- Yashish Dahiya says India will adopt AI when its cost drops below human labor costs
- Current AI cost in India is Rs 11 per minute; human labor costs Rs 7 per minute
- AI adoption depends on technology evolution and cost reduction over time
Yashish Dahiya believes economics will decide when India adopts AI at scale. The co-founder, chairman and Group CEO of PB Fintech argued that companies will switch only when AI costs drop below human labour.
“Besides the fact that it's painful to manage employees and it's easier to manage AI,” he said at a panel discussion at the NDTV Profit Conclave.
“Our cost of a human being today is about Rs 7 a minute, and good AI is Rs 11 a minute. So if you look at the European context out there, the cost is Rs 50 a minute, so the AI is working. When the cost comes to Rs 2 a minute, it'll work here also. At Rs 11 a minute, why should I take AI when my employee is better than that?.”
“Suppose you build a very good AI tool. Tomorrow, I'll build one better. Day after I'll build an even better one. And the fourth day he'll build an even better one.” He added, “We have seen this kind of evolving technology in the past also. It comes to a stabilised level, which is basically the cost coming down. Yes, costs will keep coming down to a point where everybody can afford it.”
“My view is today, if I want to use AI to talk to our customers, and one of the things people say is India has not taken on a lot of AI. There's a reason for that.” He linked it to consumer behaviour. “What you will, in my opinion, see is from a consumer's perspective, most people will now, instead of Google, it might be somebody else. But the point is there will be somebody out there which is the go to place. That's just the human psychology. We don't have space for 10 different almirahs. We go to one almirahs for one thing.”
He pushed for Indian tech to think global. “Along with the Silicon Valley and maybe some parts of China, India has the most advanced consumer tech market in the world. I have zero doubt in saying we are the most advanced insurance player in the world. Zero doubt. Zero doubt. Why do just Google, Facebook and Amazon have to be here? Why are we not dealing with consumers in Europe or the US and bringing the intellectual property here and the eventual monies here?”.
“As we do these trade deals, we all become friendly in trade with each other. So those regulators will also accept us much more. If the UK financial services wants to be here, then why doesn't our financial services want to be there?”
According to the other speakers which included Rahul Bharti of Maruti Suzuki and Rajesh Sharma of Capri Global Capital, the biggest tipping point for Indian manufacturing and Indian promoters and Indian entrepreneurs is the opening up of the US market and therefore the tariffs being competitive.
From being one of the most punished nations when it comes to the US tariff, India, they said, have become the "most favoured one."
They said the India-US deal “will set a lot of uncertainty to rest, will open up a big opportunity for exports,” and that negotiators “balanced sensitivities extremely well,” with calibrated openings in autos and space for MSMEs in a “30 trillion dollar opportunity.”
