AI adoption in India transforms farms and classrooms as tech giants invest billions

From automated farm tractors to exam paper grading, AI boosts efficiency for some in India

KARNAL, India (AP) -- Farmer Bir Virk tapped the iPad mounted beside his tractor's steering wheel and switched the vehicle to automatic mode. The machine moved forward and began harvesting potatoes on its own in the fields of Karnal, a city in northern India. Some 145 kilometers (90 miles) away in the country's capital of New Delhi, educator Swetank Pandey employed similar automation at his coaching academy. He used algorithms to scan and grade handwritten exam papers from candidates for India's competitive civil services. In both cases, the same invisible hand was at work: artificial intelligence. From farms to classrooms, AI is fast emerging as a tool for many Indians to boost efficiency and cut time, costs and labor. Early adopters, like Virk and Pandey, say the technology is helping them boost productivity as they test AI's potential to find solutions at work. "I am able to farm very efficiently and I feel very happy that I do the work what my grandfather and father used to do. Now I am carrying the tradition forward with the right technology," said Virk. As AI use surges across the globe, the technology is steadily gaining ground across India as businesses, startups and individuals experiment with new ways to improve efficiency. The Indian government is also rolling out national initiatives to fund research and train workers in AI. That push is on display this week as New Delhi hosts a five-day AI summit, which is being attended by heads of state and top tech CEOs. With nearly a billion internet users, India has also become a key focus for global tech companies to scale their AI businesses in one of the world's fastest-growing digital markets. Last December, Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India. It followed Google's $15 billion investment over five years, including plans for its first AI hub in the country. "There's some good use cases that have started. There are these scaling platforms that are now embedding AI into them," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at NASSCOM, a prominent body representing India's technology industry. India's adoption to AI, however, has its constraints. The country still lags in developing its own large-scale AI model like U.S.-based OpenAI or China's DeepSeek, highlighting challenges such as limited access to advanced semiconductor chips, data centers and hundreds of local languages to learn from. While tech companies have ramped up spending on AI training and reskilling, those unable to adapt are being pushed out. Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest private employer, cut more than 12,000 jobs last year, driven by a rapid shift toward AI. At the same time, however, people like Virk and Pandey say AI tools are already making their work faster and more efficient. Virk, the farmer, first encountered AI-driven farming technology five years ago while studying and working in the United States. When he returned to India in 2021, he imported the system from a Swedish company and has been using it on his farm for the past couple of years. His automated tractor can plant seeds, spray fertilizer and harvest crops. The system costs about $3,864 and combines a steering motor, satellite signals that help move the tractor precisely, and an AI-driven software that converts data into movement. It also logs errors and uploads them to a cloud platform, where the software company analyzes the data and sends related updates back to the machine. "Technology and intelligence play a big role in this. The tractor works in a straight line. It maintains an accuracy of 0.01 centimeter (0.004 inch)," Virk said. He said his AI-enabled tractor has reduced his work time by half. "Its most special feature is that it is self-learning," he said. Educator Pandey teaches at a civil services coaching center, a sector known for its fierce competition. Millions of young Indians compete for civil service jobs each year, and coaching centers process vast numbers of tests, evaluations and revisions. Pandey said AI has made that workload easier to manage. Using large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, along with other automation tools, Pandey and his team scan and evaluate answer sheets, create targeted study material and structure syllabuses for the aspirants. Pandey said the technology helps him carry out repetitive tasks, allowing tens of thousands of answer sheets to be evaluated in as little as 20 to 25 minutes. "If you have a better machine, bigger system, you can do it in two minutes," he said. For now, his coaching academy uses a hybrid model. AI helps with evaluations and teachers review the output, improving both speed and quality. Pandey said AI often produces study material that students find more relatable than those devised by teachers. "AI is able to give us in advance a basic idea what the student is doing right now and what next he or she should do to be able to achieve their goals," he said.

