- Pratyush Kumar found PM Modi's engagement with Sarvam AI products energising at India AI Expo
- PM Modi crossed security to closely examine Sarvam's AI models and asked detailed questions, Kumar told NDTV
- "Does it speak Gujarati?" he asked about Sarvam AI product
Pratyush Kumar, the CEO of Indian AI startup Sarvam, on Wednesday said it was "very energising" to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacting with them about their products at the India AI Impact Expo 2026 in New Delhi.
Speaking at the NDTV Ind.AI Summit, he said that PM Modi stepped past a marked security line to examine Sarvam AI products at their stall at Bharat Mandapam.
The Prime Minister was "super engaged" and had a lot of questions about what the AI models we were building are and why they are world-class, Kumar said.
"We showed him the models we were training. I showed him a feature phone that AI doesn't require expensive gadgets. On a feature phone, somebody can actually call up and ask any question to the models that we have built. He listened to it and asked, 'Does it speak Gujarati?'. We showed him an example of Gujarati. It was very energising," Kumar said.
He also spoke about Sarvam's AI-powered glasses, which PM Modi had tried at their stall, and said they are designed, manufactured, and fitted with software in India.
He said India's scale, languages, and diversity make it "a tremendously hard benchmark for what AI needs to get right to work for all of India."
Kumar argued that AI's value loops, where user feedback rapidly sharpens models, now compound in months instead of years.
"To innovate, you need to put technology out there and use feedback to make the models better," he said.
He said India cannot afford to sit out the AI race.
As the world's third-largest economy and an ancient civilization, India should be building it, Kumar said.
The real challenge, he said, is solving the capital intensity and research demands and doing it from home.
