India's digital transformation has been shaped by visionaries who dared to dream beyond conventional boundaries. Among these pioneers, Kris Gopalakrishnan stands tall not just as a co-founder of Infosys, but as an architect of India's technological destiny. His journey from building one of the world's most successful IT companies to championing artificial intelligence as India's future differentiator offers invaluable lessons for entrepreneurs, policymakers, and technologists navigating the complex landscape of digital innovation.
Kris Gopalakrishnan's story embodies the classic narrative of Indian entrepreneurial success combined with global technological impact. In 1981, alongside six other visionaries, he founded Infosys with borrowed capital and boundless ambition. What started as a modest venture in Pune would grow into a multinational corporation employing hundreds of thousands and generating billions in revenue.
But Kris Gopalakrishnan's contribution extends far beyond building a successful company. During his tenure as CEO from 2007 to 2011 and subsequently as Vice Chairman, he helped steer Infosys through critical phases of growth, technological evolution, and global expansion. His leadership style combined technical excellence with business acumen, creating a template for how technology companies could scale while maintaining quality and innovation.
To appreciate Kris Gopalakrishnan's current advocacy for AI-driven transformation, one must understand the foundation laid during India's IT revolution. The success of companies like Infosys fundamentally changed global perceptions of India—from a developing nation struggling with poverty to a technology powerhouse capable of delivering world-class services.
This transformation wasn't accidental. It required vision, execution excellence, and the ability to navigate complex global markets while building capabilities at home. Kris Gopalakrishnan played a central role in this journey, helping establish processes, quality standards, and business models that became industry benchmarks.
However, as recent discussions indicate, Kris Gopalakrishnan recognizes that past success doesn't guarantee future relevance. The IT services model that brought India prosperity in the 1990s and 2000s must evolve dramatically to meet the challenges and opportunities of the AI era.
Speaking at the BT AI Summit 2025, Kris Gopalakrishnan articulated a compelling vision for India's next technological leap. While the IT revolution positioned India as the world's back office, the AI revolution presents an opportunity to become the world's innovation laboratory.
This transition requires more than incremental changes—it demands a fundamental reimagining of how India approaches technology development, talent cultivation, and value creation. Rather than executing projects designed elsewhere, India must become a source of breakthrough innovations, fundamental research, and platform technologies that define the AI era.
Central to Kris Gopalakrishnan's vision is a dramatic increase in research and development investment. India currently spends roughly 0.7% of GDP on R&D—a fraction of what leading innovative economies invest. Without substantial increases in R&D spending, particularly in AI and related technologies, India risks replicating its IT services role in a new technological context: implementing AI solutions designed abroad rather than creating them.
The difference is crucial. Companies and nations that create foundational AI technologies—the algorithms, frameworks, and platforms others build upon—capture disproportionate economic value and strategic advantage. Those who merely implement these technologies remain in a perpetual catch-up mode, competing primarily on cost rather than innovation.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Kris Gopalakrishnan's thinking is his emphasis on empathy in technology development. As he articulated in Bangalore, India must build a technology model rooted in empathy—one that addresses real human needs rather than optimizing purely for efficiency or profit.
This philosophy has profound implications for AI development. Rather than simply adopting AI technologies developed for Western contexts, India should invest in AI solutions addressing its unique challenges:
India's healthcare challenges—massive population, limited infrastructure, shortage of medical professionals in rural areas—present both enormous problems and opportunities for AI innovation. Developing AI-powered diagnostic tools, telemedicine platforms, and health advisory systems optimized for Indian conditions could not only serve India's population but also create exportable solutions for other developing nations.
With millions of smallholder farmers, India's agricultural sector could benefit immensely from AI applications—from weather prediction and pest management to market intelligence and precision farming techniques. Kris Gopalakrishnan's emphasis on empathy means these solutions must be accessible, affordable, and designed with the actual users in mind, not just as technology showcases.
AI-powered educational tools could help address India's educational challenges—from basic literacy in remote areas to advanced skill development for emerging technologies. Speaking to educational institutions, Kris Gopalakrishnan has emphasized how technology can democratize access to quality education, but only if developed with empathy for learners' diverse circumstances.
Kris Gopalakrishnan has consistently advocated for embedding innovation and entrepreneurship within universities. This isn't just about adding courses on these topics—it requires fundamentally reimagining the role of higher education in India's technological ecosystem.
