Bengaluru, India : Upekkha, the India–US
accelerator behind 150+ SaaS and AI startups, successfully hosted VIBE 2025 at The Leela
Palace, Bengaluru. As the world moves toward real-world AI adoption, the summit
spotlighted Vertical AI as the next
big frontier—especially in manufacturing, BFSI, energy, and healthcare.
The event opened with a powerful
keynote by Simon Wardley, who emphasized how LLMs becoming a utility has led to
new practices being created. “AI Strategy
requires a clear understanding of the changing landscape,” he said. “In the AI
era, leaders must ground decisions in where agency lies - with humans in the
loop or with swarms of agents taking decisions..”
Prof. Saras Sarasvathy urged attendees
to embrace the uncertainty unleashed by the rapid shift in AI capabilities, as
a catalyst for innovation and highlighted the need for co-creation between
enterprise leaders and entrepreneurs to create new markets that drive economic
and societal progress. “When AI changes
happen so rapidly, it’s all the more important for us to learn how to be
patient and resilient, to prepare for a marathon of changes where each change
may lead to even more uncertainty.”
The day featured rich insights from
leaders shaping the AI landscape. Shekhar Kirani spoke about India’s pivotal
role in enterprise AI. Shruti Agrawal of Sarvam AI shared perspectives on
building AI-first products, while Gaurav M of Tata Digital discussed Gen AI’s
expanding role in consumer tech platforms. Bhanu Pathak of xto10x shared
lessons from scaling AI across more than 30 startups, and Sharda Balaji of
NovoJuris offered a grounded view of enabling AI innovation from a regulatory
and compliance perspective.
A highlight of the summit was the
launch of the VIBE50 Vertical AI Report
2025, spotlighting 50 Indian startups embedding AI into core industry
workflows across finance, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, retail, and
energy. These startups are already delivering measurable impact—automating finance,
enhancing diagnostics, and reducing downtime in manufacturing—with companies
like Signzy, DeepTek, and Detect leading the way. With global enterprise
spending on vertical AI projected to grow from $5B in 2024 to $47B by 2030, the
report reflects a dramatic shift toward ROI-driven, industry-specific AI and
India’s growing leadership in this transformation.
“The
next $10 billion AI outcomes will come from systems that automate end-to-end
workflows and deliver measurable ROI, not from general-purpose tools,” the
report notes.
“Enterprise
leaders are struggling to square the hype and promise of AI with the high
failure rate from pilot to production.” said
Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, Managing Partner at Upekkha. “Hearing CxOs who are ahead on the AI curve talk not only about what’s
working, but also what didn’t, helps us get the clarity needed to leapfrog as
an ecosystem.”
Thiyagarajan Maruthavanan, also
Managing Partner at Upekkha, added, “Every
vertical will have its own 'Claude' moment—sudden, exponential growth triggered
by AI + human synergy. When that happens, it's winner-takes-all, and we believe
many of these vertical AI startups will lead the way.”
The day concluded with VIBE Pilots, a 24-hour innovation
sprint where enterprise leaders and pre-selected AI startups co-built and
demoed customized pilots—designed with immediate feedback and real-world
deployment in mind. While VIBE Coding makes development 10X faster, VIBE Pilots
reduces months of slow Proof of Concept back and forth to 24 hours of high intensity
engagement between business leaders and startup founders. The high energy in
person fine tuning sessions create sparks between the enterprise and startup,
potentially leading to new business opportunities between them.