Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven growth in the Indian IT industry will remain muted for the two years as it is still in the experimental phase and companies are in the process of making investments, according to Kissflow founder and CEO Suresh Sambandam.
He told TNIE that AI projects in India are currently at an experimental stage. “Kissflow has invested nearly 30% of its tech budget in AI-led R&D and allocated about one-third of our team to focus on developing AI products,” he said.
Sambandam added that Kissflow has rolled out several AI projects for clients and it is working on a “secret project” in the AI space targeted at developers. “We will launch this maybe by January,” he said, without disclosing further details. The new AI model, he explained, is designed for enterprises and aims to deliver safe, reliable, and non-hallucinating applications.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the current AI architecture, Sambandam said, “Most AI products right now are not producing production-ready applications. We believe that with this new AI project, we can change that.” He reiterated that the initiative is focused on helping enterprises build trustworthy and stable AI applications.
Speaking about the broader AI ecosystem in India, Sambandam noted that growth will likely remain subdued as companies recalibrate and rewire their AI teams, even as investments continue. He said Kissflow has dedicated about 30% of its technology budget to R&D, with around 30 people currently working on the ‘secret’ AI project.
He also attributed the stagnation in AI progress to a lack of democratisation of the technology. “AI stagnation is happening because it has not been democratised. Opportunities are being given only to select companies, limiting broader innovation,” he said.
Calling for policy reforms in education, Sambandam emphasised that AI policies should focus on empowering youth by providing free access to AI tools and resources. He also pointed out that academic research in India is lagging due to insufficient government funding.
“The problem is that only universities can conduct fundamental science research, while the private sector focuses on commercialisation.
This is where government intervention is needed — either by setting up or funding more fundamental research centres or by establishing dedicated units in major colleges,” he said.