Microsoft AI CEO Highlights India's Potential in AI Development and Adoption

India Among Fastest Growing Markets: Microsoft's AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman

He demonstrated the redesigned version of Microsoft Copilot On his first visit to India, Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman shared his vision of AI's potential applications in the Indian market. On Wednesday, he spoke at the Microsoft Building AI Companions for India event in Bengaluru, regarding his views on AI companions. Suleyman outlined his ambitious vision for the future of AI. He stressed that AI companions are set to create a new class of digital experience, aligned to each person's interests and unlike anything that technology has created before. He highlighted that India is one of their fastest-growing markets with talented engineers and developers working here. "My personal vision for AI has always been about how it can be a companion that can make each and every one of us feel more supported and smarter and more capable," he said, addressing the gathering. He opined that people will form meaningful relationships with their AI companions in the coming days. During a fireside chat with S Krishnan, secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, Mustafa Suleyman said that India was one of Microsoft's fastest-growing markets. It also has one of its strongest research and development teams globally. "We have extremely talented engineers and developers, and increasingly, we're involving social scientists, psychologists, therapists, scriptwriters, comedians, and other creatives. This diversity allows us to synthesise more perspectives and get a broader picture of people involved in the design and creation process," he added. When asked about the potential applications of AI here, Suleyman, who joined Microsoft from Google's DeepMind, said the Internet had already put information at everyone's fingertips that is synthesised distilled, and personally tuned to how an individual wants to learn and use information - and that applies in the workplace as much as it applies at home. "M365 Copilot, for example, already does an incredible job of reasoning over your work data," he added. He also demonstrated the redesigned version of Microsoft Copilot during the event.

India one of Microsoft's fastest growing markets: Microsoft AI CEO

On his first visit to India, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman emphasized the nation's rapid growth and talent at Microsoft's Development Centers in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. At the "Building AI Companions in India" event, Suleyman discussed AI's future, privacy, and emotional intelligence with MeitY Secretary S Krishnan.India is one of Microsoft's fastest growing markets and its strongest teams worldwide are based in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, said Mustafa Suleyman, chief executive of Microsoft AI, on Wednesday in his maiden trip to India. He was talking at the "Microsoft: Building AI Companions in India" event in Bengaluru. "I'm proud that this is one of our fastest growing markets. One of our strongest teams worldwide are based here (Microsoft India Development Centre, Bengaluru) and in Hyderabad working on all parts of our stack. There are extremely talented engineers and developers here," Suleyman told S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in a fireside chat on the future of AI and its possibilities. On Krishnan's question on emotional quotient (EQ) and whether users will be able to keep anything private with AI, Suleyman said that we've never been able to create technologies that are principally about EQ. "We've always been focused on their factuality, whether they have real time information, and whether they're bug-free. Now, we have a challenge as creators. What is the emotional tone of something like this? What are its values?" he said. He said that trust is about boundaries. One of the things that he spends a lot of time thinking about is what AI companions do not ask users about, he said. "What does it not remember? What does it refuse if you ask it to do something or talk about something? Those boundaries are how we establish trust in society, and I think it is super important that we proactively push that conversation out into the social world," Suleyman said. He added that the company is increasingly involving social scientists, psychologists, therapists, script writers, and comedians to get diverse perspectives. "That's an opportunity for us to synthesize more diverse perspectives and get a broader picture of people involved in the design iteration process," he said. Just as the web puts information at everybody's fingertips, AI is going to put knowledge at everybody's fingertips, he said. "Synthesised, distilled, personally tuned, to the way you want to learn and use information. And that applies in the workplace as much as it applies at home," he said. Microsoft Copilot is a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Microsoft. Based on the GPT-4 series of large language models, it was launched in 2023 as Microsoft's primary replacement for the discontinued Cortana. Microsoft 365 Copilot already does an incredible job of reasoning over work data, he said. It can provide citations for any question that you would ask of it. Referencing your email, calendar, excel sheets, docs, company's HR records, and supply chain information, he explained. "So, this lowers the barrier of entry to making use of knowledge," he said. Making an important and valuable contribution to the workplace for many knowledge workers is fundamentally about getting access to useful information that you can act on, Suleyman said. "That is going to have a profound economic benefit for many of our industries," he said. Voice is the ultimate way to make these tools accessible and available, he said. "So, investment in languages and translation is what I think governments should be making," he said. MeitY's Krishnan said that India is investing $1.3 billion in the India AI Mission. About $500 million goes to providing access to AI compute, he said, about the government's plan of procuring 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs). This is to enable private facilities, startups, and researchers to build at a subsidised rate, he explained. Suleyman said that many startups and businesses are aware of large sets of data required for post training and fine tuning. Asked about what Krishnan's thoughts are on making more government data available to help spur that innovation, he said that MeitY has an open data platform where various kinds of government databases are shared. "Under the India AI Mission more anonymised datasets will be made available," Krishnan informed Suleyman. Pretrained models are going to be largely commoditised, asserted Suleyman. They will be widely available via APIs and open source, he said. The data that will be required for post training, or the last stage of training to adapt the model to a specific use case, is actually very small, he revealed. "You only need a few hundred thousand examples of the good behaviour that you're trying your model to imitate or learn from at the post training stage," he explained. "So, I expect to see hundreds of thousands of different types of agents with different types of expertise both linguistically but also (with) knowledge and grounding over different types of databases and knowledge corpuses. I expect to see many different types of those emerge over the next few years just with a small amount of high-quality training data," Suleyman said.

