From E-Shram To Copilot: Nadella Outlines India’s AI Path

“Are we sidelining the humanness in the whole AI narrative? We are on a mission to replace humans with something better. That’s a change India has to bring about—putting humans back in the centre of the AI journey. Change the narrative from AI versus human to AI with human. It’s good to say we won’t have to work anymore, but then what would we do?”

Debjani Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog and Chief Architect of the NITI Frontier Tech Hub, posed this question to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO and Chairperson. Her question captured the unease many feel about artificial intelligence: a technology growing faster than society’s ability to digest its implications. Nadella answered calmly, almost almost casually, “Thinking about how to interject in the loop with the agency and the ambition is more of a design issue than a tech issue.” Short, precise, and pointed.

While the question lingered like a shadow over the summit, Nadella’s keynote made it clear that AI is not a tool for replacing humans—it is a technology to empower, augment, and accelerate. And nowhere is that more visible than in India, where Microsoft is partnering with government and private organisations to integrate AI into public infrastructure, corporate workflows, and social impact projects.

AI Evolution: From Excel Sheets To Copilot

Nadella began his keynote by reflecting on how productivity tools evolve. “Tool change back then for forecasting was email and Excel sheets. So we need to ask, what would that new reimagined process be in the AI era?” he said, tracing a direct line from the PC era, the last frontier of organisational productivity, to today’s AI-driven possibilities. Just as digital tools transformed knowledge work across industries, AI now offers the next leap.

“We have taken the everyday tools people are using and brought that into Copilot and our AI agents,” he explained. “AI is somewhere else and I am elsewhere cannot be the logic. Everyone should be using it all the time for upwards of elevation. Natural language conversations with AI. Not our Copilot, it is your organisation’s Copilot.”

Nadella drew a parallel to Excel, which was never worshipped but widely used. “We didn’t pray at the altar of Excel; we used it. And that’s what we do with AI.” From app builders that enable rapid creation of AI-powered workflows to coding systems with custom agents, he emphasised that these tools are democratizing AI. “Anyone can build these systems, deploying multiple models with a decision framework relevant to you. Think of productivity.”

The metaphor he kept returning to was one of meta-cognition: agents that work for the organisation, learning, thinking, and producing outputs autonomously, yet aligned to human intent. Productivity, creativity, and insight become seamlessly amplified.

India’s AI Adoption: The Virtuous Cycle

For Nadella, India is not just another market; it is a case study in rapid adoption. “People who have studied historical tech waves know the creators of the tech were not the leaders, but those who adopted it fastest and most vastly.” He warned that simply possessing technology is not enough. “If you had leading tech but only used it slightly, that wouldn’t do. The world is starting from the same place now.”

His optimism about India is tangible. The country, he said, has created a “virtuous cycle” by combining policies, programmes, technology infrastructure, and a large domestic market. From payments to healthcare, private and public sectors are participating fully. It is, in his words, “tremendous to see the private sector fully participate, whether in payments, healthcare, or insurance. It’s not about any one thing. That entire stack is magic.”

This adoption-focused philosophy underpins Microsoft’s $17.5 billion investment in India, the largest in the company’s history in Asia. It is designed not just to fund technology, but to drive impact—the visible transformation of workflows, public services, and skill ecosystems. Microsoft also announced skilling 20 million people in AI by 2030.

Reskilling, Sovereignty, And Sustainability

AI adoption, Nadella insisted, is not just about tools; it is about skills, sovereignty, and ethics. He spoke about reskilling the workforce, drawing lessons from past productivity leaps: “Tool change back then for forecasting was email and Excel sheets… What would that new reimagined process be in AI era?”

Sovereignty remains central. Microsoft offers multiple cloud options, public and private, with Indian partners like Jio, ensuring all data is processed locally. But local sovereignty cannot come at the cost of cybersecurity: “If you are sovereign but the first threat actor who shows up can get in, that’s a problem.” Global intelligence and risk-based frameworks are essential.

Microsoft’s new data centres will be powered entirely by renewable energy, underscoring the company’s commitment to sustainable infrastructure. Nadella even proposed a provocative metric for AI success: “Tokens per Rupee per Watt,” arguing that it will correlate strongly with GDP growth.

AI For Social Impact: E-Shram And NCS

Nadella illustrated adoption and impact through real, measurable programmes. Microsoft is integrating advanced AI capabilities into two flagship platforms of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment: e-Shram and the National Career Service (NCS). These platforms reach over 310 million informal workers, a population often excluded from formal employment benefits.

By embedding AI, Microsoft aims to enhance social security, match workers with opportunities, and streamline governance. Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of Labour & Employment and Youth Affairs & Sports, highlighted the transformative potential: “India has achieved a historic milestone in social protection, with coverage rising from 19% in 2015 to an impressive 64.3% in 2025, benefiting over 94 crore citizens. By embedding AI into platforms like eShram and the National Career Service, we are fortifying social security and moving closer to our goal of social protection to 100 crore citizens.”

The initiative also encourages Microsoft’s ecosystem of partners and clients to participate as job providers or stakeholders, reflecting a deep commitment to inclusive growth. For Nadella, these applications are emblematic of AI’s broader purpose: not replacing humans, but amplifying human opportunity and capability.

Real-World Examples Across India

Nadella’s keynote was punctuated with real-life stories of AI impact. Apollo Hospitals has deployed a Clinician Copilot, giving physicians more time for patient care. Khushi Baby, a digital health non-profit, equips ASHA workers in villages with AI tools to support new mothers. ONGC uses multi-agent systems to enhance upstream engineering analyses, while Tech Mahindra has built multi-agent frameworks across all major Indian languages.

Even sport was not left out. Nadella demonstrated a multi-agent framework he built over Thanksgiving to select India’s best cricket test team, showing how AI can act as a research assistant, flag biases, and support human decision-making.

Future Fowards

Satya Nadella’s keynote made it abundantly clear: fear of AI replacing humans is a distraction. What matters is adoption, integration, and impact. India is uniquely positioned to lead this wave, thanks to a combination of strong digital infrastructure, forward-looking policy, a large domestic market, and a highly engaged developer community.

Through platforms like e-Shram and the National Career Service, AI is already extending opportunity to hundreds of millions of workers. Through Copilot, Foundry, and multi-agent systems, businesses are boosting productivity, creativity, and decision-making. And with a $17.5 billion investment, Microsoft is doubling down on a vision where AI adoption is rapid, inclusive, and transformative.

The narrative, Nadella insists, should shift from AI versus humans to AI with humans. The work is not to be feared; it is to be reimagined, redesigned, and elevated. For India, this is more than a technological opportunity—it is a chance to reshape society, governance, and economy at scale