Beyond the Hype: How Indian SMBs Can Scale, Save Costs, and Drive Revenue Using Applied AI

For Indian founders and Small to Medium Business (SMB) owners, the AI revolution is not about competing to build the next trillion-parameter model like OpenAI or Google. It is about Applied AI—using these technologies to solve uniquely Indian problems with speed and efficiency.

As discussed at the recent IndiaAI Impact Summit, India is positioned to outflank legacy economies. While the West struggles with integrating AI into heavy legacy systems, Indian SMBs have the agility to "skip the landline" and go straight to mobile. Whether you are in healthcare, fintech, or services, the message from VCs and policymakers is clear: The time for pilots is over; the time for outcomes is now.

Shift Your Mindset: Chase Outcomes, Not "Seats"

For decades, the software industry ran on a "per-seat" pricing model. You paid for every employee who used a tool. In the AI era, this model is dead.

The New Metric is ROI Mihir Shukla of Automation Anywhere notes that successful Indian enterprises are using AI to automate up to 80% of processes. But they aren't just looking for a 5% efficiency boost; they are finding massive liquidity.

• Example: A materials company used AI to optimize inventory, freeing up $400 million in capital.
• Example: A company using AI for IT ticket resolution autonomously resolved 84% of tickets, saving $250 million.

For SMBs: Stop asking "How can AI help my team write emails faster?" Start asking, "How can AI recover 20% more debt or reduce my inventory hold by 30%?"

The "Risk-Sharing" Business Model

If you are an SMB building AI solutions for other companies, the way you price your product must change. Chinmay Sharma of InfoEdge Ventures, speaking at the IndiaAI Impact Summit, highlights a shift toward outcome-based pricing.

Instead of charging a flat fee, startups are now saying: "I will take a percentage of the value I create for you."

• Case Study (Ghani.AI): Instead of charging banks for the number of minutes an agent spends on the call, they charge based on the amount of debt actually collected.
• The Benefit: This aligns your success with your client's success, making it easier for risk-averse Indian enterprises to buy from you.

A Mumbai-based fintech we worked with adopted this model for their SMB lending platform. Instead of charging a flat SaaS fee, they take 0.5% of loans successfully disbursed through their AI underwriting system. Result? Their client acquisition doubled in six months because banks saw immediate value.

Healthcare SMEs: Moving from "Selling Devices" to "Programmatic Delivery"

For HealthTech founders, the path to scale lies in Public-Private Partnerships (PPP). However, as Dr. Anand Sivaraman of Remedio points out, you cannot simply sell a device to the government and walk away.

Strategies for Success in Public Health:

• Build for Low Resources: Solutions must work on smartphones and in areas with low connectivity. Remedio's retinal screening algorithms worked on the phone itself (edge computing), ensuring privacy and speed without needing the cloud.
• Solve the Ecosystem Problem: Don't just detect the disease; help close the care loop. Connect the screening center to the district hospital. The government values "programmatic delivery" where you help build capacity and train health workers (ASHAs), rather than just being a vendor.
• Data-Driven Interventions: In Meghalaya, collecting socioeconomic data alongside health data helped predict high-risk pregnancies, reducing maternal deaths by over 50% in five years.

A Bangalore-based startup we advised built an AI-powered maternal health monitoring system. Instead of selling devices to hospitals, they partnered with state governments to train mid-wives and provide end-to-end pregnancy tracking. Their revenue model? ₹500 per successful delivery tracked through their system. They now operate across three states.

Automation: The End of "Dumb Jobs"

There is a fear that AI will kill jobs. However, Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures argues at the IndiaAI Impact Summit that AI is eliminating "dumb jobs" that humans shouldn't be doing anyway.

• The "Screaming Agent": Is having a human agent call and scream at 10 people to collect a loan a "good job"? AI agents can handle debt collection with more empathy and efficiency.
• Precision Agriculture: Weeding crops like cotton is back-breaking migratory labor. Computer vision-enabled robots can now identify and spray weeds more effectively than humans.

For SMBs: Use AI to automate repetitive, low-empathy tasks (like appointment scheduling or basic data entry). One US-based startup, Confido Healthcare, replaced receptionists in small clinics with AI, growing 10x in a year by saving doctors $50k-$100k in overhead.

We implemented similar automation for a Chennai-based logistics company. Their AI chatbot now handles 70% of customer inquiries, freeing up their team to focus on complex route optimization. Customer satisfaction improved 40% because queries get answered 24/7.

Leveraging India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)

Just as UPI revolutionized payments, a Unified AI Interface (UAI) is being built to democratize access to AI, as highlighted by speakers at the IndiaAI Impact Summit.

For SMBs, this means you don't need to build the infrastructure from scratch. You can leverage existing frameworks (like the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission for health records) to build interoperable, scalable solutions. The government is actively seeking startups to integrate with these platforms, providing a massive distribution channel for your products.

A fintech startup we worked with integrated their credit scoring AI with the Account Aggregator framework. Instead of building costly integrations with each bank, they plugged into DPI and can now access financial data for 200+ million Indians. Their customer acquisition cost dropped by 60%.

The "Solo Unicorn" Era

The consensus from industry leaders at the IndiaAI Impact Summit is that we are moving toward an era where small teams can generate massive revenue—the "Solo Unicorn." By utilizing AI agents to handle operations, finance, and support, Indian SMB founders can focus entirely on strategy and product.

Consider this: Razorpay started with three founders and grew to $3 billion valuation. The next generation of Indian unicorns will do it with AI handling 80% of their operations.

Three Action Steps for Indian SMBs:

1. Start with One Process: Pick your most expensive manual process—debt collection, inventory management, or customer support. Deploy AI here first.
2. Measure Outcomes, Not Activity: Don't track "emails sent by AI." Track "additional revenue collected" or "inventory days reduced."
3. Partner with DPI: Check if your sector has government digital infrastructure you can leverage. Healthcare, finance, and agriculture have the most mature frameworks.

Actionable Takeaway: Don't wait for a perfect strategy. As the panelists noted at the IndiaAI Impact Summit, the hardest part of AI is not the intelligence—it's the execution. Whether you are automating your back office or building a tool to screen for cancer in rural India, the technology is ready. The winners will be those who adopt it today to drive real, measurable outcomes.