When Mustafa Suleyman was in Bengaluru

Suleyman referred to Microsoft's AI teams in India as the strength of the company. After Meta's chief AI scientist Yann LeCun and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang's India visit last month, Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, also decided that it was high time for Microsoft AI to make its mark on the country's larger audience. Suleyman showcased Copilot's prowess. Speaking of AI companions, Suleyman, before visiting India for the first time, asked Copilot about the weather and GDP of Bengaluru and was quite surprised by it. At the Building AI Companions for India event, besides hosting a Cafe Copilot featuring an entire food menu designed by Copilot, and RaagaTrippin' using Copilot as its band member to generate lyrics on stage, Suleyman and the Microsoft team demonstrated why it is important for India to build its own AI models in the era of agentic AI while also finding the right use cases. Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India and South Asia, highlighted how Microsoft is helping Indian companies build AI products. "Around 18,000 developers at Infosys have written seven million lines of code using GitHub Copilot," said Chandok, while adding that Cognizant is a massive user of Copilot. Notably, HCLTech's AI Force platform and Genpact's AI Guru have been infusing Microsoft AI into their services, streamlining software and code development while also teaching people about AI. This is when Chandok invited Suleyman on stage to talk more about the upcoming Copilot products that are going to change how Indians communicate with AI companions. Suleyman referred to Microsoft's AI teams in India, especially those in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, as the strength of the company. According to him, these are where talented engineers and developers work on every layer of the company's tech stack. "AI is going to put knowledge at everyone's fingertips, synthesised, distilled and personally tuned to the way you want to learn and use information," he said, highlighting AI's potential to democratise knowledge, making it accessible across work environments and enabling informed decision-making. In a fireside chat with S Krishnan, secretary of the Indian government's MeitY, Suleyman discussed Microsoft's collaborative efforts with specialists from diverse fields to build AI systems that resonate with human values. Talking about the IndiaAI Mission and Bhashini, Krishnan said that, originally, they had envisioned building an LLM on their own. "Now that we are actually having a meeting, it may not be worth the effort of building an entire LLM on our own," he added. It might be better to adapt AI systems to be practical in the Indian context and useful for specific sectors in areas that India seeks to adapt based on ground reality. This resonates with the idea of Adbhut India, or AI use case capital of the world. "We try to converse in 22 different Indian languages... Voice really is the ultimate way to make these tools accessible," Krishnan pointed out. Suleyman's response to this was slightly different from what was expected. Reflecting on DeepMind's inception in 2010, Suleyman said, "Timing is everything... It's critical that you get the timing right." He said that India was one of Microsoft's fastest-growing markets and has one of its strongest R&D teams globally. "I really feel that now is the right time to create these new models. All of the resources are now widely available. The APIs are brilliant. There are open-source models surfacing everywhere. And so it just feels like a very creative moment. And I'm excited to see so many startups and new businesses really experiment with this stuff," Suleyman further said. During the event, Suleyman also showcased the redesigned Microsoft Copilot, which now includes a conversational human-like voice, screen-viewing capabilities, and advanced reasoning functions. These innovations aim to transform daily user interactions with technology. He described the recent strides in AI as "the first step towards distilling intelligence into algorithmic constructs". After co-founding GenAI startup Inflection in 2022, Suleyman and co-founder Karén Simonyan joined Microsoft in March 2024 following the acquisition of key Inflection AI team members. Surprisingly, he has always taken a critical approach towards AI, highlighting the dangers of the technology. But, lately, it has changed. "For too long, software has principally been utilitarian. My personal vision for AI has always been about how it can be a companion that can make each and every one of us feel more supported and smarter and more capable," he said. Addressing the fear of job losses and regulations around AI globally, Suleyman explained that it's super important to be as attentive and thorough about observing the potential upside as it is to really meditate on and deeply think about the potential downsides. "It won't just be able to talk to you. It's going to be able to use APIs. It is going to be able to search through databases. It will generate new programs from scratch. It is going to be able to get things done in the digital world on a large scale. That's actually what is coming in the next few years, more than anything else," he said. Suleyman said it's time to be thoughtful and deliberate and not treat AI regulation as a taboo. He believes that nations need to start having an important dialogue around this. Giving examples of drones, he said that regulations are effective. "We don't have drones flying around randomly all over the world with autonomous capabilities. We were deliberate and proactive and careful, and I think that's just the approach that we have to take," he reiterated.

