India, Nov. 9 -- Consumers who have never paid Rs.1,999 per month for a ChatGPT Plus or Rs.2,399 for a Claude Pro subscription for the privilege of an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot are paying for the AI boom anyway. In late 2026, the prices of technology, including smartphones, laptops, televisions and home appliances, are at their highest point in the past few years. This is a clear scenario where consumers are paying because of AI, even without actually paying for an AI chatbot. Analysts tell HT that a bleak scenario is expected through 2027 as well.

Former Apple CEO Tim Cook had already warned that skyrocketing memory and storage prices, driven by heavy AI infrastructure backorders, have created an unsustainable scenario, akin ...