Pratyush Kumar, cofounder of Sarvam, said India will lead in artificial intelligence (AI) over the next 10 years. He also said the financial sector will be one of the core sectors driving this demand and adoption.
Speaking at the Global Fintech Fest 2026, Kumar said: “While it is year four of ChatGPT launch, but this is year one of India building its own AI. India will lead in adoption and scale over the next decade.”
Kumar also added that India will not only adopt AI at scale but also at price points that are affordable for a billion users. He added that the country now has its own AI models, access to GPUs and an expanding pool of talent.
He also said that the use cases of AI in India have gone up considerably. Citing Sarvam’s attempts to build a frontier AI model from scratch, he said the company has come a long way. “Over the last 12 months we have done 350 million voice AI minutes. Today Sarvam serves 400 million API calls a day, we have digitised tens of millions of documents.”
Kumar also added that India needs to build token factories and data centres that are not subject to the US Patriot Act, highlighting that this will give companies better control over data and the AI stack.
Sarvam has emerged as a significant frontier AI model being built out of India. The company recently raised $300-$350 million and turned unicorn. IT services firm HCLTech invested about $234 million in the company.
