OpenAI and Varun Mayya bring 13,000 innovators together to build AI tools for India

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BENGALURU: From finding blood during a medical emergency to filing cyber fraud complaints, innovators are putting artificial intelligence to work on everyday problems. OpenAI and entrepreneur Varun Mayya have concluded ‘Build What Moves India’, an initiative that attracted more than 13,000 registrations and culminated in 10 finalists presenting AI-powered prototypes in Bengaluru.

The initiative encouraged participants to draw on their first-hand experiences of navigating essential services and develop practical solutions using AI tools and technical guidance. Of the submissions received, 250 were shortlisted before 10 finalists were selected to showcase their working prototypes.

The programme aimed to bridge the gap between identifying problems and building solutions, giving participants an opportunity to experiment with technology, refine their ideas and demonstrate how AI could make services more accessible and useful.

“People who use these services every day often know exactly where the friction lies,” said entrepreneur and AI creator Varun Mayya. He said the initiative sought to help participants turn those observations into tangible solutions while learning from one another.

AI prototypes target everyday challenges

RaktKhoj, the winning concept, focuses on helping families locate blood at nearby blood banks or connect with potential donors during emergencies. By bringing multiple options into a single search experience, the prototype aims to simplify access to potentially life-saving information when time is critical.

Two other shortlisted ideas addressed different challenges in accessing essential services.

Samarthan uses voice or text inputs to help users draft complaints related to cyber fraud, potentially simplifying the process for people who find formal complaint procedures difficult to navigate.

Atithi aims to streamline international travel by bringing visa eligibility checks, document preparation and application tracking into a single experience.

Together, the concepts span healthcare, digital safety and travel documentation, illustrating how AI-powered applications could help users navigate processes that are often fragmented or complicated.

The initiative also highlighted the role of local knowledge in technology development. By drawing on problems participants had encountered themselves, the programme encouraged solutions grounded in practical needs rather than technology for its own sake.

For OpenAI, ‘Build What Moves India’ reflects an effort to encourage wider participation in AI development by giving more people access to tools that can help turn ideas into working prototypes.

The company highlighted Codex among the tools that can support developers in building, testing and refining applications. Such tools could enable people with first-hand knowledge of service-related challenges to participate more directly in developing potential solutions.

“The true promise of AI is its ability to improve how people access essential services and, in doing so, improve lives across India,” said OpenAI head of strategy and global affairs, India, Pragya Misra.

She said the initiative encouraged citizens to use OpenAI tools to address everyday difficulties in accessing services, adding that AI could help translate personal experience into practical solutions across languages and modes of interaction.

The prototypes represent an early stage of development, rather than evidence that the services are already operational or delivering measurable public benefits. Their longer-term impact will depend on further development, testing, accessibility and implementation.

With more than 13,000 registrations and 10 finalists reaching the showcase stage, the initiative offered a glimpse of the demand for practical AI experimentation in India. The next challenge is to move promising ideas beyond prototypes and turn them into reliable tools that people can use in their daily lives.