India’s artificial intelligence startup ecosystem is entering a decisive new phase, shifting from experimentation to real-world deployment and sustainable business models, according to Preeti Lobana, Vice President and Country Manager, India, Google. Speaking at the Google AI Startups Conclave in New Delhi, Lobana said the focus has now moved decisively toward outcomes, scale, and global relevance.

“India’s AI startup story is no longer about prototypes alone,” Lobana said. “We are seeing doctors in Tier-2 cities improving screening, farmers receiving hyper-local alerts, and teachers using voice-enabled tools for vernacular learning. These are early signals of what is possible when AI is applied at India’s scale.”

At the conclave, Google reiterated its belief that solutions built for India’s complexity, spanning diverse languages, uneven connectivity, and price sensitivity, can be scaled globally. “If you solve for India, you build for the world,” Lobana noted, outlining Google’s expanded commitment to help Indian startups move faster from pilots to production.

To support this transition, Google announced a strengthened full-stack support model for AI startups, covering infrastructure, models, safety, and ecosystem enablement. Founders will gain access to Google’s secure and scalable AI infrastructure, alongside upcoming capacity from the Global AI Hub in Visakhapatnam, a planned 1-gigawatt data centre campus designed to support the next phase of India’s AI economy.

Google is also expanding access to its AI models, including Gemini for complex reasoning tasks and Gemma for open research. On the safety front, the company highlighted advances in Private AI Compute, enabling startups to build applications that combine powerful cloud-based AI with strong on-device privacy protections.

Addressing a critical gap in startup growth, Google launched the Google Market Access Program, aimed at AI-first startups ready to scale responsibly. The programme focuses on enterprise readiness, access to Google’s global enterprise network, and immersion in international markets to help startups convert pilots into repeatable enterprise deployments.

In parallel, Google announced new additions to its open Gemma model family, including MedGemma 1.5, designed to support population-scale healthcare AI, and FunctionGemma, a lightweight model optimised for on-device, action-oriented AI agents. These models are intended to help Indian startups move more quickly from experimentation to deployment across healthcare, enterprise, and consumer applications.

The announcements align with findings from the Bharat AI Startups Report 2026 by Inc42, supported by Google, which estimates India’s AI market could reach $126 billion by 2030, with nearly half of enterprises already moving AI pilots into production.

“Trust, safety, and real-world impact are becoming the true competitive advantages,” Lobana said. “The future of AI isn’t just being used in India, it’s being built here.”