India a benchmark for getting AI right, says Sarvam CEO
What's the story
Pratyush Kumar, the CEO and Co-founder of Sarvam AI, has highlighted India's crucial role in AI development due to its challenging environment. Speaking at the NDTV Ind.AI Summit (part of India AI Impact Summit 2026), Kumar said that India's scale, languages, and diversity make it "a tremendously hard benchmark for what AI needs to get right." He emphasized that user feedback is crucial for refining models quickly.
Linguistic focus
Kumar shared impressive benchmarks of Sarvam's Vision model
Kumar revealed that Sarvam AI is focusing on Indian languages, improving them with a homegrown AI stack. The company aims to use this technology for entire populations. He also shared impressive internal benchmarks of their Vision model, which scored an accuracy of 84.3% on olmOCR Bench and 93.28% on OmniDocBench v1.5, outperforming other competing systems like Gemini 3 Pro and ChatGPT vision model in both tests.
Tech innovation
AI-powered glasses showcased at the summit
Sarvam AI also showcased a pair of AI-powered glasses at the summit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen trying out the device at Sarvam's stall. The company demonstrated models that can extract text from photos, recognize speech, and synthesize responses over a simple feature phone call without expensive hardware. Kumar stressed that India can't afford to miss out on the AI race as "India should be building it."
Hiring strategy
Kumar on hiring strategy
Kumar also shared his thoughts on Sarvam's hiring strategy. He said that in the age of AI, technical knowledge is not enough. The company looks for people who can learn quickly, solve complex problems independently, and imagine solutions that don't exist yet. Sarvam AI offers a platform starting at ₹1,000/month where users can build applications by simply describing what they want.
AI impact
Potential job disruption and India's digital infrastructure
Kumar acknowledged the potential job disruption but emphasized AI's transformative potential if human welfare remains central. He said, "AI must aim for the welfare for all and the happiness for all." Kumar also claimed that India is uniquely positioned to pursue this inclusive AI model due to its strong digital infrastructure built through initiatives like Aadhaar.