India's AI Challenge: From passive users to active designers

As AI reshapes work and learning, India must strike a balance between rapid adoption and conscious design. Because India's AI edge won't come from speed alone but from sensibility

  • Published:
  • 08/07/2025 01:52 PM

A 2024 McKinsey survey found that 70 percent of global companies have adopted generative AI in at least one business function. In India, adoption is even more assertive. Image: Shutterstock

When NR Narayana Murthy recently shared that ChatGPT helps him prepare lectures five times faster, it served as a quiet signal that artificial intelligence is no longer abstract. Around the same time, the Karnataka government announced an “AI Workforce Impact Study” to understand how jobs and skills are evolving in response to AI-led transformation. Such moments frame a larger national question: are we, as professionals and citizens, ready for the profound shifts AI is triggering in how we work?

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Signs from industry suggest we are warming up. A 2024 McKinsey survey found that 70 percent of global companies have adopted generative AI in at least one business function. In India, adoption is even more assertive. A NASSCOM-backed study reported that 98 percent of large enterprises are already experimenting with AI tools, with 43 percent integrating them into active workflows. But introduction is not the same as readiness. We often rush to install tools faster than we prepare people to use them thoughtfully. An article in Harvard Business Review offered a telling example. A field study conducted in a Fortune 500 company found that customer service agents using generative AI improved issue resolution by 14 percent per hour. Interestingly, junior agents using AI performed on par with more experienced colleagues. This shows AI does not just speed up tasks. It compresses learning, redefines competence, and reshapes how organisations develop talent.

But such acceleration creates tension. If AI can replicate human effort in minutes, are we ready to define our new roles with clarity? Murthy himself admitted he needed his son’s help to frame prompts effectively. This detail matters. In the AI age, impact will depend not on what we do with our hands, but what we ask with our minds. Prompting is becoming a professional skill. Our success will depend on whether we treat AI as a collaborator, not just a calculator. Governments are starting to respond, though much remains fragmented. The IndiaAI Mission proposes an AI safety institute and competency frameworks for public servants. A few states are experimenting with AI-skilling modules. These are encouraging signs, but scattered. What we need is not just capacity-building, but capacity-shaping —an ecosystem that integrates behavioural readiness with institutional reform.

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One step in that direction could be the introduction of AI charters across workplaces. Just as companies have data privacy or safety policies, they now need clear guidelines for how AI will be used. Who decides which tools are deployed? How is accountability tracked? How will workers know when algorithms are influencing decisions? AI charters can answer these questions, build trust, and create a structured culture of responsible adoption. Equally important is the use of AI for worker safety. In parts of Indian Railways and heavy industries, early pilots are showing how predictive models can flag risks, identify faults, and alert supervisors often before problems become life-threatening. This kind of AI does not replace humans. It protects them. Scaling such initiatives through public-private partnerships can reshape the narrative from job loss to workforce care.

As AI matures, India must ask itself: Will we be passive consumers or active designers of this shift? We have the demographic scale, digital backbone, and philosophical lens to approach this moment uniquely. But these advantages will matter only if we align speed with sensibility. Are we equipping ourselves to prompt, interpret, question, and lead? The Bhagavad Gita reminds us that action without awareness is incomplete. That may be the ethic we need now, not to simply adopt AI quickly, but to do so with consciousness. If we can achieve that, India will not just participate in the AI revolution. It will shape it.

Dr. Sudhanshu Maheshwari, Faculty, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.  

Last Updated :

July 08, 25 01:59:27 PM IST