Traditional Indian universities have focused primarily on teaching, with research often treated as secondary. Kris Gopalakrishnan envisions universities as innovation engines where:
Institutions like JGU are experimenting with these models, but scaling nationally requires policy support, funding mechanisms, and cultural shifts in how academic success is measured.
At convocation ceremonies, Kris Gopalakrishnan urges youth to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship. His message goes beyond motivational rhetoric—it's a call to action backed by specific recommendations:
Kris Gopalakrishnan recognizes that private sector innovation alone won't suffice—government policy plays a crucial enabling or constraining role. Government initiatives demonstrate growing awareness of AI's importance, but awareness must translate into concrete actions.
Effective government policy for AI development includes:
Funding Mechanisms: Direct research grants, tax incentives for R&D spending, and subsidies for AI startups can stimulate private investment while supporting fundamental research that may not have immediate commercial applications.
Data Infrastructure: AI requires data, but India lacks comprehensive frameworks for data collection, sharing, and governance that balance innovation needs with privacy concerns. Government databases on health, agriculture, and demographics could fuel AI research if made accessible under appropriate safeguards.
Regulatory Clarity: Clear regulations around AI development, deployment, and accountability provide confidence for long-term investment while protecting against potential harms.
Educational Investment: From introducing computational thinking in schools to funding doctoral programs in AI, government investment in education creates the talent pipeline necessary for sustained innovation.
Procurement Policies: Government procurement favoring Indian AI solutions can create domestic market demand that helps nascent companies achieve scale.
Kris Gopalakrishnan advocates for collaborative models bringing together government, academia, and industry. Successful models from other countries—like DARPA in the United States or Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany—demonstrate how public-private partnerships can accelerate innovation while ensuring research relevance.
While Kris Gopalakrishnan built his career in the private sector, he doesn't let companies off the hook. Indian IT majors like Infosys, TCS, and Wipro have been enormously successful but have traditionally invested less in R&D compared to global technology leaders.
The IT services model—while profitable—has inherent limitations for innovation. Companies focused on executing client projects have limited bandwidth and incentives for long-term research. Kris Gopalakrishnan argues for:
Increased R&D Budgets: Indian companies should commit to spending significantly higher percentages of revenue on R&D, even if it impacts short-term profitability.
Product Development: Moving from pure services to product companies creating intellectual property and platform technologies.
Fundamental Research: Investing in research that may not have immediate applications but builds long-term competitive advantages.
Academic Partnerships: Funding university research, hosting visiting researchers, and creating pathways from academic research to commercial application.
As discussed on National Startup Day, Kris Gopalakrishnan recognizes that established companies aren't the only innovation drivers. Startups bring agility, risk-taking ability, and fresh perspectives. However, AI startups face unique challenges:
Addressing these challenges requires patient capital, mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs, and ecosystem support from accelerators, universities, and government programs.
Kris Gopalakrishnan's journey building Infosys offers practical lessons for today's AI entrepreneurs and policymakers:
From its inception, Infosys focused on quality—adopting rigorous processes, seeking certifications, and building reputation for excellence. In the AI era, this translates to:
Infosys made decisions optimizing for long-term value creation rather than short-term gains—investing in training, infrastructure, and capabilities even when not immediately profitable. Similarly, AI development requires patience, accepting that breakthrough innovations take time.
Infosys maintained strong values around integrity, transparency, and stakeholder welfare. As AI becomes more powerful and pervasive, values-driven leadership becomes even more critical—ensuring technology serves society rather than exploiting vulnerabilities or exacerbating inequalities.
While focused on India's development, Kris Gopalakrishnan maintains a global perspective. India's AI journey occurs within a global context of rapid technological change, geopolitical competition, and shared challenges like climate change.
India must simultaneously collaborate and compete globally. Collaboration with leading research institutions, technology companies, and international organizations can accelerate learning and address shared challenges. Competition drives innovation and ensures India doesn't fall behind in critical technologies.
India's AI innovations—particularly those addressing challenges common to developing nations—position India as a technology leader for the Global South. Solutions developed for Indian contexts around affordable healthcare, multilingual education, and smallholder agriculture can adapt to other developing nations, creating export opportunities while advancing global development goals.
As AI raises ethical questions globally, India has an opportunity to lead in developing frameworks for responsible AI—drawing on philosophical traditions emphasizing dharma, karma, and collective welfare alongside Western ethical frameworks.
