India, May 21 -- The Dollar Cost Of AI Inference

India's AI boom may be quietly creating its next major dollar outflow problem.

As startups and enterprises rush to embed generative AI and large language models into everything from customer support to internal workflows, a growing share of their technology spending is flowing overseas through AI inference bills.

The New AI Bill: AI inference is becoming the biggest operating cost of AI-native products. Unlike classic software, every chatbot reply, workflow trigger or personalisation step can create a fresh bill, often tied to tokens or cloud compute. That means AI usage rises not just with customers, but with each interaction.

The Dollar Dent: For many early stage startups, AI inferenc...