How WhatsApp the gate becomes to a billion Indians

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President of Meta in India and Southeast Asia. (Tarun Kumar Sahu/Mint) Summary Forgot programs like chatgpt. In India, AI enters people’s lives through WhatsApp – the many app they use for family conversations and good morning messages. This quiet revolution promises unprecedented access. But what is the hidden costs? Bengaluru: One morning in Bhopal, the 52-year-old owner of the Ramesh Yadav clothing store unfolded a local Hindi newspaper to find a fairly unusual notice of Madhya Pradesh Madhya Kshetra Vidyut Vitaran Company Ltd, a power distribution firm. The notice advertised a QR code and a number as a new way to pay its electricity bill – through WhatsApp. Yadav, already comfortable with UPI, scanned the code, which opened WhatsApp on its phone and presented a menu with options. Within minutes he cleaned his fees. Now with WhatsApp’s polling functions, he didn’t even bother with menus. He pressed the green microphone and said in Buneli: “Bijli Ka Bill Bharno Hai.” An Ai-Bot powered by Conversational-AI platform Gupshup answers with a payments link. Elsewhere, a young mother asks in a Hindi-speaking city a WhatsApp bot which food is safe during pregnancy. Puch.ai, a WhatsApp first assistant now available at 9090909090 (one of India’s most expensive numbers, as the company spent a fortune to get it), responds in hinglish with simple dietary proposals as a ballot. For her, like 60% of Puch’s users, this is the very first time that AI feels like a part of daily life. On another day, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) asks for aspiring PUCH for updates on current business, while a school controller asks for a custom poster for an event. Likewise for India’s disorganized workers, AI crawls through welfare services in their lives. A daily wage worker who updates her e-shram records, India’s national database of unorganized workers who connect to social security benefits. She can now tap her local language in Microsoft’s JugalBandi Bot on WhatsApp and can update her details within minutes. These cases may seem fragmented initially. A mother here with a dietary inquiry, a farmer there finds the best fertilizers by chatbots or a worker elsewhere to find welfare schemes. But these wires are tied together by a single, larger narrative: WhatsApp wants to become India’s gate to AI. The billion user challenge let’s look at this in reverse order. India has nearly 900 million internet users with a significant majority who has access to the Internet via their smartphones. Most of these users are outside of metros and for them the internet is not a marketplace of programs. These are mostly a handful of well -known names, such as WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Reports show that almost every user in the content in his/her mother tongue falls, and that the vote as a medium also gradually rises. This means that the adoption of the massii of India is probably not driven by downloading confusion or chatgpt. For India’s level I and wealthy, English -speaking crowd, AI is possibly a productivity shit or even a therapist; But for the India living in non-metros with smaller ticket sizes, and rural India, where the Internet is synonymous with WhatsApp or YouTube, AI is likely to enter the most convenient and intuitive touch points, chat, clues and bots that answer the everyday questions in their people’s questions. For these users, the easier gate would be a chat window they already know and use – the one where they exchange politically charged videos, send school notes and send endless “good morning” messages forward. WhatsApp, who is aware of the power of its ubiquitous presence in the market, positions himself as India’s AI deputy. In the middle of this momentum is Sandhya Devanathan, Vice President of Meta (WhatsApp’s older) in India and Southeast Asia. Devanathan, who once navigates the very cautious and risk-fierce coorridors of banking, is currently sending one of the fastest moving consumer technology transitions in India. “If AI lives in an app that you use every day, such as WhatsApp, you don’t have to download anything new, sign up or learn something new,” she says. “Your use starts there.” Devanathan’s instinct to let technology meet people where they are already, is something she has had about her career. She remembers her early years in the banking world, where decision -making can take months and products have been formed by regulators. At Meta, where she spent almost a decade, she had to learn to follow exactly the opposite in terms of speed, experimentation and products that consumers directly touched. She now brings together the two instincts: the warning of a banker and the urgency of a platform leader. This is a balance that now defines her role at Meta’s WhatsApp. Since India becomes a test bed for how a billion people can access AI and form habits, Devanathan says, that WhatsApp should feel quickly and well -known to be useful, while he is also reliable enough to handle the daily lives of hundreds of millions. WhatsApp’s AI ambitions cannot be built of glass towers. Last year, Devanathan took her team to a village outside Varanasi, watching a mother Meta AI use on WhatsApp to help her child with math homework. “India did very well there,” says Devanathan about the early adoption of Meta Ai on WhatsApp. ‘What was fascinating is that people in India