New Delhi, April 26 -- Google is betting on India's large smartphone user base to expand its reach in the burgeoning artificial intelligence (AI) field, undeterred by the early dominance of competitors like Meta and OpenAI.

Google's strategy includes integrating its advanced Gemini AI model into its Android app and focusing on vernacular language support to engage a largely untapped market, the head of its DeepMind research division in India told Mint, even as it lags behind its competitors in appealing to developers in India and around the world.

Manish Gupta, Google's AI boss in India, explained that the company wants regular users to experience its AI directly, not just businesses and programmers. For that, the company has put its la...