India One of the Fastest Growing Markets, AI Companions to Bring New Digital Experience: Microsoft

On his first visit to India, Microsoft AI chief Mustafa Suleyman shared his vision of AI's potential applications in the Indian market. On Wednesday, he spoke at the Microsoft Building AI Companions for India event in Bengaluru, regarding his views on AI companions. Suleyman outlined his ambitious vision for the future of AI. He stressed that AI companions are set to create a new class of digital experience, aligned to each person's interests and unlike anything that technology has created before.

He highlighted that India is one of their fastest-growing markets with talented engineers and developers working here.

"My personal vision for AI has always been about how it can be a companion that can make each and every one of us feel more supported and smarter and more capable,” he said, addressing the gathering. He opined that people will form meaningful relationships with their AI companions in the coming days.

Future of AI in India

During a fireside chat with S Krishnan, secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, Mustafa Suleyman said that India was one of Microsoft's fastest-growing markets. It also has one of its strongest research and development teams globally.

“We have extremely talented engineers and developers, and increasingly, we're involving social scientists, psychologists, therapists, scriptwriters, comedians, and other creatives. This diversity allows us to synthesise more perspectives and get a broader picture of people involved in the design and creation process,” he added.

When asked about the potential applications of AI here, Suleyman, who joined Microsoft from Google's DeepMind, said the Internet had already put information at everyone's fingertips that is synthesised distilled, and personally tuned to how an individual wants to learn and use information – and that applies in the workplace as much as it applies at home. “M365 Copilot, for example, already does an incredible job of reasoning over your work data,” he added. He also demonstrated the redesigned version of Microsoft Copilot during the event.

Microsoft appointed Mustafa Suleyman in March this year to oversee its newly created consumer AI unit. The tech giant released several upgrades to Copilot in recent months.