That is where Indian AI starts becoming really interesting.
Two companies, almost the same week, showed where Indian AI is actually going.
→ Tohands is rolling out its AI‑powered smart calculator to target 1 million kirana stores nationwide, with offline‑first billing, inventory, payments, and barcode scanning built in.
→ DUKAAN AI™ does voice billing in 24 Indian languages. A shopkeeper says "Chini 2kg, sabun 5 piece" in Marathi, and the GST bill prints. Fully offline with the basic version free of cost.
These stories look like kirana stories, while they are data organisation stories.
For twenty years, every SaaS, ERP, and CRM in India was built for someone who could type in English, sit at a desktop, and tolerate complexity.
Anyone who could not was outside the digital economy.
Voice + vernacular + offline broke that wall.
📍Inputs that needed a keyboard now need only a voice 📍Workflows that needed software training now need only language 📍Data locked in paper registers is now machine-readable 📍Markets that looked too small to digitise are now the largest
Mid-market CXOs are using AI to make existing white-collar workflows faster. But the bigger opportunity is in the parts of your business that were never digitised.
Field staff, distributors, drivers, production lines, and just anywhere where paper and voice notes are still the system of record.
If a kirana owner can run his inventory in Marwari, your operations can too.
What's the most un-digitised workflow in your business right now?