Field visits to Nashik and Pune - April 2026

To be a part of a field visit is always a learning experience, applications of digital technology and AI have no bounds across genders, ages and cultures. I personally talked to over 80+ people in 8 different villages across Nashik and Pune, mostly semi-urban to rural villages. The uniqueness of their approach to AI needs closer studying, but a few examples come to mind. I discovered surprisingly innovative and practical AI applications embedded in daily village life. For example, a local NGO health instructor used generative AI to find hydrating agents for specific food recipes. I also met a garage owner who relies on Siri for hands-free phone navigation while his hands are busy repairing cars. Even more impressive, locals are leveraging AI to determine the ideal seeds for specific seasonal and soil conditions, and some are developing IoT-based sensor systems that provide farmers with real-time soil and weather updates. In

Interestingly, all these applications arise without any prior training. People just end up finding the best solutions with whatever resources available to them. It became evident in our conversations that the absence of training does not prevent adoption but promotes a more natural approach based on experimentation and error correction. Most people view these applications as flexible assistants instead of confusing software solutions. They use straightforward voice commands or chatbots to resolve their problems. This indicates that the utility of AI for rural communities comes from its simplicity and its capacity to offer immediate responses to so many questions. Witnessing this firsthand shows that when technology meets a real need, the learning happens on its own.