AI is leveling the playing field for startups, says Sangeeta Gupta of nasscom

AI can provide startups with a level playing field to compete with larger service companies, with greater opportunities for partnerships and collaborations between them, said Sangeeta Gupta, Sr. Vice President & Chief Strategy Officer at nasscom.

“On the developer side, AI startups are enthusiastic about the technology. A new AI services startup can compete with larger players because what they are building is new to everyone; there is no legacy. For enterprise adoption, partnerships are necessary. For example, it may be difficult for large banks to work directly with a startup for a large use case, but if the latter can partner with a traditional services company, it is a win-win situation,” she explained, noting that more partnerships could emerge.

However, she added that companies that offer point solutions rather than enterprise-wide solutions can move forward in this area while also partnering with service companies to bring their solutions to market.

When it comes to enterprises, among the companies implementing these solutions, some believe that AI is the next wave of technology that will come and go, while others believe otherwise.

“For larger service or product companies that have been around for a while, AI is about creating competitive differentiation. If they don’t do that, they could lose their edge. So whether they believe in it or not, they may have to do it,” Gupta said.

Adding that AI should not become a divisive factor, the SVP said, “A lot of work is being done using proprietary and open-source models. Companies are experimenting with them, allowing smaller companies to build small language models for their applications.”

Gupta added that while there are some large language models (LLMs) emerging in India, equally important are the vertical or small language models that can implement more domain-specific solutions to democratize AI, especially for SMEs, which are a key sector of any economy, especially in India.

While GenAI may not directly generate revenue for most companies using these solutions, it will have the same impact. “As a contact center or customer service representative, if I implement GenAI, my call-handling time can go from 10 minutes to 3 minutes. Because of that productivity improvement, I can reuse that time to handle three more customers. Implementing AI and GenAI creates value on every level.”

The SVP noted that companies building AI computing are directly generating revenue from GenAI, and the biggest beneficiaries of this boom are big players like Nvidia. Since the services sector is a large component of the Indian tech industry, as companies accelerate their AI journey, AI services implemented by companies in India can generate significant revenue, she said.

Gupta added that two things to watch out for in the next 18-24 months are increasing trust in the technology. On the ROI of those investments, she said organizations will start prioritizing areas where it makes sense to deploy AI or GenAI to have a bigger impact. “That prioritization will increase as the ROI becomes just as important after the initial hype curve.”