Artificial intelligence could unlock more than $550 billion in economic value across five of India’s largest sectors by 2035, according to a new report from PwC India. Agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education and energy stand to gain the most – but only if the technology reaches the country’s last mile.
The report, titled ‘AI Edge for Viksit Bharat’, models the value artificial intelligence could add to agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare, education and energy – the five sectors the firm regards as most critical to the country’s development agenda. The figure of more than $550 billion is measured at nominal level and runs to 2035.
That agenda is Viksit Bharat 2047, India’s goal of becoming a developed economy, which the report says depends on lifting the long-term growth rate beyond 8%. AI has been identified as the critical enabler of that shift. What decides the outcome, PwC argues, is not the technology itself but whether it stops circling in pilot projects.
“AI can only deliver meaningful impact when it is designed to reach the last mile, strengthen trust, and become part of the systems that shape everyday outcomes,” said Sanjeev Krishan, Chairperson of PwC in India.
India has a wide base to build on. It ranks as the third-largest start-up market globally, serves as a core hub for IT and digital services, and hosts more than 2,000 global capability centres supporting multinational enterprises. Public-led investment in skills, research and innovation has strengthened that base, while the National Quantum Mission is extending the country’s reach into frontier computing.
The 3A2I framework
To turn that capacity into value at scale, the report sets out what PwC calls the 3A2I architecture. Governments, the private sector and civil society first make AI tools and platforms accessible, acceptable and assimilative within different segments of society. Only then are the associated initiatives implemented in the real world and institutionalised in policy, systems and culture.
The distribution of the gains, rather than their size, is what the model is built to address. “This report provides the 3A2I framework that tells you how to make AI equitable in its journey of value creation,” said Raghav Narsalay, Partner and Leader of the Research and Insights Hub at PwC India.
Agriculture is where the distance between promise and reach is widest. The sector employs nearly half of India’s workforce and contributes about 18% of GDP, yet 86% of the country’s farmers are small and marginal holders working less than a hectare of land. Yields run 40% to 50% below global averages.
Alongside 3A2I, the report introduces a second model, the AI-Edge framework, drawn from an analysis of pilot projects across the five sectors. It defines five outcomes against which deployment at scale should be judged: operational excellence, sustainability, good governance, resilience and financial discipline. Despite the name, it is not the same thing as edge AI, which concerns where architectures run rather than what they deliver.
“As AI transforms economies globally, ‘AI Edge for Viksit Bharat’ delves into how India can drive equitable growth through AI,” added Ruchi Mann, India Leader for Brand, Marketing and Public Policy at the firm. On the report’s own measure, then, the $550 billion is settled not in the model but on the hectare.
