By Nikita Kumawat, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Brandworks Technologies
Something interesting is happening with the gadgets and devices around us. It just keeps getting smarter, and it’s not necessarily because of an upgrade in app functionality or the speedy connectivity of the internet The revolution is actually happening at the hardware level, and this time it’s located inside microscopic computer chips that are specifically made to do artificial intelligence tasks..
From Cloud Back to Device
You must remember those days when the seamless performance of all devices had to rely on their communication with the cloud. Devices ranging from voice assistants and doorbells to fitness trackers needed to transfer data to be computed by servers. This was not too terrible, but the latency and cost of the internet bandwidth, coupled with several privacy issues, made that approach quite less than perfect.
That’s changing now. These new AI chips let devices think for themselves, right where users are.
Take AI note-takers, for instance. These small devices sit in meetings, transcribe conversations in real-time, and even pull out the important action items. A couple of years back, this would’ve needed constant internet connection and powerful cloud servers. Today, the device does it all locally. The chip inside handles the transcription, understands the context, identifies who’s speaking, all without sending a single word to any server.
This matters for two big reasons. First, sensitive business discussions stay private. Second, these devices work even when the internet doesn’t. No connectivity issues, no lag, just reliable performance.
Here’s where it gets interesting for anyone building products. You can’t just slap an AI chip into an existing device and expect magic. The whole design philosophy changes.
These specialized chips differ from regular processors. They have specifically designed for AI Tasks i.e, identifying & analysing patterns, language, and images. As they are focused on the specific AI tasks only, they do these really efficiently. Devices that may have lasted a few hours on a single battery now can last several days.
Look at wearable AI hardware. These need to be light and comfortable enough to wear all day, yet powerful enough to continuously listen, understand speech, and respond intelligently. That combination was nearly impossible a few years ago. Today’s specialized chips make it routine.
The same thing is happening in factories: sensors with AI chips can now spot problems in machinery before breakdowns happen, analyzing vibrations, temperatures, and performance patterns locally. No need to send terabytes of data to a central system. The intelligence is right there on the factory floor.
When Every Device Gets Smart
What’s truly exciting is when many intelligent devices connect, creating systems that learn and coordinate locally.For instance, smart homes turn into responsive environments whereby devices learn the way users behave, without being cloud-dependent all of the time. This is a system that, because of edge processing, stays resilient even when internet connectivity is unstable.
India’s Chance to Lead
India finds itself at a pivotal moment in this transformation. The country has always been strong in software and IT services. But hardware has typically been imported. That’s starting to change, and the timing couldn’t be better.
The semiconductor market in India is expected to reach $100-110 billion by 2030. That’s not just talk, actual fabrication plants are being built right now. Few of the manufacturing facilities are being set up in the state of Gujarat, with world-leading technology companies and other conglomerates investing heavily in semiconductor fabrication and assembly facilities. A number of these companies are also setting up packaging and testing facilities, likely to become operational from the end of 2025 and 2026.
What is more significant than manufacturing is that India has the talent to design innovative solutions. Startups are creating AI note-taking assistants that can support multilingual conversations, agricultural AI solutions that can support various patterns of farming, and healthcare solutions that can support regions with intermittent connectivity.
This is the sweet spot: combining chip design expertise (which already exists in cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad), manufacturing capability (which is being built now), and application innovation for problems that matter to Indian and global users.
The government is pushing this forward too. The India Semiconductor Mission has approved projects worth over $18 billion. Programs like IndiaAI are training people across industries. The foundation is being laid for something bigger than just participating in the supply chain, actually shaping where AI hardware goes next.
In a couple of years, asking “does this device have AI?” will sound as odd as asking “does this phone have a camera?” It’ll be assumed. The question then becomes the effectiveness of the AI, the efficiency that it operates at, and its ability to integrate with one’s daily life.
We’re still at an early stage in this transformation, and which companies and countries figure out how to bring together chip innovation, smart product design, and genuine user insight will determine what the next wave of connected devices will look like.
India has in place the pieces with design talent, the manufacturing investments becoming operational, and markets with real needs waiting to be addressed. How that fits together and how quickly innovation can make it from the lab to the market remains to be seen. The opportunity is there. The question is execution.