don’t always use it as we suggested from the US. They treat it like a chat and ask questions in their own way. That’s why it’s so important to build with local nuance. ‘ The shift is visible, not only in small and everyday interactions, but also in public services. “In Andhra Pradesh, for example, 91% of examination halls (admission cards that students receive for board exams) were delivered to WhatsApp,” she notes. ‘What started as a pilot for one subway has now scaled down millions of tickets a month in cities. These are the types of everyday facilities where AI, which is layered on WhatsApp, can make a real difference. ” For that purpose, Devanathan emphasizes that WhatsApp’s AI ambitions cannot be built of glass towers. Last year, she took her team to a village outside Varanasi, where they watched a mother Meta AI use on WhatsApp to help her child with math homework, which she said was proof that India’s AI future would not be written in code not only in small, everyday moments of need. The first relatives who are fair, and expect how first time users will tap, is still a code that needs to be cracked, even by the Great Tech Giants Meta and Google. And while end consumers through chatbots and conversations to AI stumbles, it almost feels coincidence, it is businesses, and to a certain extent, even governments, that consciously accelerate this shift. Businesses benefit from a direct link to consumers without having to do so via an app, while government services can greatly benefit from the scale that WhatsApp offers. These first relatives teach Indians to treat WhatsApp, not just as a chat app, but as a service desk. For businesses, the appeal is manifold. Conversations on WhatsApp link much better than interactions on websites or programs. “The difference is night and day,” says Ahshad Jussawala, CEO of the conversation AI platform haptik. “With independent programs, there are friction – Download, sign -in, learning curves.” Haptik’s AI assistants allow a user to do everything, from discussing a doctor’s appointment to detecting an online order, all within a chat. Jussawala notes that the engagement rates on WhatsApp may be five to seven times higher because users do not have to download it or create sign -ups. Check out the full Beeld Ahshad Jussawala, CEO of Haptik. The fastest adoption of Haptik comes from small and medium-sized business (SMBs) in sectors such as D2C retail, healthcare, education and logistics. These companies are already using WhatsApp for customers updates, but now want the chats to turn in discussions, payments and lead qualification. Jussawala says the next step is to move from FAQ-bots to “autonomous agents” that go beyond answering questions and can act to complete tasks, such as booking tickets, completing transactions and solving complaints from end to end. Government services are also one of the early platforms of the platform to bypass literacy and bypass access to obstacles. Citizen Link of Gupshup may all from the payments of electricity bills in Madhya Pradesh to complaint -correction of helplines and election outreach campaigns. During the pandemic, when call centers were closed, distribution companies pointed to WhatsApp chatbots to keep billing and grievances. The experience has now expanded to UPI payments, ticket bookings and welfare applications. Gupshup’s founder and CEO Beerud Sheth calls it a reversal of the old digital order. “Instead of expecting people to adapt to apps or websites, we bring the government to well -known channels,” says Sheth. “With Voice Ai, a citizen in a remote village that does not comfortably tap on a smartphone keyboard, can simply speak in the local dialect and receive services immediately,” he says. This means that citizens can check electricity bills, file complaints or even for a welfare scheme by talking to WhatsApp in their local language. Over the next two years, Sheth believes that these interfaces of digital assistants will develop into ‘civil companions’ who are proactive systems and can meet the needs of the citizen and meet Die Burger before even expressing it. Look at the full Beelud Sheth, founder and CEO of Gupshup. For startups like Puch.AI, WhatsApp became the gate for people who meet for the first time, and answer the IAS preparation questions, give tips for pregnancy diet or share transport updates. Siddharth Bhatia, CEO of Puch.ai, says the choice of WhatsApp was strategic. For young Indians in Tier II and III towns, it is unlikely to download and experiment with chatgpt, but opening a WhatsApp thread is the second nature. “Ai they reach in the same window where they are already sending school notes forward and exchanging family memes,” he explains. This means that users can get examination updates, personalized health proposals or train status examinations on the same platform where they talk to the family. Bhatia argues that it makes WhatsApp a habit-forming bridge-which starts as curiosity in a chat wire slowly builds up in a daily relationship with AI. “To benefit people at AI, you have to make it exciting enough for people to try,” he says. These movements, which demonstrate the diverse ways in which Indians interact with AI, show how businesses, governments and startups come together. It also makes clear why WhatsApp has become the most practical bridge between technology and everyday life. The problem is that this bridge can also become a bottleneck. As more services of account payments