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AI must tackle India’s real-world problems, not just tech-first use cases: Google's Preeti Lobana
At Google I/O Connect India 2025, Preeti Lobana urged startups to use AI to solve India’s core challenges in healthcare, education, and sustainability, while prioritising trust, scalability, and responsible innovation.
Lobana highlighted the urgent need to apply AI in water conservation, leak detection, and renewable energy optimisation. (Image source: LinkedIn)
Google India Country Manager Preeti Lobana urged India’s startup ecosystem to harness the transformative potential of artificial intelligence not just to chase scale, but to tackle India’s most pressing problems, from rural healthcare and equitable education to water conservation and sustainable infrastructure. Lobana was speaking at Google I/O Connect India 2025 event in Bengaluru
Speaking alongside Accel Partner Subrata Mitra, Lobana underscored a shift in mindset. “If you want to succeed in a big way, over a long period, the only way is to focus on India’s big, fundamental issues,” she said. Healthcare remains one of the clearest examples. While metros may be well served, rural and Tier II/III cities lack medical infrastructure and skilled professionals, a gap that AI can help bridge.
She cited Cloudphysician’s AI-powered smart ICU platform, which leverages Google Cloud to remotely monitor critical patients. Already deployed in 200 hospitals across 22 cities, the solution has treated over 1 lakh patients and reduced ICU mortality by 40%.
Education, too, emerged as a high-impact sector. With a linguistically and socio-economically diverse youth population, India faces a unique challenge in ensuring quality education access. Google’s Project Astra, a research prototype from DeepMind, showcased a multilingual AI tutor capable of providing curriculum-aligned assistance in local languages, making learning more inclusive and adaptive.
“AI that understands your context, language, and learning level can close India’s skilling gap meaningfully,” Lobana said.
Lobana also highlighted the urgent need to apply AI in water conservation, leak detection and renewable energy optimisation. Combined with India’s scalable, frugal Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), these innovations could not only serve India but act as templates for global south nations. “This is a dual opportunity,” Lobana said. “Build in India, for India, but also for the world.”
But the message wasn’t just about innovation, it was also about responsibility. “Digital India thrives on trust,” she stated, emphasising that safety, privacy and security by design must be foundational in any AI-led system. Google’s commitment to embedding invisible digital watermarks in AI-generated content, ensuring privacy-preserving data sharing, and introducing human-in-the-loop safeguards for sensitive automation, all point to a framework built on accountability.
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