AI will save workers time and lead to higher wages.
Today’s AI tools are already creating significant benefits for early adopters in India: helping save time, take over administrative tasks, and translate documents. On average, we estimate that AI could save the average worker 3 hours in administrative tasks a week, while early users of Gemini in Google Workspace are already reporting saving the equivalent of 10 working days a year. In the long run, by boosting productivity and allowing workers to focus on higher value tasks, AI could raise the value of hours worked and create potential wage increases of over 6%.
AI could save the
average worker
in administrative
tasks a week.
AI could raise the value of hours worked and create potential wage increases of over
Early users of Gemini in Google Workspace are already reporting saving the equivalent of
a year.
AI is helping Indian workers automate administrative tasks.
AI will help upskill workers, driving up economic productivity.
AI tools make it easier for workers to take on more challenging tasks that require learning new skills – while AI tutors can deliver ubiquitous, personalised learning, with instant feedback. Around half (47%) of the people we surveyed say they’re interested in using AI to learn a new skill.
Boosting skills is one of the most important ways of driving long-term human capital. In our modelling, we found that the potential skills gains from AI could boost the average worker productivity by over ₹2,40,000 (US$2,800) a year. This is equivalent to a 45% increase in existing labour productivity levels.8
When, if ever, do you plan to use generative AI tools as part of your job?
From agriculture to e-services, AI can help strengthen the Indian economy.
Agriculture.
28% reduction in water and fertiliser usage
Indian agriculture, despite its economic prominence, is held back by fragmented land holdings, unreliable weather, and suboptimal use of capital resources. AI use in agriculture to predict weather conditions and allocate resources effectively could reduce water and fertiliser usage by 28%.9
Manufacturing.
₹1.6 lakh crore labour productivity boost
AI can optimise efficiency within manufacturing supply chains, reduce downtime, and minimise defects. In India we estimate that AI could boost labour productivity in the manufacturing sector by ₹1.6 lakh crore (US$19 billion).
Media.
₹21,000 crore creative sector boost
For both independent creators and traditional media companies, generative AI could play a powerful role in democratising access to higher production values, enabling new forms and making it easier to convert existing content to new formats and languages. We estimate that AI could help increase the size of the creative sector in India by ₹21,000 crore (US$2.5 billion).
The three sectors with the highest potential from AI are public administration, manufacturing and retail.
The AI potential score is an index of the potential GVA increases sectors are set to gain from AI, where 1 = sector with greatest potential gains.
Google.org is supporting CultYvate to conserve water and empower Indian farmers.
CultYvate is an Indian agritech start-up using AI, machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to power precision agriculture. Its Smart Irrigation system offers predictive insights on optimal watering, based on factors like season, soil, and crop stage. Accessible via mobile and web, CultYvate alongside the Villgro Innovation Foundation has partnered with farmers in Kerala and Punjab to equip all farmers with real-time data and AI-driven recommendations to drive efficient, sustainable farming across rural India. The project has exhibited tremendous success in a short period of time, conserving more than 13 million tonnes of water between June 2023 — April 2024, and helping reduce carbon emissions by more than 3,700 tonnes. The project also has integrated carbon generation schemes, helping boost farmer incomes as well.10
CultYvate was awarded a grant from the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund11, an initiative driven by Google.org and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) aimed at accelerating tech-driven solutions to climate challenges across the Asia-Pacific region. With this aid, CultYvate is scaling its impact by delivering advanced, sustainable water management tools to more farmers in areas grappling with severe climate stress and water scarcity.
Indian researchers have been accessing Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, which provides structural predictions for over 200 million proteins—virtually every known protein sequence to date. The database has been built using AlphaFold, the AI system for which Sir Demis Hassabis and Dr John Jumper were co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
This cutting-edge resource has been accessed by more than 150,000 scientists and researchers in India alone. The AlphaFold database allows researchers to visualise the 3D structures of proteins at unprecedented scale and precision, enabling them to conduct research into a wide array of fields such as drug discovery, agricultural research, biodegradation and environmental research and disease development and control.12 13
Indian researchers are using Google DeepMind’s AlphaFold to expand scientific research opportunities.
Google is training AI models using a wide range of Indian languages.
Google launched Project Vaani in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and ARTPARK to collect open‑source speech data from across India, enabling AI models to understand and serve India’s many languages and dialects. The initiative makes this data freely available through the Government of India’s national language mission known as BHASHINI, supporting the development of AI that addresses India’s vast linguistic diversity.14 15
Project Vaani aims to build one of the largest Indian dialect datasets ever: over 150,000 hours of speech from nearly 1 million people from across all 773 districts in India. To date, nearly 21,500 hours of speech audio were collected across 120 districts, covering 86 unique languages, and users can already access this open‑source data.16 By powering future automatic speech recognition (ASR), speech‑to‑speech translation, and natural language understanding systems with this volume and breadth of ground‑truth voice data, Project Vaani ensures AI truly reflects the way Indians speak across regions and languages.