These women are quietly leading India’s AI revolution—and it’s about time we noticed

The gender gap in the workplace is hardly a new conversation—across industries, women have long had to fight for visibility, leadership, and recognition. Now, that imbalance has inevitably found its way into the AI sector as well, where men continue to dominate the spotlight, particularly in India.

It all started a few weeks ago, when I came across a story that subtly pointed out the gender imbalance in the AI industry. The crux of the story was that the AI revolution in India was progressing at a slow pace, mainly because there were very few participating in the research, and almost no women in that space. I wasn't really baffled or annoyed by it; only confused by the lack of honesty or the sheer ignorance in that statement. Because I've been on the internet, and I've read stories of some amazing women making some incredible contributions.

Yes, when you look beyond the headlines and boardrooms, you'll witness the growing community of women leading this shift. They are researchers, founders, data scientists, and innovators who are applying AI to solve problems that matter, be it healthcare and finance, sustainability, or even social good. Their work isn’t just about advancing algorithms; it’s about reshaping the way India engages with technology. These are the women leading the AI revolution in India. 

Preeti Jyothi

While everyone is focused on revolutionising AI for the masses, Preethi Jyothi is focused on making it more accessible for the less-represented. Working as an Associate Professor at IIT Bombay, Jyothi's research focuses on automatic speech recognition (ASR), which powers tools such as ChatGPT, virtual assistants, and other transcription services. The problem with most ASR systems, she found, was that despite their sophisticated interface, they often struggled with unfamiliar languages, dialects, or accents, oftentimes disregarding them altogether. And in a country as linguistically diverse as India, this is a significant barrier, as it limits the availability of resources and information to the less represented. To bridge this gap, Jyothi began working on AI tools tailored for low-resource settings, so that regional languages and accents would receive equal representation in the digital ecosystem. Additionally, Jyothi and her team are also working on systems that can handle code-switching, where speakers can effortlessly move between languages like Hindi or Tamil and English, further advancing the science of speech recognition and giving every voice the power to be heard. If that isn't revolutionary work, we don't know what is. 

Hardika Shah

Here's another example of AI being put to great use: Hardika Shah is leveraging AI to make credit truly inclusive for small businesses in the country. As the founder and CEO of Kinara Capital, she’s built the multilingual myKinara app, which uses AI-driven credit decisioning to approve collateral-free loans in just 24 hours—a total game-changer for micro, small, and medium enterprises that have long struggled to secure funding. So far, Kinara has disbursed over ₹4,500 crore in loans, helping more than 87,000 businesses grow and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process. But Shah goes beyond numbers. Through HerVikas, Kinara’s programme for women entrepreneurs, she’s providing funding, mentorship, and resources to help women-led businesses thrive. Her work only goes to prove that AI in India doesn’t have to be abstract or futuristic; just practical, transformative, and deeply human. 

Lakshmi Kalyani Chinthala

AI has been slowly but steadily making its way into most industries, including healthcare, although it is still at a nascent stage at the moment. But Lakshmi Kalyani Chinthala's contributions are ensuring a speedy development in that field. She designed a system called HIVSense-Econ, which uses artificial intelligence and biosensing technology to detect illnesses and help NGOs, governments, and health organisations make decisions like distribution of resources, making treatments accessible, and creating fair health policies. The system makes use of small, non-invasive sensors that identify vital signs and key HIV markers, and is said to be able to detect HIV in less than 30 minutes with a 94.6 per cent accuracy. Additionally, the system is also designed to make predictions based on diagnostics. If it detects a spike in the number of infections in a particular region, it will redirect resources to the people in that region, providing preventive solutions and thus reducing the cost of emergency responses. While she is building a positively innovative medical tool, she’s also making way for more equitable healthcare, proving that technology can be used to help people for the better. 

Neha Shukla

Among the countless names in AI and technology, Neha Shukla stands out for both her achievements and that she is only 18. Shukla, who is currently among the youngest AI ethicists in the world, has spearheaded multiple projects aimed at solving real-world problems. She created a device called MobileMe in 2021 to prevent falls and mobility loss among the elderly, using a sensor and AI to track gait and balance in real time. This helps in detecting fall risks long before they happen, and generates movement graphs with confidence scores that help doctors design personalised plans to improve the patient's mobility and well-being. She also developed an AI algorithm and edge computing prototype in collaboration with NVIDIA to make public spaces more inclusive for people with hearing disabilities, which earned her recognition as an NVIDIA AI and Machine Learning Specialist.

Beyond her inventions, Shukla is shaping AI policy, too. On the World Economic Forum’s Generation AI Youth Council, she’s been driving conversations on child-safe AI, launching the AI for Children Toolkit, and working with global institutions to make AI systems safer, fairer, and more inclusive. 

Anima Anandkumar

Another remarkable innovator, Anima Anandkumar, is changing the way we think about what AI can actually do. At Caltech, where she’s a Bren Professor, and in her time as NVIDIA’s senior director of AI research, she’s been building tools that push the boundaries of science itself. Her “neural operators” framework, for example, can model complex physical systems faster and more accurately than anything before, and it’s behind FourCastNet—an AI-powered weather model that predicts extreme events in record time. But Anima isn’t stopping at weather; her work stretches from drug discovery to engineering simulations, showing that AI isn’t just about code or algorithms—it’s a real, tangible force for solving some of the world’s toughest problems.

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