Uncut gems: Indian startups embrace AI despite job fears

New Delhi (AFP) - Glinting under the exhibition centre lights, the gold brooch studded with gemstones on the startup founder's lapel was handmade by Indian artisans -- but artificial intelligence dreamt up its elaborate design. The brooch, in the shape of Hindu deity Lord Krishna, is an emblem of both the fast-developing power of AI technology and hopes it will drive innovation in India's youthful economy. Siddharth Soni, 23, showed AFP a box of AI-designed jewellery, mostly in classical Indian style, made by the company Idea Jewellery which he co-founded in 2023. "Jewellery like this used to take around six months, seven months" to manufacture using traditional methods, said Soni, at a global AI summit in New Delhi. Now, using a 3D-printed mould based on an AI blueprint, and streamlining the process in other ways, "I can make this piece in one week" with a few more needed for hallmarking, he said. Tech bosses and world leaders are gathered in the Indian capital this week to discuss the opportunities and challenges presented by AI, including the threat of mass redundancies and loss of human expertise. Soni's startup is a new direction for his decades-old family jewellery manufacturing business in the city of Hyderabad. He said his father was "excited" about the new venture and "wants to take it all over the world" so retailers in places like the United States can offer custom AI-designed Indian jewellery. At the same time, his father and grandfather, both in the industry for around 30 years, are conflicted because they believe "artisans should not lose their imagination", Soni said. "We're losing the form of art, basically, by using AI," but even so, "we have to move forward." 'Very uncomfortable' Prime Minister Narendra Modi says the AI summit "shows the capability of our country's youth" as "further proof that our country is progressing rapidly" in technology. India's government is expecting $200 billion in AI investment in the next two years, with plans to build large-scale data centres and nuclear power plants to run them. Idea Jewellery, which does not receive government support but would like to, is in talks with 20 retailers including well-known brands in major cities who are already clients of the long-running family business. On a tool powered by a fine-tuned version of Google's Gemini, customers can specify the type of metal, precious stones and price range of their jewellery, and describe their desired style with a simple text prompt. The tool shows examples of the piece and can then produce a detailed 3D model to be turned by hand into real jewellery. Some of the workers, who have spent years mastering their craft and usually spend weeks designing a piece of jewellery, are "very uncomfortable with it" and fear their jobs could eventually disappear, Soni admitted. However they are still making the AI-designed pieces, "because it's their livelihood". New fields The AI boom has brought huge profits for tech giants and sprouted many startups worldwide, but the bubble could pop if the frenzied excitement loses momentum. For now, governments and companies are bullish that AI innovation will benefit society, from helping teachers educate large populations to better personalising medical care. Peush Bery's startup, Xtreme Gen AI, sells a voice chat tool that can answer and make calls for Indian businesses in a dozen local languages. It's a competitive field, but the company hopes to carve out a niche by offering smaller businesses a customised tool that they don't need technical know-how to implement. Different accents and India's noisy streets can make accuracy a challenge. But as the technology improves and becomes more affordable, it could threaten the country's huge call centre industry. Bery remains optimistic. "New jobs come up, new fields come up," such as working with data to improve the AI models, he said. Another startup, Soil Doctor, has offered AI-powered soil testing to 500 farms across 10 Indian states, working with NGOs to run programmes with rural women and youth. The government could help the company by granting access to historical agricultural data that it currently does not have, said Soil Doctor's chief of staff Vartika Gupta. AI technology can "benefit farmers big time", helping them save money by buying fertiliser better targeted to their soil type, Gupta said. "Season after season, at a much lower input cost, they will be able to achieve an increased yield."

From Automated Farm Tractors to Exam Paper Grading, AI Boosts Efficiency for Some in India

KARNAL, India (AP) -- Farmer Bir Virk tapped the iPad mounted beside his tractor's steering wheel and switched the vehicle to automatic mode. The machine moved forward and began harvesting potatoes on its own in the fields of Karnal, a city in northern India. Some 145 kilometers (90 miles) away in the country's capital of New Delhi, educator Swetank Pandey employed similar automation at his coaching academy. He used algorithms to scan and grade handwritten exam papers from candidates for India's competitive civil services. In both cases, the same invisible hand was at work: artificial intelligence. From farms to classrooms, AI is fast emerging as a tool for many Indians to boost efficiency and cut time, costs and labor. Early adopters, like Virk and Pandey, say the technology is helping them boost productivity as they test AI's potential to find solutions at work. "I am able to farm very efficiently and I feel very happy that I do the work what my grandfather and father used to do. Now I am carrying the tradition forward with the right technology," said Virk. India is testing its AI scale As AI use surges across the globe, the technology is steadily gaining ground across India as businesses, startups and individuals experiment with new ways to improve efficiency. The Indian government is also rolling out national initiatives to fund research and train workers in AI. That push is on display this week as New Delhi hosts a five-day AI summit, which is being attended by heads of state and top tech CEOs. With nearly a billion internet users, India has also become a key focus for global tech companies to scale their AI businesses in one of the world's fastest-growing digital markets. Last December, Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India. It followed Google's $15 billion investment over five years, including plans for its first AI hub in the country. "There's some good use cases that have started. There are these scaling platforms that are now embedding AI into them," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at NASSCOM, a prominent body representing India's technology industry. India's adoption to AI, however, has its constraints. The country still lags in developing its own large-scale AI model like U.S.-based OpenAI or China's DeepSeek, highlighting challenges such as limited access to advanced semiconductor chips, data centers and hundreds of local languages to learn from. While tech companies have ramped up spending on AI training and reskilling, those unable to adapt are being pushed out. Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest private employer, cut more than 12,000 jobs last year, driven by a rapid shift toward AI. At the same time, however, people like Virk and Pandey say AI tools are already making their work faster and more efficient. Precision agriculture through AI Virk, the farmer, first encountered AI-driven farming technology five years ago while studying and working in the United States. When he returned to India in 2021, he imported the system from a Swedish company and has been using it on his farm for the past couple of years. His automated tractor can plant seeds, spray fertilizer and harvest crops. The system costs about $3,864 and combines a steering motor, satellite signals that help move the tractor precisely, and an AI-driven software that converts data into movement. It also logs errors and uploads them to a cloud platform, where the software company analyzes the data and sends related updates back to the machine. "Technology and intelligence play a big role in this. The tractor works in a straight line. It maintains an accuracy of 0.01 centimeter (0.004 inch)," Virk said. He said his AI-enabled tractor has reduced his work time by half. "Its most special feature is that it is self-learning," he said. AI enters India's famed exam factories Educator Pandey teaches at a civil services coaching center, a sector known for its fierce competition. Millions of young Indians compete for civil service jobs each year, and coaching centers process vast numbers of tests, evaluations and revisions. Pandey said AI has made that workload easier to manage. Using large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, along with other automation tools, Pandey and his team scan and evaluate answer sheets, create targeted study material and structure syllabuses for the aspirants. Pandey said the technology helps him carry out repetitive tasks, allowing tens of thousands of answer sheets to be evaluated in as little as 20 to 25 minutes. "If you have a better machine, bigger system, you can do it in two minutes," he said. For now, his coaching academy uses a hybrid model. AI helps with evaluations and teachers review the output, improving both speed and quality. Pandey said AI often produces study material that students find more relatable than those devised by teachers. "AI is able to give us in advance a basic idea what the student is doing right now and what next he or she should do to be able to achieve their goals," he said. -- -- Saaliq reported from New Delhi.

