AI Adoption: Trust is Key, India Can Lead - Nasscom

New Delhi, Jan 22 (PTI) Trust has emerged as the primary driver for the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Nasscom President Rajesh Nambiar said on Thursday, asserting that India is well-positioned to lead the global landscape by developing responsible and transparent technology.

Speaking at the Responsible Intelligence Confluence (RICON) here in the national capital, Nambiar emphasised that the global debate has shifted from "innovation and scale" to "responsibility and trust".

"For the very first time in history, we are deploying systems that can learn, decipher (themselves), persuade all, and then act at a much faster scale than what human brains can, or human judgement can cope with, and much broader than what human reach is today. It is no longer just in theory or research papers; it is in real lives, real markets, and real democracies," Nambiar said.

He noted that the "technology race" is no longer merely about who can build the biggest model or the one with the most parameters. Instead, the focus has pivoted toward business readiness and whether AI systems can be trusted by governments, enterprises, and citizens. The big question today is who will be held accountable when systems fail.

"Trust has almost become the currency of adoption for systems as we move forward," he said, adding that trust cannot be assumed but must be "engineered by design" and governed through deliberate frameworks and implemented at scale.


While acknowledging the benefits of AI, Nambiar issued a stern warning regarding its risks.

He pointed out that while AI scales efficiency, it also has the potential to "scale harm" through invisible biases, unexplainable decisions, and systemic errors.

When technology moves faster than human values, society pays a price, he remarked, highlighting the "blurring lines between reality and fabrication" as a major challenge for public trust, particularly in the Indian context.

Nambiar called for a move from "intent to impact", urging the industry to transition from high-level principles to practical implementation. He stressed that organisations investing early in explainability and governance are likely to emerge stronger.

"India can actually lead the world by not just building AI, but building very responsible, trusted, globally relevant and useful," he said.