There is one area where India has always been at the forefront, and that is in missing the bus. We lost have opportunities at every paradigm shift that emerging technologies brought not because we lacked talent. We missed these buses because the money is India is in “wrong” hands. 

When communication + computing revolution arrived, young Indian entrepreneurs could not explain to the old moneybags that there was far greater benefit in creating a 10-person programming company than a 100-person call centre.

Today, be it smallest product like Word to ultra-large platforms that help manage complex business processes are owned by western Goliaths. The head-start, the access to data, deep pockets and geopolitical advantage available to these companies have made it impossible for Indian companies to find a way to enter the market where there is real money.

Our companies are reduced to building customised solutions for smaller players, knowing fully well that when their clients will grow big, they will opt for global giants thanks to old boys networks that demand certain “compliances” that “investors” prefer to see.

But, just when it looks impossible for smaller players to find a way to enter the market of the big fish, I see another bus arriving, and I see a rare chance, provided our investors back the right horse this time.

Rise of the LLM and artificial general intelligence is probably the last bus leaving, and I doubt that Indian investors understand these technologies, so I am going to try explain the opportunities in simple words with hope that Indian investors understand what kind of disruption is heading to the tech-market place.

If you are running any business, you would have encountered a computer screen, a “dashboard” with a “menu” with some heads and some pull-downs, some forms for inputs and some tools to get synthesised informations.

Since the arrival of computers, menu is the interphase we have used to get work done by the computers. And this is so because of a very simple reason. To make computer do things, we needed to tell them what things were and what answers we needed because computers, on their own could not know either.

In even simpler terms, the process we used was similar to what we did with the garbage, i.e., we needed to segregate. 

So, a large part of business/work was this data-segregation that was done by humans. The situation at the delivery-end of synthesised output also required fixed “questions” and hence mode of interaction was menus.

Cometh LLM and all this can change.

We now have intelligences that can understand information better. We don’t need to tell them if it is dry or wet garbage. They can find it out themselves. Same is reflected at the other end. New intelligences don’t need to live with limitations of menu-driven systems. In tech-terms, we now have intelligences that can take unstructured data of any kind, i.e., deal with a garbage dump where everything, be it wet, dry or plastic can be thrown together and find answers that one needs.

So structured and segregated inputs and complicated menus what we have taken for granted can be replaced by a clean screen with just a prompt blinking. “Ask me anything” is the way ahead in interacting with machines.

This revolution can take away all the advantages that Goliaths with massive products have. The complex menus can be replaced by verbal interactions to get any task done.

Imagine what if you are running a hospital, you wont need to perform complex task to generate a bill as same can be done by simply “telling” the machine, “please make bill of Mr. X by adding 15 % of lab bills and 10 % on consultant bills”!       

It is clear that if there are products that can deliver this, the days of menu-driven platforms are numbered, and Goliaths that own them will also lose the advantages they have.

If Indian investors understand this shift and support Indian LLM startups, we can take on the Goliaths as we are a large nation full of talented technocrats and access to data to train LLM models is not a problem. With decent computational infrastructure and local talent, our players can build products that can compete globally.

So, if you are a politician or a babu with surplus money or a family business that has cash stashed or even a large company, there is an opportunity ahead. Fund young kids to build LLM driven platforms for managing various business domains.

Head start is what we need as time is short. What I have outlined is no great insight. The Goliaths also know it and are already at it. 

West has one big advantage. The money there is with smart young people who understand technologies, so their young kids don’t need to explain the potential. Money is already getting poured in these products. We can make it only if we also do the same.

So, the bus is on the way. Let’s hope that Indian investors help our kids board it this time.

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Views expressed above are the author's own.

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