AI for Social Good: Enhancing the Public Sector Efficiency With AI Whether it's through predictive pricing for farmers or AI-enhanced medical procedures, the technology is being shaped to meet real needs. Quietly, persistently, AI is making public systems smarter; not just faster, but more human

In a rapidly evolving world, it is becoming increasingly necessary to cut through the noise of AI hype to focus on something more grounded: how artificial intelligence is already driving real-world impact in the public sector. What can emerge from this isn't some utopian speculation or distant promises, but a look at how AI is being used to solve hard, messy problems. From agricultural livelihoods in India to breakthroughs in health tech, artificial intelligence, when built for the right reasons, can quietly transform lives and institutions.

For Siddharth Dialani, co-founder and CEO, BharatAgri, this transformation began in the fields. BharatAgri, the agri-tech platform, works with over a million farmers across India to provide AI-driven crop advisory. Initially, AI was seen as a way to cut operational costs, automating customer support, but the reality surprised them.

"We realized the main power of AI lies in increasing your revenue rather than saving costs," Siddharth said. "AI gives much better, more accurate recommendations to farmers than even our tech-plus-human-led systems. And it works 24x7."

That always-on capability became critical. Most BharatAgri users are active late at night, after their long hours in the field. "Even today, 25 per cent of BharatAgri's revenue is generated between 9 PM and 6 AM. AI fills that gap," he added.

But the real proof of impact comes in the results. Siddharth shared a story that captured the stakes. A sugarcane farmer in Maharashtra, who had been averaging 45 tons per acre, doubled his yield to 105 tons after following BharatAgri's AI-powered recommendations. The result was so dramatic that it made local headlines. "He sent us the newspaper article and wrote, 'This is all because of BharatAgri.' That made us proud," Siddharth said.

And yet, while yield improvements are important, they're only one piece of the puzzle. A much bigger problem remains unsolved; the agricultural supply chain. Most Indian farmers sell their crops immediately after harvest, when prices are at their lowest, simply because they don't know when or where to sell for better returns. That's where Siddharth sees AI's next leap.

"Where and when to sell is still a huge problem. Most farmers sell immediately at MSP. But if they can wait three to four months, prices rise significantly," he explained. "AI prediction models based on historical pricing could guide them on the best time to sell. That would drastically increase their incomes and stabilize prices for consumers too."

But bringing AI into these environments is never simple. Trust is hard-earned. "In the early days, farmers would ask, 'How can you know more than us? We've been farming for decades.' I had to move to a village, rent a farm, and do farming myself for over a year. Only then did they trust us," Siddharth recalled.

Across the table, Lino Gandola, founding partner, Riceberg Ventures, brought a very different, but equally relevant, perspective. As a founding partner of Riceberg Ventures, a deep-tech VC firm, his focus is on startups solving complex, systemic problems, especially in healthcare. While his portfolio spans advanced medical devices and biotech, the common thread now is AI.

"We're not looking for companies that are just 'doing AI'," Lino said. "We look for startups that are leveraging AI to deliver better outputs than what was possible before."

One example he shared was a company developing a non-surgical alternative to gastric bypass surgery. The startup uses a balloon inserted into the stomach to reduce food intake, a deceptively simple approach that has outperformed popular drugs like semaglutide in animal trials. "It sounds simple, but it took years of hard work and top medical talent to get here," Lino said. "If this can help people suffering from obesity and diabetes, that's a real impact."

Still, even with such breakthroughs, the current AI landscape is overwhelming. "There's a vast volume of AI startups right now," Lino noted. "It's difficult to spot the winners. It's fast-paced, sometimes unpredictable, and not always easy to know what's hype and what's real."

That tension between promise and noise is why both stressed clarity of purpose. AI for social good isn't about the tech itself. It's about what the tech allows you to do that you couldn't before.

For Siddharth, it's helping a rural farmer feed his family more securely. For Lino, it's enabling scalable solutions to chronic health conditions. In both cases, the focus is on making the system work better for the people who rely on it most.

And unlike the flashier narratives around AI, these are changes happening now and not years down the line. Whether it's through predictive pricing for farmers or AI-enhanced medical procedures, the technology is being shaped to meet real needs. Quietly, persistently, AI is making public systems smarter; not just faster, but more human.

The panelists were speaking at Entrepreneur India's Tech & Innovation Summit, moderated by Shrabona Ghosh, senior correspondent, Entrepreneur India.