Bank of America has reported that India has emerged as the world’s largest and most active market for large language model adoption. The analysis finds that the country now leads globally in the number of users for popular artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. India is ahead both in terms of monthly active users and daily active users, reflecting a rapid rise in artificial intelligence usage across the country that is reshaping how people learn and work.
The report attributes India’s growth as a key artificial intelligence market to a mix of scale, affordability and demographics. India has the second-largest online population in the world, with more than 700-750 million mobile internet users. Affordable data plans have made artificial intelligence access easier, with users able to consume 20-30 GB of data a month for around $2. More than 60 per cent of Indian internet users are under the age of 35, and a large proportion of this group is English-speaking and quick to adopt new technologies, which is accelerating the uptake of artificial intelligence tools. Telecom companies such as Jio and Bharti Airtel are further boosting adoption by offering complimentary subscriptions to paid versions of artificial intelligence apps like Gemini and Perplexity, creating what Bank of America describes as a win-win for users, artificial intelligence companies and operators.
For consumers, access to advanced artificial intelligence tools at low cost is helping create a level playing field, with Indian users turning to these models to improve learning outcomes and enhance productivity. The growing availability of artificial intelligence models in multiple Indian languages is helping bridge the digital divide and reduce language barriers, contributing to what the report calls the democratisation of artificial intelligence. Bank of America also highlighted that India could become a testing ground for the next phase of artificial intelligence, described as agentic artificial intelligence, which involves applications that can reason, plan and execute tasks independently. Given India’s massive and diverse user base, the report suggests the country is well suited to stress-test such applications in real-world settings, and it notes that global artificial intelligence companies could partner with Indian firms for fulfilment services, similar to existing collaborations between artificial intelligence agents and travel platforms in the US.
