Raj Shamani, Emergent launch ₹1 crore challenge to help Indian businesses build with AI

AI software platform Emergent has partnered with entrepreneur and content creator Raj Shamani to launch a nationwide challenge aimed at accelerating AI adoption among Indian businesses.The initiative invites business owners, founders and operators to identify a real operational problem within their organisations, build a software solution using Emergent's AI platform, deploy it in their business and demonstrate measurable impact. The three most impactful business transformations will share a total prize pool of ₹1 crore.The programme is designed to encourage businesses to use AI for practical applications such as inventory management, workflow automation, order management, lead tracking and operational visibility. Through Emergent's platform, users can build full-stack software applications using natural language without relying on conventional software development processes.According to the company, the challenge is based on the belief that India's next phase of business growth will be driven by existing businesses adopting AI-powered software to improve operations. It said many manufacturers, logistics firms, traders, D2C brands and family-run businesses continue to depend on fragmented systems and manual processes because custom software has traditionally been expensive and technically complex to build.Mukund Jha, Co-founder and CEO of Emergent, said AI has significantly lowered the barriers to creating business-specific software, allowing companies to build tools that reflect their own operational requirements in a much shorter time.As part of the campaign, Raj Shamani also used Emergent to build software for his own business and documented the process to demonstrate how AI can be applied to solve everyday business challenges without requiring a technical background.Shamani said many business owners have long faced operational bottlenecks but often depended on developers or agencies to build software. He said AI is changing that equation by allowing founders to start building solutions themselves.Beyond the cash prize, Emergent said the initiative aims to showcase practical examples of AI adoption and encourage more Indian businesses to become AI-native by building software tailored to their own operations.Founded in 2025, Emergent enables users to build production-ready software applications using autonomous AI agents. The company is backed by investors including Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Lightspeed, Y Combinator, Prosus, Together and Google's AI Futures Fund.Also read: Zerodha's Nithin Kamath recalls falling for a pyramid scheme, warns against 'easy money'