Top 10 Cities Account for Nearly 50% of Global AI Users, Represent Less Than 10% of India’s Population: OpenAI Findings
By Shalini Mondal ·
India has emerged as one of the world’s most advanced AI user markets, particularly in coding, data analysis, and complex reasoning, according to the first Capability Gap findings released by OpenAI.
However, the report highlights a critical imbalance: AI adoption in the country is nearly three times as concentrated in its top cities compared to other major economies, pointing to a widening gap between capability and access.
India ranks among the top five globally in thinking-capability usage per person—measured by the number of reasoning tokens used by ChatGPT Plus users. Notably, individuals are increasingly using AI to solve complex, high-value problems.
The country is also one of the fastest-growing AI builder ecosystems, recording a 4× surge in Codex users within two weeks of the tool’s launch in February 2026, alongside strong engagement in coding and data analysis tasks.
Despite this progress, adoption remains heavily skewed.
The top 10 cities account for nearly 50% of all AI users, even though they represent less than 10% of India’s population. Delhi NCR leads in user penetration, while advanced usage is concentrated in hubs such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai.
The disparity becomes sharper in advanced use cases. Data analysis usage is up to 30 times higher in leading cities than in lagging regions, while coding usage is four times higher, and AI developer (Codex) usage shows a ninefold gap.
This suggests that while India has built strong AI capabilities, they are clustered within a limited number of urban centres.
“The central question now is how quickly the benefits of AI can extend beyond early adopters and leading cities to the wider population,” Oliver Jay, Managing Director, International at OpenAI, mentioned. “Closing this gap will require expanding access, building skills, and enabling more meaningful use across the country, an effort shaped in large part by India’s young, fast-adopting population.”
Beyond major cities, emerging patterns show AI being integrated into everyday use cases. Eastern states such as Assam, Odisha, Manipur, Tripura, and Chhattisgarh are seeing strong engagement in education-related use, with Assam reporting 22% of AI interactions tied to learning—around 20% above the national average.
In contrast, regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Kerala are witnessing higher engagement in health and wellness applications, with Jammu and Kashmir reporting nearly 10% of interactions in this category—32% above average.
The findings underscore that India’s AI capability gap is not just global, but also deeply domestic—marked by advanced usage in select pockets and limited penetration elsewhere.
The next phase of growth, the report suggests, will depend on how effectively AI access is democratised through language support, affordability, and infrastructure.
To address this, OpenAI is expanding its footprint in India through partnerships and ecosystem initiatives. These include collaborations with Tata Consultancy Services to scale AI-native development, partnerships with fintech firms like Razorpay to enable developer monetisation, and education-focused programs with universities to build early AI skills.
The company is also investing in localised use cases across sectors such as education, healthcare, and agriculture to drive broader and more inclusive adoption.