India to Lead the Next AI Wave, First-Mover Companies Have the Edge: Experts Indian startups are uniquely positioned to lead this revolution given their talent density, cost advantages, and global mindset. Vertical AI adoption is also accelerating rapidly across industries due to a convergence of data, compute affordability, and enterprise readiness.

Delivering a keynote at the Vibe Summit 2025 event, Pratik Pal, Chairman's Office - Data and AI Initiative, Tata Group, explained why enterprises from India will lead the next AI wave, with a global market potential of USD 50 billion.

According to Pal, by integrating AI into processes, Tata was able to generate 200,000 leads with the help of the technology. One of the Tata group's companies was also able to produce marketing content 30 times faster, with a 20 per cent uptick in lead conversions. Pal also said that the conglomerate was able to reduce costs by 80 per cent in certain verticals using AI.

Speaking on the role India has to play in the global AI scene, Pal said, " I will say that India should have one large AI company. India may be just one word, but it is very important. India should also have three to five agentic platforms," recognizing the opportunity to build AI systems that act autonomously, not just assist, "agentic" systems for operations, supply chains, HR, or finance.

The event also saw the launch of the ' VIBE50' report, showcasing top Indian-Vertical AI startups like Signzy, Credgenics, Prudent, DeepTek, Dozee, and Tricog, among others, that are solving domain-specific challenges across 12 major industries.

According to the report, Indian startups are uniquely positioned to lead this revolution given their talent density, cost advantages, and global mindset. Vertical AI adoption is also accelerating rapidly across industries due to a convergence of data, compute affordability, and enterprise readiness.

The outcomes through the industry are being valued at USD 10 billion, and the report said this will be delivered through companies solving real workflow problems in specific industries, not from general-purpose platforms.

"The scale of AI is very huge. The outcomes have to be significant for enterprises to appreciate the value of solutions. There's a multi-billion-dollar cost picture for one of our companies. We looked at seven functions. Each function is getting transformed (through AI)," said Pal.

The report said that Vertical AI is not a future trend and that it is already reshaping enterprise workflows. The combination of critical mass industry datasets, plummeting foundation model costs, and growing enterprise AI budgets is accelerating adoption. According to the report, India's unique advantage lies in its deep bench of tech talent, cost-effective R&D, and cross-border GTM experience, giving its startups a structural edge in building globally competitive Vertical AI systems.

Shekhar Kirani, Partner at Accel India, provided a VC angle to the conversation and said startups-especially those who leverage AI properly, have the opportunity to grow companies either bootstrapped or with VC money. "In the two startups I was part of, both were bootstrapped.. Both were sold for USD 200 million. There was no VC money. So it is possible to do that."

Some of the five key patterns among successful vertical AI startups, according to the report, are "Business outcomes" over model accuracy, where success is measured in ROl, not Al metrics, as well as systematic expansion: the land-and-expand model drives high net retention.

Kirani said that, "You have to have narrow, deep, well-defined outcomes, and land all customers. Lots and lots of companies are already gone. You don't know who will win. The winner will be the first mover, into a class of companies, a class of customers, whom they can attack and kill."

According to the report, Vertical Al is not theoretical. It's real, revenue-generating, and ready for scale. Indian founders, with their unique mix of talent, affordability, and enterprise understanding, are at the forefront of this transformation, poised to build the next wave of global AI leaders.

Kirani also said that in order for the ecosystem to scale, founders have to understand how VC works on the ground level, "First, you have to understand what VC is. It's global money, which we are borrowing to invest."

"VC has its own business model. Most of the founders don't understand that VC is also a business. And you can see what type of companies they invest in. Of course, people say, they only invest in great companies," added Kirani.