Beyond business and policy advocacy, Kris Gopalakrishnan's philanthropic work demonstrates commitment to using wealth and influence for social benefit. His giving focuses on education, healthcare, and basic research—areas where patient capital can create lasting impact.
Rather than traditional charity, Kris Gopalakrishnan practices transformative philanthropy—making large commitments to institutions and causes where funding can catalyze change:
This approach recognizes that sustainable change requires building institutions and capabilities, not just providing services.
While optimistic about India's potential, Kris Gopalakrishnan recognizes significant obstacles:
India continues losing top talent to foreign universities and companies. Creating opportunities for cutting-edge work, competitive compensation, and quality of life that retain talent domestically remains a major challenge.
From computing infrastructure to research facilities to reliable power and internet connectivity, infrastructure gaps constrain innovation. Addressing these requires massive sustained investment.
Moving from a service-oriented to innovation-focused culture requires changing mindsets at all levels—from students choosing career paths to investors allocating capital to companies measuring success.
Even good policies often fail in implementation. Bureaucratic delays, corruption, and lack of coordination across agencies can undermine well-intentioned initiatives.
Synthesizing Kris Gopalakrishnan's insights across multiple forums, a roadmap for India's AI future emerges:
The stakes in getting AI right extend far beyond technology. AI will fundamentally reshape economies, labor markets, social structures, and power dynamics globally. Nations and companies that lead in AI will enjoy disproportionate economic and strategic advantages.
For India specifically:
Economic Opportunity: AI could add trillions to India's economy over the next decade, but only if India creates and captures value rather than merely consuming AI products.
Social Development: AI applications in healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance could accelerate progress on development goals, improving lives for hundreds of millions.
Geopolitical Standing: AI leadership would elevate India's global standing, from regional power to technology superpower.
Youth Employment: AI innovation creates high-value jobs for India's young, educated population—but only if the ecosystem supports AI entrepreneurship and research.
Kris Gopalakrishnan continues influencing India's technology trajectory through multiple channels:
Board Positions: Serving on boards of technology companies, educational institutions, and policy organizations where he can influence strategy and resource allocation.
Mentorship: Advising entrepreneurs, researchers, and policymakers navigating complex decisions around technology development and deployment.
Public Advocacy: Speaking at conferences, contributing to policy discussions, and using his platform to advocate for increased investment in innovation.
Philanthropic Investment: Putting his own resources behind institutions and initiatives aligned with his vision for India's technological future.
For those building AI ventures in India, Kris Gopalakrishnan's journey and current advocacy offer several lessons:
Think Long-term: Building breakthrough innovations takes time. Don't chase quick exits at the expense of creating lasting value.
Focus on Real Problems: Technology for technology's sake rarely creates value. Focus on solving real problems for real users.
Maintain High Standards: Compete on quality and innovation, not just cost. Build companies that could succeed anywhere, not just in protected domestic markets.
Build for Scale: Even if starting small, architect solutions that can scale to serve millions or billions.
Stay Values-driven: Success built on unethical practices or exploitation proves unsustainable. Build companies you're proud of.
Embrace Collaboration: Innovation rarely happens in isolation. Build partnerships with researchers, other companies, and even competitors where aligned.
As tracked by various platforms, Kris Gopalakrishnan's influence extends globally. His perspective matters not just for India but for understanding how emerging economies can navigate technological disruption while advancing development goals.
The challenges India faces—building AI capabilities while addressing basic development needs, attracting talent while competing with wealthier nations, fostering innovation while ensuring equitable access—mirror challenges across the developing world. Solutions that work for India could provide templates for other nations.
Kris Gopalakrishnan has earned his voice in technology policy through decades of building, leading, and reflecting on India's technological transformation. His current advocacy for AI-driven innovation grounded in empathy, powered by R&D investment, and focused on real societal needs offers a compelling vision for India's future.
This vision isn't just aspirational—it's achievable. India has the talent, market size, and entrepreneurial energy necessary for AI leadership. What's required is strategic focus, sustained investment, and willingness to think beyond incremental improvements toward transformative change.
The IT revolution demonstrated what India could achieve when focused on technology. The AI revolution offers even greater possibilities—not just creating wealth but addressing fundamental challenges in healthcare, education, agriculture, and governance. Realizing this potential requires heeding voices like Kris Gopalakrishnan's—combining the wisdom of experience with the vision to imagine radically better futures.
