisive phase where adoption must move beyond experimentation into real, scalable deployment. This was the central theme at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, where policymakers, public-sector leaders, and technology founders gathered to discuss how AI can deliver meaningful outcomes at population scale. The session, titled AI for Everyone: Empowering People, Businesses, and Society, highlighted the need for AI adoption to extend beyond large enterprises and metros to include small businesses and underserved sectors across the country.
MSMEs Represent the Next Major Frontier for AI Adoption
Within this discussion, Sanjay Varnwal, Co-founder and CEO, Spyne, highlighted why India’s 63–65 million MSMEs represent the next decisive frontier for AI. He said, “India’s 63 million MSMEs are sitting on a massive opportunity for AI adoption. AI now makes it possible to solve real problems, like invoicing, payments, inventory, and customer outreach at scale and with efficiency. If we can deliver these solutions in a cost-optimised way, the MSME market represents an enormous untapped goldmine.”
His remarks underscored the scale of opportunity for startups and technology providers to build AI-driven tools that directly address operational challenges faced by small and medium businesses.
Cost Efficiency and Language Diversity Will Define Adoption
According to Varnwal, AI is fundamentally changing how businesses interact with technology by enabling more natural interfaces and automated workflows. However, he emphasised that adoption will not accelerate through generic global platforms. He stated, “Startups must design for India’s realities, particularly cost-efficiency and linguistic diversity, where MSMEs operate across dozens of languages and highly varied digital maturity levels.”
This highlights the importance of building India-first AI solutions that are affordable, accessible, and tailored to regional business needs.
Spyne’s Global Experience Offers a Blueprint for India
Drawing from Spyne’s experience in building and scaling AI products across international markets, particularly in the automotive ecosystem, Varnwal outlined how similar AI capabilities can be adapted for Indian MSMEs. By delivering cost-effective and easy-to-deploy AI tools, startups can enable millions of small businesses to automate workflows and improve efficiency without requiring enterprise-grade infrastructure.
India Has the Potential to Lead the Next Phase of AI Innovation
Panelists at the summit also highlighted that India is at an inflection point where AI can move from isolated experimentation to large-scale deployment. By building scalable, exportable solutions grounded in real business workflows, India has the opportunity to transition from being primarily a consumer of AI technologies to becoming a global leader in inclusive and practical AI innovation.
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