Microsoft AI CEO Calls India As One Of The Company's Fastest Growing Markets

The development comes at a time when more and more big tech companies are making a beeline to set up data centres in India to cater to the growing demand for cloud services in India Microsoft AI chief executive Mustafa Suleyman, also known for cofounding DeepMind, one of the world's leading artificial intelligence companies, as well as Inflection AI, has said that India is one of the company's fastest-growing markets. On his first trip to India, Suleyman expressed pride that India has one of its strongest teams worldwide based in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. "There are extremely talented engineers and developers here," said Suleyman at the Microsoft: Building AI Companions for India event in Bengaluru as cited by Business Standard. "We are also increasingly involving social scientists, psychologists, therapists, scriptwriters, and comedians -- people you might often associate with the film or gaming industry. This is an opportunity for us to synthesise more diverse perspectives and gain a broader view of those involved in the design and operation process," he added. He further shared insights about the future of AI and how it can improve personal well-being. In a fireside chat with S Krishnan, secretary of the ministry of electronics and IT, Suleyman discussed AI's potential to boost India's economy, particularly in a capital-limited environment. He noted that, much like the internet made information universally accessible, AI has the power to drive similar transformative growth. "AI is now going to put knowledge at everyone's fingertips. This knowledge is synthesised, distilled, and personally tailored to how you want to learn and use information, whether in the workplace or at home," said Suleyman. He gave the example of Microsoft 365 Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool that helps users complete tasks more efficiently and effectively by providing real-time assistance across Microsoft 365 apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. He added, "Copilot can reference your emails, calendar, excel sheets, documents, HR records, or supply-chain information to answer questions and provide accurate citations." This allows knowledge workers to access specific information instantly, enabling them to make informed decisions and complete tasks more effectively. When asked about Microsoft's role in advancing diversity in India, Suleyman highlighted voice technology as essential for making AI tools accessible to everyone, as per the BS report. On AI safety, he emphasised on the need for proactive regulation, viewing it not as a taboo but as an important topic for open dialogue. S Krishnan mentioned that during the initial planning of the 'India AI Mission,' there was a consideration to develop a Large Language Model (LLM) specifically for India. The development comes at a time when the tech major has acquired more than 30 acres of land in Pune in the past two months for a total investment of INR 973 Cr. The big tech major also recently inked a pact with the Telangana government to develop a large data centre in Hyderabad. It is also mulling investing more than INR 15,000 Cr in its upcoming data centres in the state.