after examination tickets move to welfare schemes on WhatsApp, India anchored critical citizen interactions to a platform that does not control it. As more services of account payments after examination tickets move to welfare schemes on WhatsApp, India anchored critical citizen interactions to a platform that does not control it. This dependence poses risks, as policy changes in Menlo Park (the headquarters of Meta) by Madhya Pradesh’s electricity accounts or the examination poles of Andhra Pradesh can ripple. Given the geopolitical tension between the world’s superpowers, with technical platforms in the middle of IT, is the question that comes across policy and technical corridors: WH O finally decides how AI is delivered to hundreds of millions of Indians? The Sovereignty Question Puch’s BHA Tia acknowledges that WhatsApp acts like both the rocket fuel and the restraint. “We went forward with WhatsApp, because as a nation we can’t afford to wait to build the perfect interface, and WhatsApp serves as a nice bridge to introduce and get India to AI,” he says, adding that the company has built up its backing to run independently if needed. However, the soil reality is very different. Each WhatsApp first startup depends on Meta’s Business API, of which the economy has shifted several times. Such changes can affect the margins of startups directly on WhatsApp. Startups like Puch, Haptik and Gupshup gain access to millions of users through WhatsApp, which is installed in almost every Indian smartphone. But this kind of reach also comes with the fine print of dependence. Look at the full image every WhatsApp first startup depends on Meta’s Business API, of which the economy has shifted several times. (Bloomberg) “Dependence is a valid problem, but it is balanced by the reach and ubiquitousness of WhatsApp in India,” says Jussawala of Haptik, adding that whatsapp is not just another channel for most small and medium businesses – it’s the only channel. At the same time, he acknowledges that the future will not be only WhatsApp. He says businesses are already investigating interoperability to include other chat surfaces, such as Google RCs, Instagram and UPI-linked interfaces. In his defense, Meta prefers to portray WhatsApp as a chokepoint, but as an enabler. “Our role is to give them the distribution arm that makes it very easy to use. We don’t see a world in which one competes with the other. It’s very complementary,” says Devanathan. But public deployments also indicate how dependence risks can scale quickly. Although it means speed and ease for the citizens as seen with Andhra Pradesh’s pilot with exam hall tickets sent on WhatsApp or Microsoft’s JugalBandi Bot to help workers update their e-Shram records for policy makers, it is also a matter of total dependence on WhatsApp. “Governments must design public services so that WhatsApp is one channel, not the only channel,” warns apar Gupta, advocate, advocate for digital rights, and founder director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a non-profit organization fighting for privacy, free speech, net neutrality and liability in India. Governments must design public services so that WhatsApp is one channel, not the only channel. – Apar Gupta “If civil services exist only on WhatsApp, public services are control over access, policy shifts, prices and depreciation of products they do not govern,” says Gupta. He adds that services should be designed to be ‘platform-neutral’, supported by contractual guarantees of portability and auditivity. If WhatsApp should become the doorway for AI access for millions of Indians, it also raises the question of how it would affect India’s sovereign AI attempts. Tanveer Hasan, executive director of the Center for Internet and Society, believes that the balance can never be achieved. “The state has many other important responsibilities to deliver and cannot realistically match the rate of the R&D of Big Tech,” he says. “The sovereignty question is not always in building new technology, it is to make sure that the benefits for people are also hard code for technologies with a public infrastructure element – not just the convenience of doing business or margins for the service provider,” he adds. These perspectives, when composed, give an explanation of the paradox in the heart of WhatsApp’s AI moment. For users, this is the easiest way; For startups, this is the fastest way to scale, and for governments it is the way to digitisation with the least friction. But since all three come along on this one app, India must decide whether the accessibility today is the dependence it creates tomorrow. Important takeaways for users outside the urban centers of India, the easiest way to access AI would be through WhatsApp. The app is already being used to exchange messages, photos and videos. WhatsApp, who is aware of the power of its ubiquitous presence in the market, positions itself as India’s gate to the world of AI. Depending on WhatsApp, with services of bill payments to welfare schemes, experts warn that India is anchoring critical citizen interactions to a platform that does not control it. Each WhatsApp first startup also depends on Meta’s Business API, of which the economy has shifted several times. Such changes can directly affect their margins. Catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on Live Mint. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #Long Story #Long Read Read Next Story