US investor says Bengaluru AI goes beyond what Silicon Valley builds: ‘Building AI that cannibalizes own services’

AI has changed how we work and use technology. Recently, a US investor shared his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) about how India is taking AI in a different direction compared with Silicon Valley.Khare highlighted the shift as “from the frying pan into the fire,” comparing San Francisco and Bengaluru AI. (@Lightspeed India/LinkedIn)Dev Khare, an investor in software and digital startups originating in India and a partner at Lightspeed, shared his thoughts about this emerging AI landscape.“Flew from SF to Bengaluru today – from the frying pan into the fire,” Khare wrote in a post on X, before highlighting artificial intelligence ecosystems of San Francisco and Bengaluru.San Francisco vs Bengaluru:Khare highlighted that while Silicon Valley focuses on building AI tools for companies and their employees, Bengaluru is developing AI that disrupts India’s own service industries, including IT services, BPOs, consultants, and call centres.At the same time, Indian startups are creating AI for 1.4 billion consumers, addressing everyday problems that the Valley does not target.“Bengaluru is building AI that cannibalizes India’s own services empire—BPOs, IT services, consultants, call centers—plus AI for 1.4 billion consumers the Valley isn’t building for,” he adds.Khare said that while US AI is mostly enterprise-focused, India is taking a broader approach, affecting both jobs and ordinary people.Here’s how people reacted to the post:X users reacted with a mix of surprise and interest. Many noted that it was striking how India is building AI that affects both traditional service industries and everyday consumers.One of the users commented, “Take it before they take from you.”A second user commented, “SF is optimizing for leverage inside exing power structures. Bangalore is optimizing for replacement; one is compounding incumbents, the other is quietly erasing entire middle layers.”A third user commented, “The Valley is optimizing the exing corporate stack, while Bangalore is dismantling its own legacy business models to survive the next decade. One is an upgrade; the other is a complete structural pivot.”“Enterprise automation on one side, consumer-scale AI on the other,” another user commented.