For entrepreneurs, policymakers, educators, and anyone invested in India's future, the message is clear: the decisions made today about AI investment, education, and innovation policy will reverberate for generations. India can lead in AI or watch from the sidelines. The choice, and the opportunity, is now.
Those interested in learning more about Kris Gopalakrishnan's work and perspectives can explore:
Kris Gopalakrishnan's core message is that India must dramatically increase R&D investment in artificial intelligence to move from consuming AI technologies to creating them. He emphasizes building AI solutions rooted in empathy that address India's unique challenges while maintaining global quality standards. Without this shift, India risks replicating its IT services role in the AI era—implementing solutions designed elsewhere rather than leading innovation.
Having co-founded and led Infosys through India's IT revolution, Kris Gopalakrishnan understands both the opportunities and limitations of service-oriented technology models. His experience taught him that genuine technological leadership requires owning intellectual property, conducting fundamental research, and creating platforms others build upon—not just executing projects efficiently. This understanding drives his advocacy for R&D investment and innovation-focused education.
Empathy-driven technology means developing AI solutions that genuinely address human needs rather than optimizing purely for efficiency or profit. For India, this means creating AI applications for affordable healthcare, accessible education, smallholder agriculture, and inclusive governance—designed with actual users' circumstances in mind. It emphasizes solving real problems for underserved populations rather than building technology showcases.
Kris Gopalakrishnan sees universities as potential innovation engines, not just teaching institutions. Universities should conduct fundamental AI research, tackle applied problems in Indian contexts, foster entrepreneurial ventures, maintain industry partnerships, and develop innovation-ready graduates. This requires cultural shifts in how academic success is measured and substantial investment in research infrastructure and faculty.
Kris Gopalakrishnan recommends governments increase direct R&D funding dramatically, provide tax incentives for private sector research, establish AI Centers of Excellence, develop clear data governance frameworks, create procurement policies favoring Indian AI solutions, invest in AI education from schools through universities, and facilitate public-private research partnerships. Policy clarity around AI development and deployment is also crucial.
Indian technology companies should increase R&D spending significantly, move from pure services to product development, invest in fundamental research with long-term payoffs, create academic partnerships, and support the startup ecosystem through investment and mentorship. This requires accepting short-term profit impacts for long-term competitive positioning and transitioning from execution-focused to innovation-focused cultures.
Kris Gopalakrishnan acknowledges multiple challenges: talent migration to foreign opportunities, infrastructure gaps in computing and research facilities, cultural barriers in shifting from service to innovation mindsets, implementation challenges in translating policy to action, limited R&D funding compared to global leaders, and the need for regulatory clarity around AI development and data usage.
Kris Gopalakrishnan's philanthropic work focuses on education, healthcare, and basic research areas where patient capital can create transformative change. Rather than traditional charity, he practices institutional giving that builds capabilities and creates sustainable impact. This reflects his understanding that lasting change requires strong institutions, not just services, and aligns with his vision of technology serving societal needs.
While IT services positioned India as an execution specialist, AI offers opportunities to lead innovation and create foundational technologies. The difference is crucial: IT services competed primarily on cost and quality of execution, while AI leadership comes from creating breakthrough algorithms, platforms, and applications others depend on. This requires much higher R&D investment but offers greater value capture and strategic advantage.
Key lessons include focusing on quality and excellence over cost competition, thinking long-term rather than optimizing for short-term gains, maintaining strong values around integrity and transparency, investing in capabilities before they're immediately profitable, building for scale even when starting small, and recognizing that sustainable success requires serving stakeholders broadly—not just maximizing shareholder returns.
India's AI solutions addressing challenges like affordable healthcare, multilingual education, and smallholder agriculture can adapt to other developing countries facing similar issues. This positions India as a technology leader for the Global South, creates export markets for Indian AI companies, and advances global development goals. India can also lead in developing ethical AI frameworks relevant to developing country contexts.
According to Kris Gopalakrishnan's guidance, young Indians should embrace innovation and entrepreneurship, take calculated risks rather than always choosing safe paths, focus on solving real problems rather than building technology for its own sake, think long-term about creating lasting value, build solutions for India while maintaining global standards, embrace failure as learning opportunity, and seek education emphasizing innovation skills alongside technical knowledge.