The ‘Nexbax AI Index’ that will redefine AI adoption in India

A group of researchers came up with “The Next AI Billion Index: A Compass for the Usefulness and Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the Global Majority”.

This new study challenges the global AI industry’s obsession with benchmarking using the new Next Billion AI Index Framework (Nexbax AI Index). He argues that the metrics that dominate the world’s AI development are essentially useless to more than a billion users in India and the Global South.

The Nexbax AI Index was developed by Ambrish Rawat, Kush R. Varshney and Jessica He of IBM Research, Subhabrata Majumdar of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), Claudio Pinhanez of the University of Sao Paulo, Yann Le Beux of YUX Design, Satyapriya Krishna of Harvard Gupta University and Ruman Churam Amazon of Harvard Gupta Human Intelligence University.

Even in India’s AI policy discourse, NITI Aayog increasingly recognizes that readiness depends on affordability, multilingual access and regulatory compliance. According to the researchers, the Nexbax AI Index gives this intuition a rigorous and measurable form.

Subhabrata Majumdar, an assistant professor at IIMB, said: “This framework is being developed with co-authors not only from India, but people from across Africa, Europe and North America. We are trying to assess whether existing AI systems can be deployed, trusted and maintained within the constraints that define adoption in markets like India, as the Indian market has diverse users using intermittent and low connectivity devices awareness. working practices for small businesses.’

He said: “The project was launched around six months ago during the India AI Summit in February 2026. The idea behind the development of the framework was to guide the development of better AI systems so that these systems can solve the problems of people working at the grassroots level. For example, providing critical health updates to ASHA workers who work in remote Indian villages where internet connectivity has not yet had to address real AI development in India. The challenges of the world.”

The Nexbax AI Index is developed based on 10 measurable dimensions organized into three themes: Effective Efficiency, Operational Practicality and Social Integrity. The 10 dimensions included cost effectiveness and price performance, resource efficiency, adaptability and adaptability, interoperability, resilience, reliability and robustness, usability and automation, education and empowerment, trustworthiness and ethics, multiculturalism, inclusiveness and plurality, openness and collaboration.

The team conducted a formative expert evaluation of the first version of the index through hour-long user interviews with eleven experts (participants) working on AI technology and customer applications. The 11 participants included founders, developers of various companies, and product leaders.

The goal of this evaluation was to assess the understandability, actionability, and perceived accuracy of the dimensions for technical and product stakeholders and to iterate based on expert feedback. Participants tested the index by rating three illustrative technology configurations across ten dimensions. They shared feedback on their experience using dimensions, including where they saw value, confusion, and suggestions for improvement.

Prof. Majumdar explained, “Overall, the experts we interviewed felt that the index is useful for thinking about AI utility and adoption in settings for the next billion from a developer and product perspective. One participant explained that the tools used to score customers go beyond location, ease of use, reliability, cost, setup time—all of these things are impacted. These are the same factors that founders consider when choosing their job vendors. cost efficiency, five chose usability and automation, four chose trustworthiness and ethics. It is worth noting that these dimensions cover all three themes and provide an initial signal that each theme captures distinct and meaningful aspects of real-world decision making.”

The team found that in terms of usability, experts generally found the dimensions and rubrics easy to use, although some felt it would be difficult without the guidance and explanations they received from the researchers during the study session.

In this sense, the value of nexbax lies not only in creating an index, but also in shifting the very subject of evaluation: from asking which AI systems are most capable in an idealized environment to asking which systems create the conditions for useful, inclusive and sustainable adoption where the next billion users live and work.

The researchers clarified that future iterations of this work will include aggregated, system-specific evaluations from a larger and more diverse sample of stakeholders, including public sector implementers, civil society organizations, local experts and affected users.

Published – 31 May 2026 21:14 IST