Mass and class effects of technology at Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025

In any industry, the masses and classes define policy and actions. In technology, too, mass market effects are created by services like UPI, used by millions daily, while financial institutions employ cybersecurity to protect sensitive user data. This balance is essential for any technology to be successfully adopted.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, this balance is harder to achieve. AI is a force multiplier, for sure, enabling companies across sectors to perform higher-order tasks and optimise their way into setting new goals. However, the technology’s scope in benefiting the masses is harder to measure, especially given that AI-driven automation threatens to displace a large number of jobs.

This vision of striking a balance between the masses and classes—in AI and across sectors—was at the heart of the three-day Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) 2025, the annual flagship technology event of the Karnataka government. While the state government positions itself to respond to the aspirations of not just the technology industry, but also other sections of the population not directly involved with the sector, emerging technologies like AI and quantum computing enable startups to iterate at a blinding speed, leaving legacy companies in the dust.