AI is harvesting potatoes and checking exam papers in India

KARNAL: Farmer Bir Virk tapped the iPad mounted beside his tractor's steering wheel and switched the vehicle to automatic mode. The machine moved forward and began harvesting potatoes on its own in the fields of Karnal, a city in northern India. Some 145 kilometers (90 miles) away in the country's capital of New Delhi, educator Swetank Pandey employed similar automation at his coaching academy. He used algorithms to scan and grade handwritten exam papers from candidates for India's competitive civil services. In both cases, the same invisible hand was at work: artificial intelligence. From farms to classrooms, AI is fast emerging as a tool for many Indians to boost efficiency and cut time, costs and labor. Early adopters, like Virk and Pandey, say the technology is helping them boost productivity as they test AI's potential to find solutions at work. "I am able to farm very efficiently and I feel very happy that I do the work what my grandfather and father used to do. Now I am carrying the tradition forward with the right technology," said Virk. As AI use surges across the globe, the technology is steadily gaining ground across India as businesses, startups and individuals experiment with new ways to improve efficiency. The Indian government is also rolling out national initiatives to fund research and train workers in AI. That push is on display this week as New Delhi hosts a five-day AI summit, which is being attended by heads of state and top tech CEOs. With nearly a billion internet users, India has also become a key focus for global tech companies to scale their AI businesses in one of the world's fastest-growing digital markets. Last December, Microsoft announced a $17.5 billion investment over four years to expand cloud and AI infrastructure in India. It followed Google's $15 billion investment over five years, including plans for its first AI hub in the country. "There's some good use cases that have started. There are these scaling platforms that are now embedding AI into them," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president at NASSCOM, a prominent body representing India's technology industry. India's adoption to AI, however, has its constraints. The country still lags in developing its own large-scale AI model like U.S.-based OpenAI or China's DeepSeek, highlighting challenges such as limited access to advanced semiconductor chips, data centers and hundreds of local languages to learn from. While tech companies have ramped up spending on AI training and reskilling, those unable to adapt are being pushed out. Tata Consultancy Services, the country's largest private employer, cut more than 12,000 jobs last year, driven by a rapid shift toward AI. At the same time, however, people like Virk and Pandey say AI tools are already making their work faster and more efficient. Virk, the farmer, first encountered AI-driven farming technology five years ago while studying and working in the United States. When he returned to India in 2021, he imported the system from a Swedish company and has been using it on his farm for the past couple of years. His automated tractor can plant seeds, spray fertilizer and harvest crops. The system costs about $3,864 and combines a steering motor, satellite signals that help move the tractor precisely, and an AI-driven software that converts data into movement. It also logs errors and uploads them to a cloud platform, where the software company analyzes the data and sends related updates back to the machine. "Technology and intelligence play a big role in this. The tractor works in a straight line. It maintains an accuracy of 0.01 centimeter (0.004 inch)," Virk said. He said his AI-enabled tractor has reduced his work time by half. "Its most special feature is that it is self-learning," he said. Educator Pandey teaches at a civil services coaching center, a sector known for its fierce competition. Millions of young Indians compete for civil service jobs each year, and coaching centers process vast numbers of tests, evaluations and revisions. Pandey said AI has made that workload easier to manage. Using large language models such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, along with other automation tools, Pandey and his team scan and evaluate answer sheets, create targeted study material and structure syllabuses for the aspirants. Pandey said the technology helps him carry out repetitive tasks, allowing tens of thousands of answer sheets to be evaluated in as little as 20 to 25 minutes. "If you have a better machine, bigger system, you can do it in two minutes," he said. For now, his coaching academy uses a hybrid model. AI helps with evaluations and teachers review the output, improving both speed and quality. Pandey said AI often produces study material that students find more relatable than those devised by teachers. "AI is able to give us in advance a basic idea what the student is doing right now and what next he or she should do to be able to achieve their goals," he said.