Nandan Nilekani sees startups and SMEs driving AI-era job creation

Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani said interoperable digital infrastructure, tokenisation and AI agents could expand small-business access to credit, marketplaces and financial services. He cited India’s startup base growing from 10,000 in 2015 to about 1.5 lakh in 2025.

— Source publishedThu, 10 Sept, 2026, 16:11 IST·First seen Thu, 10 Sept, 2026, 17:36 IST·Source Inc42 · Buzz

What happened

Infosys · Nandan Nilekani said Indian startups and small businesses will drive AI-era employment, while tokenisation and AI agents could widen SME access to

Key facts

  • 10,000 startups in 2015
  • around 1.5 lakh startups in 2025
  • 10 lakh startups projected by 2035
  • three Finternet tokenisation pilots

Why this matters

Strategic buyers should monitor partnerships or targets in AI agents, tokenisation and digital-financial infrastructure that can widen merchant access to credit and marketplaces.

What to watch

  • Growth in account-aggregator consent volumes, SME credit disbursals and digital-lending default rates.
  • Policy or regulatory progress on tokenisation, interoperable commerce networks, AI-agent identity and liability rules.
  • Marketplace seller additions, active-seller retention, and share of sales from small and regional merchants.
  • Declines in SME loan approval time, collateral requirements and effective borrowing costs.
  • Adoption of AI tools by sellers, measured through catalog completion, conversion uplift, service response times and inventory turnover.
  • Fraud, synthetic-identity, chargeback and unauthorized-agent transaction incidents.
  • Expand seller-financing partnerships using transaction, settlement and inventory data, with underwriting designed for small-ticket working capital.
  • Build AI-assisted merchant tools for catalog creation, local-language listings, demand forecasting, returns handling and customer support.
  • Prepare for greater assortment and pricing pressure by identifying categories vulnerable to new long-tail sellers and private-label substitution.
  • Strengthen seller verification, fraud controls and consent governance before adopting agent-led procurement or payment workflows.
  • Offer onboarding and digital-skills programs for existing offline suppliers to prevent disintermediation by marketplace-native competitors.

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