R ARIVANANTHAM
CHENNAI, JUNE 26
In a bold push to accelerate Artificial Intelligence adoption across India’s business ecosystem, Emergent, a rapidly growing AI software creation platform, has partnered with entrepreneur and content creator Raj Shamani to launch a nationwide challenge that rewards businesses for solving real-world operational problems using AI.
The initiative invites business owners, founders and operators to identify a challenge within their organisations, build a software solution using Emergent’s AI-powered platform, deploy it in daily operations and demonstrate measurable business impact. The three most transformative entries will share a total prize pool of ₹1 crore.
- ₹1-crore challenge invites founders, MSMEs and business owners to build AI-powered software that transforms day-to-day operations
- Participants to identify a business bottleneck, create a custom solution using Emergent and compete on measurable business impact
- Campaign seeks to accelerate India’s AI-native business revolution beyond startups into traditional industries
- Raj Shamani and Emergent aim to democratise software creation by eliminating coding barriers for entrepreneurs
The challenge is founded on the belief that India’s next growth story will be driven not only by technology startups but also by traditional businesses embracing AI-powered software to improve productivity, efficiency and decision-making.
Across sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, trading, supply chain, direct-to-consumer brands and family-owned enterprises, many businesses continue to depend on fragmented systems and manual processes because custom software has traditionally required significant investments, technical expertise and long development cycles.
Emergent aims to change that equation by enabling entrepreneurs to build full-stack software applications using natural language, allowing them to create customised solutions for inventory management, workflow automation, lead tracking, operational visibility and order management—without writing code or hiring software development teams.
The campaign also reflects a broader shift in technology adoption, where entrepreneurs and digital creators are becoming catalysts for practical AI implementation rather than merely promoting AI tools. Instead of theoretical discussions, the initiative encourages business owners to deploy AI within their own organisations and showcase tangible outcomes.
Explaining the vision behind the initiative, Mukund Jha, Co-Founder and CEO of Emergent, said, “Most businesses don’t need more software. They need software that reflects how their business actually works. Until now, building that has required time, money and technical resources that many businesses simply don’t have. AI changes that. We want to show that a manufacturer, trader, logistics operator or founder can now build tools around their own business and start seeing results in days, not months.”
As part of the campaign, Raj Shamani built AI-powered software for his own business using Emergent, documenting the entire process to demonstrate that software development is no longer confined to programmers or large corporations.
Encouraging entrepreneurs to embrace AI, Raj Shamani said,
“Every business owner knows there are bottlenecks inside the business that slow growth. For years, solving them meant hiring developers, agencies or technical teams. Today, AI changes that equation. If you understand the problem clearly enough, you can start building a solution yourself. This challenge is about showing business owners what’s possible when they stop waiting and start building.”
Beyond the ₹1-crore reward, the initiative seeks to inspire Indian entrepreneurs to reimagine their businesses through AI, making intelligent software development accessible to every founder and accelerating the country’s journey towards an AI-native economy.r