Microsoft Sees Lot of Momentum Around AI and Copilot in India: Report

AI perceptions have shifted from skepticism to optimism.Copilot has become synonymous with AI in India.Microsoft plans to train 2 million people in AI skills. Microsoft is reportedly not seeing any slowdown in tech spending in India, according to Puneet Chandok, the company's President for India and South Asia. He noted that there's "a lot of momentum" building around AI, especially with the buzz surrounding 'Copilot' and the growing number of use cases across industries in this market, which the software maker counts as one of its fastest-growing regions, according to a PTI report. Also Read: Microsoft Says AI Demand Continues to Exceed Its Available Capacity Chandok mentioned that the general perception of AI has shifted from scepticism to optimism, and now to a real impact on the ground, with the emergence of "real, interesting use cases." Microsoft's AI assistant 'Copilot' has become a "verb" for artificial intelligence, he remarked, according to the report. Microsoft is constantly looking at areas in which it needs to invest, he reportedly said, describing India as one of the fastest-growing regions globally for Microsoft and a "real opportunity to make a dent" with technology and innovation. Chandok reportedly emphasised that world-changing technologies must be built responsibly, noting that Microsoft is fully committed to complying with all regulatory requirements and adapting to new, evolving frameworks. "Copilot has become the verb for AI. We are truly becoming 'Copilot' to India's transformation, which I'm really excited about," Chandok said, according to the report. Microsoft is working towards its mission of making AI a reality for everyone in India. Chandok reportedly stated that Microsoft is "much more than a technology business in India," adding, "We truly want to be a force that moves India and South Asia forward." It's worth noting that during his visit to India in February, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella reaffirmed the company's commitment to supporting India's transformation into an AI-first nation, focusing on developing a skilled AI workforce and promoting AI integration across various sectors and industries. Nadella announced that Microsoft will provide AI skilling opportunities to 2 million people in India. "...the ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA program that we launched, where we're going to train 2 million people in India over the next two years on AI... that is on its way... the other one, (is where) 75,000 women developers in India will be trained and certified as part of Microsoft's 'Code Without Barriers' program, which is really exciting. We just launched the Microsoft Micro Degree in AI with the Ministry of Skill Development, as part of our commitment to enhancing digital skills across India," Chandok said, according to the report. Also Read: Microsoft Expands AI Capabilities with New Autonomous Agents for Businesses Chandok believes that India is one of the most exciting markets in the world for all technology companies, including Microsoft. "It is also one of the fastest-growing markets for Microsoft, one of the fastest-growing regions across the world, and that is the reason you are seeing a lot of commitment, a lot of investments, and a lot of impact," he reportedly said, noting that the company is bringing the concept of 'One Microsoft' together in India. "We have got massive capabilities in India. IDC, which is a development centre, cloud plus AI, Microsoft Research has a massive presence in India, and marks one of the largest presence outside the US. We're bringing all of those capabilities together for our customers and working truly as 'one Microsoft' to make sure that the AI-for-everyone mission in India, is a reality," he said, the report added. Chandok reportedly pointed to India's robust technology landscape, which includes more than 7,000 listed companies and the world's third-largest startup ecosystem. He also noted that India is home to nearly 15 million developers on GitHub, positioning the country to surpass the US in developer presence on the platform in the coming years. Citing recent studies, Chandok reportedly indicated that one in six AI researchers globally comes from India, with projections suggesting that a significant portion of the new workforce added over the next decade will originate from the country. Also Read: Microsoft Announces New AI Models and Solutions for Healthcare Citing an example of how AI is making a difference in India, he reportedly said that, given that a sizeable population here does not speak English, AI is helping to drive the local language push. "...So it is reducing the digital divide, which is a fascinating opportunity," he said, according to the report.

