The AI Challenge: How to Maximise Economic Impact and Spread Gains Evenly

Gist The global discourse on Artificial Intelligence AI currently fixates on the generation of intelligence—investing trillions in chips, data centres, and frontier models. However, the true economic value of general-purpose technologies lies in their widespread downstream deployment and adaptation to local needs. For India, leveraging its proven capability in Digital Public Infrastructure DPI to deploy task-specific AI offers a demographic-scale opportunity to boost workforce productivity and democratise economic gains rather than merely racing to build proprietary models. Background The World Bank Group’s 'World Development Report 2026: The Promise of Artificial Intelligence' argues that applying AI to practical problems at scale is more critical for developing nations than winning the race to build frontier models. Historically, the largest economic gains from general-purpose technologies accrue to downstream users who adopt and diffuse them. India, with its successful rollout of platforms like Aadhaar , UPI , and DigiLocker , is uniquely positioned to combine technology, market incentives, and institutional frameworks to broaden AI access and prevent monopolistic concentration. Key Pointers Complementing rather than replacing labour: Unlike advanced economies, generative AI is significantly less…