Sectors Witnessing Explosive AI Growth in India India's AI market is booming from recruitment and finance to multilingual agents, collaborative innovation is fuelling the next wave of sectoral growth

India is witnessing an all-time high boom in its artificial intelligence (AI) market. In just two years, the Indian AI market is expected to more than triple in value to USD 17 billion, according to the Boston Consulting Group's report India's AI Leap: BCG Perspective on Emerging Challengers.

So where is the real AI traction happening?

According to Nirmit Parikh, Co-founder and CEO of Apna.co, "We're seeing major growth in AI-driven recruitment platforms and virtual assistants. The AI recruitment market in India was valued at USD 661.56 million in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 1,119.80 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.8 per cent. Meanwhile, the conversational AI market generated USD 288 million in 2023 and is expected to expand at a 25.1 per cent CAGR through 2030."

On the other hand, AI in financial services is no longer just a proof-of-concept game.

The Indian BFSI sector is projected to grow AI investments at a CAGR of over 33 per cent till 2030. "What excites me most is the evolving collaboration model. Over 65 per cent of Indian corporates are now co-developing AI solutions with startups. It's not about outsourcing innovation anymore; it's about co-authoring the future," explains Rishi Verma, Head – Artificial Intelligence, Centre of Excellence (AI-COE) at FSS.

Verma predicts that the next decade will be defined by "collaborative intelligence," where startup agility meets enterprise scale.

Meanwhile, Gaurav Kachhawa, Chief Product Officer at Gupshup, highlights a surge in adoption across fintech, retail, D2C, and CPG sectors.

"In e-commerce, AI is enhancing post-purchase experiences like order tracking and returns, which are critical for retention. In real estate, AI qualifies leads, automates discovery, and schedules appointments, freeing up sales bandwidth. Even in auto, our Petromin AI Agent helps users during emergencies like a car breakdown via WhatsApp," says Kachhawa.

AI is now being used not just to talk to customers, but to listen, predict, and personalise at scale.

What about Agentic AI?

Akhil Gupta, Co-founder & CPTO at NoBroker, says the biggest growth is being seen in agentic AI.

"There's rapid growth in AI-powered customer experience automation. Businesses are expecting intelligent, multilingual systems that can respond naturally, solve queries, and even anticipate intent. This is especially visible in sectors like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce," says Gupta.

The demand for vernacular and voice-first AI is also accelerating. Gupta adds, "As digital adoption deepens, enterprises want AI agents that can engage users in their preferred languages. This isn't just about access, but experience."

Shailesh Dhuri, Co-founder and CEO of Decimal Point Analytics, explains that India's digital infrastructure is creating a powerful foundation for AI tailored to local languages. With 880 million smartphone users, widespread Aadhaar adoption, seamless digital payments through UPI, and language support via Bhashini APIs, the country is building what he calls a "self-feeding loop" for Indic-language AI—an ecosystem where technology, identity, and language come together to enable scalable and inclusive AI innovation.

He notes that ONDC alone aims to capture 25 per cent of digital commerce by 2025, and every kirana store onboarded will require multilingual cataloguing, voice search, and chatbots. A new wave of startups like Sarvam AI is building lightweight, multilingual LLMs tailored to India's GPU constraints.

"Think of it as 'BharatGPT inside every app', where linguistic complexity becomes India's moat, not a limitation," says Dhuri.

But for this story to scale, two things must align: capital and courage. Because the future of AI in India won't be built in isolation, it will be co-authored.