Over the last year or so, I’ve had dozens of conversations with business owners here in Indore — from old, established manufacturing units to new-age founders working out of cafés. And there’s one topic that keeps coming up far more frequently than it used to: AI.

Not in the “sci-fi future” sense.
Not the buzzword-filled jargon.
Just… AI as a tool that makes work faster or slightly less painful.

And honestly, that shift surprised even us.

So instead of giving you another “AI is the future” lecture, I want to share what we’re actually seeing on the ground here in Indore — the real reasons local businesses are adopting AI faster than before.

People want to save time, not chase trends

If you sit with business owners in Indore long enough (especially the ones who run family-driven operations), you’ll notice one thing: everyone is short on time.

Most teams handle too many manual tasks:

• entering the same data into multiple systems,

• preparing Monday-to-Saturday reports,

• sorting enquiries,

• responding to customers who ask the same questions again and again.

When we show them a simple AI workflow — something as small as an automated summary of their daily sales — the reaction is usually along the lines of:

“If this works every day without someone babysitting it, then why not?”

That’s the real driver.
Time saved → less frustration → faster work.

Indore companies finally have usable data lying around

This wasn’t the case five years back.

Now, thanks to billing software, CRMs, WhatsApp API tools, ERPs, Google Sheets, Swiggy dashboards, Shopify stores — every business has some form of digital data being collected without them even noticing.

And then slowly the realisation hits:

“We’ve been storing all this information… but we never do anything with it.”

AI becomes interesting at that point, not because it’s “cool,” but because it helps them make sense of the mess.

One textile business we met didn’t even know they had two years of accurate sales trends sitting inside their POS tool.
They discovered it when we pulled a simple report.

That moment — the “oh wow” moment — is what pushes them toward AI.

Local talent has improved, and that changes everything

This one’s closer to home.

For years, Indore businesses felt they needed to talk to teams in Bangalore, Pune, or Gurgaon for anything remotely advanced. And honestly, that held people back. Nobody wants to deal with timezone issues or developers who don’t understand how local markets work.

But now?

Indore has:

• solid AI engineers,

• experienced backend devs,

• product thinkers,

• and teams (like ours at ThinkDebug) who can actually deliver production-grade AI — not just demos.

When businesses realise they can get serious AI work done without leaving the city, the hesitation drops instantly.

It becomes a practical option, not a luxury.

AI tools have become simpler — and cheaper

This is a big one.

Most business owners don’t want a complicated “AI system.”
They want something that helps with:

• customer support,

• lead sorting,

• forecasting,

• or content drafting.

Earlier, these tools were expensive or required huge datasets.
Now you can start small, and the results show up faster.

One restaurant owner we spoke to started using an AI tool just to draft short replies for Zomato reviews. He saved around 2 hours a day.
That alone convinced him to explore more AI use cases.

Small wins convert skeptics into believers.

Startups in Indore are raising the bar

The entrepreneurial wave here is real.
Young founders are:

• experimenting with AI chatbots,

• using automation for onboarding,

• building AI-powered features into their apps,

• and introducing smarter workflows inside their teams.

When traditional businesses see this happening, they start feeling the heat — the good kind.

It creates a ripple effect.
Everyone wants to avoid being the “last one” to modernise.

AI isn’t replacing jobs — it’s cleaning up the boring parts

This is important.

People worry that AI will take away roles, but what we’ve noticed is the opposite.

Employees are relieved when AI handles:

• repetitive typing,

• manual sorting,

• checking hundreds of entries,

• compiling routine reports,

• and doing the “same old tasks” every day.

It frees them up for real work, the work that needs human judgment.

We’ve seen small teams become genuinely more productive — and surprisingly, happier — once the boring parts are automated.

A final thought: Indore isn’t “catching up” anymore — it’s participating

Indore has always had strong business instincts.
Now it finally has the digital tools to match.

AI is being adopted here not because of hype, but because it fits naturally into the way people already work. And honestly, that’s the best way technology should grow — quietly, practically, and with real impact.

At ThinkDebug, our role is simple:
help local businesses use AI in a way that feels natural and useful — not overwhelming.

And if you’re from Indore and thinking about trying AI — even something small — we’re always happy to talk through it.