New Delhi [India], August 27 : India is moving from the era of AI pilots to broad-scale adoption and wants to be a maker and shaper of artificial intelligence, with Google highly optimistic about the country's long-term AI trajectory and seeing rising demand for advanced digital infrastructure, Alexander Smith, Principal, Global Infrastructure, Asia Pacific, Google, said.
"We're extremely optimistic about India and its long-term capabilities and its AI pathway. I think India is really demonstrating that it does not just want to be a taker of AI, it wants to be a maker and it wants to be a shaper," Smith said in an interview with ANI.
Smith said the last few years had largely involved organisations experimenting with AI, giving employees access to the technology and assessing its applications. He said that phase was now giving way to deeper and broader adoption.
"I think the era of the pilot is almost over. I think the era of adoption and broad-scale, deep applications is really starting to come to the forefront. And India is one of the leaders at that forefront at this moment," he said.
He said 2026 and 2027 could be the years when AI adoption starts to "feel real" in India, with companies and organisations increasingly adopting agentic workflows and integrating AI into government services and delivery.
Smith said India's willingness to experiment with AI was "absolutely inspiring", citing his experience at the India AI Impact Summit earlier this year. He said India was also demonstrating its ability to develop digital infrastructure and technology at scale, pointing to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as an example.
"That's an incredible piece of public digital infrastructure that could have only ever been developed in India in some respects at scale," he said.
He also pushed back against the view that significant AI-related research and development was not being undertaken in India. Smith highlighted Google's work on Indic languages, including research linked to Google Translate, as well as India-specific developments in Google Maps.
"When we're trying to solve for 22 languages at a time, we've actually learned a lot about how to develop operating systems and stacks that can talk across languages," he said.
He cited work with Aravind Eye Hospital, where AI insights are being used to help diagnose diabetic eye conditions in real time, as an example of AI research being translated into practical healthcare applications.
Google is developing the Google Cloud India AI Hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, under its Bharat AI Shakti vision. The project has a USD 15 billion anchor commitment, with the first phase expected to come online in the second half of 2028. Full deployment is expected to take around five to seven years.
The project will also create a third international digital gateway for India through subsea cable connectivity, linking the country with Singapore, Australia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States.
Smith said secure and reliable connectivity would be increasingly important as AI usage and computing demand grow.
On semiconductors, Smith said there was "huge demand" for advanced AI chips globally and backed India's efforts to develop domestic capabilities.
He said countries that had successfully built chip ecosystems had taken a "10, 15, 20-year view", while cautioning that semiconductor manufacturing involved highly complex technologies that could not be developed overnight.
Water conservation is another key element of the Visakhapatnam project. Smith said Google would use an air-cooled solution, meaning water would not be used for cooling the data-centre buildings, apart from normal requirements such as toilets and sinks. Google is also studying local aquifers and exploring ways to capture rainwater and replenish groundwater.
On energy, Smith said Google had purchased around 35 GW of clean energy over the past decade. For Visakhapatnam, the company is considering renewable energy sources including solar and wind, along with pumped hydro and battery energy storage systems.
Smith said the project could generate wider economic opportunities, noting that for every job created inside a Google data centre, another nine jobs are created in proximity to it. Google plans to use its STAR programme for skills training and workforce readiness.
He also praised India's single-window clearance mechanism and coordination between Union and state governments, saying long-term policy certainty would remain important for infrastructure investments.
Looking ahead, Smith said he hoped the Visakhapatnam AI Hub would demonstrate that AI infrastructure could be developed sustainably while helping India become one of the most connected hubs in Asia.
He said the infrastructure could support new businesses, jobs, healthcare applications and opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises, while enabling AI to reach more people in their daily lives.
"We want to be a trusted technology partner for India and the Indian ecosystem as it goes on that journey," Smith said.