People Will Form Meaningful Relationships with Their AI Companions, Says Microsoft AI CEO

Successful AI projects like Sikshana Foundation's AI copilot and ITC's Krishi Mitra chatbot make strides in education and agriculture. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman shared his vision for AI companions during his first visit to India, emphasising how AI will transform digital experiences by offering personalised, supportive interactions. Speaking at the "Microsoft Building AI Companions for India" event in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Suleyman outlined AI's potential to make individuals "smarter and more capable," moving beyond utilitarian software. Also Read: Microsoft Sees Lot of Momentum Around AI and Copilot in India: Report He highlighted how AI companions are set to create a new class of digital experience, aligned to each person's interests and unlike anything that technology has created before. "For too long, software has principally been utilitarian. My personal vision for AI has always been about how it can be a companion that can make each and every one of us feel more supported and smarter and more capable," he said, addressing the gathering. Suleyman introduced Microsoft's refreshed Copilot, launched last month, which enables real-time AI-human interaction. The new Copilot Daily feature, launched in October in select countries, offers personalised news, further showcasing this shift. Copilot is transforming productivity, efficiency, and outcomes for individuals and organisations with 87 percent of Copilot users saying it helped them be more productive," the company said. "We now have evidence at scale," said Microsoft India and South Asia president, Puneet Chandok. "AI is out of the labs and driving productivity, impacting lives and livelihoods." Puneet Chandok highlighted AI's impact on businesses and communities, citing successful projects like the Sikshana Foundation's AI copilot for teachers and ITC's Krishi Mitra chatbot, which assists farmers. Also Read: Microsoft Says AI Demand Continues to Exceed Its Available Capacity Chandok reportedly spoke about how entire sectors are being reinvented with generative AI, illustrating it with how leading IT firms are leveraging Copilot to streamline software development, transform customer experiences and employee reskilling. "But it's not just about commerce, it's about communities," he added. The Sikshana Foundation and Microsoft Research India's AI copilot has helped teachers make more engaging lesson plans and crunch the time taken for it from 90 minutes to 90 seconds. The Krishi Mitra chatbot from ITC is helping farmers improve agricultural output. "This is just the beginning of AI's journey in India and we are proud to be building an AI-powered nation, one transformative step at a time," Chandok said. Suleyman also emphasised India's role in global AI innovation, noting the country's strong talent pool and diverse team, which includes engineers, social scientists, and creatives. Also Read: Microsoft Expands AI Capabilities with New Autonomous Agents for Businesses Speaking to Copilot's productivity, Suleyman added that AI will put knowledge at everyone's fingertips, synthesised, distilled, and personally tuned to how an individual wants to learn and use information - and that applies in the workplace as much as it applies at home. "M365 Copilot, for example, already does an incredible job of reasoning over your work data," he added. In the future, Suleyman said, "people will form meaningful relationships with their AI companions." He predicted that AI will not only reshape the workplace but also foster deeper relationships between people and their AI companions. He stressed the importance of prioritising safety and security as AI evolves.

