BofA Report: India Tops Global Charts in AI App Active Users

India has emerged as the largest global hub for active users of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, according to a latest report by Bank of America Securities (BofA). The report highlights that India leads the world in both daily active users (DAUs) and monthly active users (MAUs) for popular AI platforms such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity.

India Leads in AI App Usage

The BofA report notes that a large share of global users of leading AI and large language model (LLM) apps comes from India. With millions of users interacting daily with chatbots, AI assistants, and generative tools, India has become the largest market globally by active user base.

This trend is driven by,

• Widespread smartphone penetration
• Affordable mobile data tariffs
• A young, tech-savvy population

Growing use of AI for education, productivity, coding, and content creation

Impact on Telecom Sector

• According to the report, Indian telecom operators are well-positioned to benefit from this surge in AI usage.
• Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are expected to ramp up support and integration of AI-driven services to unlock new revenue streams.
• The primary monetisation avenues identified include higher data consumption, improved average revenue per user (ARPU), and upselling of value-added services.

Higher Data Usage and ARPU Growth

AI apps, especially generative AI platforms, are data-intensive, involving continuous cloud interactions, real-time responses, and multimedia processing. As usage increases, it naturally leads to higher mobile data consumption per user.

BofA expects this trend to help telecoms,

• Increase per-user data usage
• Support premium or AI-focused data plans
• Drive ARPU expansion, a key metric for telecom profitability

Key Takeaways

• India tops the world in daily and monthly active users of AI apps.
• Finding highlighted in Bank of America Securities (BofA) report.
• Major AI apps include ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Perplexity.
• Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel expected to monetise AI usage.
• Monetisation through higher data usage, ARPU growth, and AI bundles.
• Shows India’s rising importance in the global AI and digital economy.

Question

Q. The report highlighting India’s dominance in AI app usage was published by:

(A) World Economic Forum
(B) IMF
(C) Bank of America Securities
(D) McKinsey & Company