Indian firms need to double their spend on technology to stay on course and make the best of AI tools, according to Fractal AI Co-Founder Srikanth Velamakanni.
Speaking to NDTV Profit, Velamakanni said currently, companies usually spend 2-3% of their revenues on technology. "That figure needs to go up by at least 100% in the next few years. That will be a big opportunity for us. With most of the additional tech spend going into AI, that opens up the market for us."
Fractal AI was founded as Fractal Analytics back in 2000 and is based out of New York and Mumbai. It turned unicorn in 2022 after a $360-million fundraise from TPG Inc., becoming India's first AI-led company to do so. It is primarily a business-to-business company, which helps large firms adopt AI with products such as Qure.ai, Cuddle.ai, Theremin.ai and Eugenie.ai.
"For Fractal, the next big thing is how we capitalise on this AI wave. We are now focusing on bringing quality products to Indian market. We've built Kalaido.ai, a free text-to-image tool and Vaidya.ai, India's first medical LLM. We're looking at addressing India's emerging AI needs to drive demand here," the co-founder added.
On the shifting global AI landscape, Velamkanni said the power of AI is what is making world leaders wanting to be ahead of the curve.
"AI can be used across defence, civilian uses. It is powerful and will impact how industries and jobs take shape. Therefore, whoever has control over AI, will lead global soft power," he said, adding that the emergence of DeepSeek has shown that AI revolution is just getting started.
"DeepSeek proves AI is no more expensive. As a country of 140 crore people, India absolutely must compete in the global AI race," he said.
Velamakanni also serves as the vice-chairperson of tech lobby Nasscom, and has played a role in the conceptualisation of the IndiaAI Mission.
"A major focus of the mission is the development of the Indian foundational model. The model should progress towards artificial general intelligence, and we're happy to contribute to the IndiaAI Mission."
While private adoption of AI is on the uptick, world governments should also realise the incentives around it and quicken adoption, Velamakanni said.
"Governments could be the biggest user of AI. They own the biggest datasets around. In India, problems around the quality and access to education and healthcare can be solved by AI. Even issues like fraud, waste and abuse in direct benefit transfers can be addressed by AI," he said.
An IPO continues to be on the cards for Fractal, Velamakanni said, without giving additional details. When that happens, it could be India's first pureplay AI IPO.
"We intend to be a public company. All our IPO metrics are headed in the right direction, it's a matter of time in getting our paperwork done. We expect to make progress on IPO soon," he said.
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