'DeepMind Might Not Have Succeeded if We Started Just a Few Years Earlier or Later' 'DeepMind Might Not Have Succeeded if We Started Just a Few Years Earlier or Later'

On his first visit to India, Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman raised eyebrows, introducing an AI companion for everyone. At the Building AI Companions for India event held in Namma Bengaluru, Suleyman urged Indian enterprises to embrace the Copilot wave, and said: "Now is the right time to create these new models... All of the resources are now widely available. The APIs are brilliant. There's open source models happening everywhere." Case in point: Reflecting on DeepMind's inception in 2010, Suleyman said: "Timing is everything... It's critical that you get the timing right." Suleyman said that if he and his co-founder Demis Hassabis had launched DeepMind either a few years earlier or later, they might have missed the pivotal wave of deep learning advancements, potentially altering their success. Suleyman also said that AI is becoming enriched. "For too long, software has principally been utilitarian. My personal vision for AI has always been about how it can be a companion that can make each and every one of us feel more supported and smarter and more capable," he added. Lauds India: Suleyman said that India was one of Microsoft's fastest growing markets. It also has one of its strongest R&D teams globally. "We have extremely talented engineers and developers, and increasingly, we are involving social scientists, psychologists, therapists, scriptwriters, comedians, and other creatives," said Suleyman, saying that this diversity allows the country to synthesise more perspectives and get a broader picture of people involved in the design and creation process. "AI is going to put knowledge at everyone's fingertips, synthesised, distilled, personally tuned to the way that you want to learn and use information," he said, highlighting AI's potential to democratise knowledge, making it accessible across work environments and enabling informed decision making. S Krishnan, secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, GoI also touched upon the importance of voice and linguistic inclusivity, and how it could drive AI adoption in the country. "We try to do conversation in 22 different Indian languages... voice really is the ultimate way to make these tools accessible," he recalled, in a fireside chat with Suleyman. Balance is Key: Suleyman urged for a balanced approach to AI, advocating for careful scrutiny without losing sight of its significant benefits. "It's healthy to ask difficult questions about the labor market or about privacy and security," said Suleyman, saying that it is also our collective responsibility -- as we really care about civilisation. However, he said that it is important not to overreact prospectively and miss out on the obvious benefit of the system that delivers productivity, education, wealth, well-being, healthcare, as well as access to legal and medical advice.

Microsoft Copilot Said to Be Witnessing Growing Momentum in India

Copilot is also being pushed in multiple Microsoft services Microsoft is reportedly bullish on the Indian market when it comes to artificial intelligence and in particular the company's in-house AI platform Copilot. The information was shared by Microsoft's India and South Asia President, Puneet Chandok, in an interview. The executive also reportedly claimed that Copilot is witnessing a growing momentum in the country on the back of increased real-world use cases of the technology. Notably, several manufacturers have launched Copilot+ PC-branded laptops in India recently, which allows users to natively use the AI on the system. In an interview with PTI, Chandok spoke about India and the reception of AI technologies by both users and enterprises. Microsoft has reportedly witnessed an increasing amount of momentum on AI and in particular Copilot. Due to the rise of Copilot in the country, the tech giant is also reportedly not planning to reduce technology spending in India. Chandok also reportedly highlighted that the scepticism around AI in the country is converting into optimism as more and more players are adapting to the new technology. Further, Microsoft is also said to have taken note of AI's real impact on the ground with the "emergence of real, interesting use cases." Further, the Redmond-based tech giant has reportedly hailed India as among the "fastest-growing regions globally for Microsoft" and the company views it as an opportunity to make a dent with its offerings and innovation. Notably, Microsoft has been aggressive with its roll out of AI features in 2024. The company released several upgrades to Copilot including enhanced image editing capabilities, voice and vision features, as well as its integration across various services such as Microsoft 365, Azure, GitHub and more. Recently, the tech giant upgraded the GitHub Copilot with support for multi-model capability. It can now support Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI's GPT-4o, o1-preview, and o1-mini models. Several brands such as Asus, HP, Dell, and others have also released Copilot+ PCs with a dedicated Copilot button and system-wide Copilot AI capability.