Microsoft India head Puneet Chandok: It is job number one ..., above everything else

Redmond giant Microsoft is bullish on India's AI future. Microsoft is optimistic about the future of technology spending in India, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence (AI). Puneet Chandok , President of Microsoft India and South Asia, believes that AI, particularly with the rise of tools like Copilot, is gaining significant traction across various industries.

In an interview to PTI, Chandok said the general perception around AI has shifted from skepticism to optimism, and now to real impact on the ground, with emergence of "real, interesting use cases". While Microsoft is excited about the potential of AI, the company is also committed to responsible AI practices. Chandok emphasized the importance of data privacy , transparency, and bias mitigation in AI development. Microsoft is actively working to ensure that its AI technologies are developed and used ethically.

He said that 'security' has to be built by design, and can "never be an afterthought". "It is job number one, security is above everything else. So we are focused on making sure that what we are building is secure for our customers, data is safeguarded, privacy, biases, transparency, all those principles are kept in mind as we build the products," he said.

Microsoft's 'Big India' Bet

Chandok emphasized that India is one of Microsoft's fastest-growing regions globally and a prime opportunity for technological innovation. "From a demand perspective, more than 7,000 listed companies are in India... a massive runway... third largest startup ecosystem in the world. So we're excited about that... 60 million-plus small and medium businesses... So that is a real opportunity from a demand perspective.

"On the supply side, if I look at GitHub , India is just behind the US, and close to 15 million developers in India are now on GitHub. We will overtake the US in the next two or three years," he said, referring to the Microsoft-owned software development platform.

India's large and growing tech talent pool, coupled with its burgeoning startup ecosystem, positions the country as a global AI hub. Chandok noted that India is home to a significant number of AI researchers and developers and that the country's workforce is poised for significant growth in the coming years. Citing estimates to back the company's optimism about the region, he said one is six AI researchers or AI developers in the world come from India.

"There's a recent study which said every fourth employee that will get added to the workforce in the next 10 years will come from India. So I think just the impact that we have on the world is incredibly important," he said.