By By Kaushal Verma

New Delhi [India], November 3 (ANI): Google Cloud's Vision AI can help manufacturers detect production defects in real time and reduce downtime and operating costs by up to 30 per cent, as the company steps up its artificial intelligence (AI) offerings for India's small and medium businesses (SMBs).

The technology is part of Google Cloud's efforts to help smaller businesses improve efficiency, automate operations and adopt AI tools that were earlier accessible mainly to larger organisations.

"Purpose-built AI also tackles operational bottlenecks. Vision AI helps manufacturers detect production defects in real time, with the potential to reduce downtime and operating costs by up to 30%, while Gemini agents reconcile e-way bills and invoices for logistics teams," Taru Dahiya, Managing Director, JAPAC SMB & Scaled Services, Google Cloud, told ANI in an email interview.

Dahiya said AI was emerging as an economic equaliser for smaller businesses by giving lean teams access to the speed, intelligence and security available to larger organisations. She added that businesses were gradually moving beyond basic AI tools towards AI agents capable of connecting workflows, accessing business data and completing complex tasks.

She said AI was helping reduce operational challenges across manufacturing units, retail stores and back offices, allowing employees to focus more on innovation, customer relationships and business growth.

Identifying the key challenges in AI adoption, Dahiya pointed to fragmented data, legacy systems and the perceived cost and complexity of technology. Business information is often spread across spreadsheets, accounting software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and billing platforms, making it difficult for companies to scale AI beyond pilot projects.

"These challenges can be addressed by adopting a phased AI strategy that brings unified intelligence across the organization, reducing the overhead of purchasing and multiple AI tools, and leveraging partners to deploy this within the organization's context. The technology is ready today, and the priority is helping businesses move from pilot to production," she said.

Google Cloud is also integrating Gemini into its workplace applications, including Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive and Meet. These tools can help employees draft proposals, summarise customer conversations and create no-code AI agents in Indian languages without requiring technical training.

Dahiya also highlighted the importance of bringing together information from enterprise systems, spreadsheets, emails and documents to generate real-time insights and improve business decisions.

She said industry-specific AI applications include defect detection in manufacturing, automated invoice and e-way bill processing in logistics, and multilingual campaign creation using generative media models.

On cybersecurity, Dahiya said businesses should consolidate their technology tools and adopt measures such as two-factor authentication, data encryption and device management to protect their operations. She added that Google Cloud customer data remains private and is never used to train foundation models.

Google is also supporting startups through its Google for Startups Cloud Program, which offers AI-first startups up to USD 350,000 in cloud credits over two years, along with technical training and expert support.

"Google Cloud will continue to invest in certified Indian partners who meet businesses where they are, across major cities and emerging industrial hubs, while offering choice across the AI stack so businesses are never locked into a single approach," Dahiya said.

Google's USD 15 billion investment in India's digital and AI infrastructure, including the AI hub in Visakhapatnam, is expected to further improve access to advanced computing and Gemini models for businesses across the country.

Small and medium enterprises account for nearly one-third of India's GDP and contribute over 35 per cent of its manufacturing output, making technology adoption an important factor in improving their productivity and competitiveness. (ANI)