Mass will take place in 2026. Adoption of AI: The Brad Lightcap of OpenAI

India has emerged as OpenAI’s second-largest market with 100 million active users, and could soon claim the top spot as adoption rates outpace the rest of the world, chief operating officer Brad Lightcap said in an interview.

Speaking to Surabhi Agarwal, Lightcap — accompanied by Oliver Jay, managing director for international strategy — outlined the company’s deepening engagement with India, including its partnership with the Tata Group, the rapid enterprise uptake of AI, and why 2026 will mark a decisive shift from experimentation to full-scale adoption inside businesses.

Lightcap, who had been in India for less than 24 hours at the time of the interview, described the country’s energy and technological ambition as “palpable.” With 100 million active users, India is not only OpenAI’s second-largest market but also among its fastest-growing enterprise markets. Adoption of tools such as ChatGPT and Codex is accelerating at a pace that, he noted, differs markedly from global trends.

Addressing concerns that AI could disrupt India’s IT services industry, Lightcap said the transition would require collaboration across the ecosystem rather than being driven by a single company. “The adoption and deployment of AI will take an army,” he said, adding that partnerships with firms that have deep enterprise relationships would be critical. The collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is intended as a template, with scope for broader engagement across the market.

Jay highlighted strong demand across enterprises, developers and startups. He pointed to collaborations involving the Tata Group, as well as Indian startups such as MakeMyTrip and Eternal, and media platform JioStar, where AI is being embedded to rethink user experiences across entertainment and sports. “It feels like we’ve hit a tipping point,” Jay said, noting increased senior-level buy-in across organisations.

On competition from players such as Google DeepMind’s Gemini and Anthropic, Lightcap said OpenAI remains focused on users, customers and its broader mission rather than competitive positioning. He added that while 2025 was described internally as the “year of agents,” 2026 would be the “year of adoption,” with enterprises seeking tangible results across functions including sales, marketing, finance, legal, healthcare and energy.

Infrastructure, he stressed, will be critical to deploying AI agents at scale. OpenAI, a participant in the $500 billion Stargate programme, expects to require additional compute capacity in India as demand continues to outstrip supply. “We have consistently underpredicted demand,” Lightcap said, adding that investments would also need to align with India’s data protection and privacy requirements.

Responding to concerns that rapid data centre expansion could signal an AI bubble, Lightcap argued that adoption rates remain unprecedented and that companies — including OpenAI — are scaling at speeds previously unseen.

Looking ahead, he indicated that model development is accelerating, though he declined to provide specifics on the timeline for the next major release. “It does feel like the cycle of progress is accelerating,” he said. “We’re very excited for this year.”

With enterprise transformation gathering pace and India emerging as a pivotal growth market, OpenAI’s leadership signalled that the country will play a central role in the company’s global ambitions.