5 Things to Know from Nandan Nilekani’s Talk at Global Fintech Fest 2026

Infosys cofounder Nandan Nilekani spoke on AI, jobs and tokenisation at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2026, held at the Jio World Centre and Trident, Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. Now in its seventh edition, GFF 2026 was built around the theme “Potential to Impact,” with agentic AI, tokenisation and quantum computing as its three focus areas, and drew policymakers, regulators, bankers and fintech founders from over 80 countries.

Nilekani said that startups and small businesses, rather than large corporations, will be the main source of jobs as AI spreads through the economy, and outlined how tokenisation combined with AI agents could give small businesses access to capital and markets currently available mostly to large enterprises. \

Here are five key takeaways from his address.

1. Small firms will drive AI-era job creation

Nilekani said large companies, with structured roles and standardised processes, are better placed to deploy AI for automation, which could shrink their workforce. Smaller businesses, with more varied roles, are harder to automate and will be the bigger job creators.

“If you want to AI-proof an economy, you actually should create a situation where job creation is done by millions of small companies.” – Nandan Nilekani, Cofounder, Infosys, at GFF 2026

2. Startups to grow 6-7x by 2035

He said India had about 10,000 startups in 2015, growing to around 1.5 lakh in 2025, and projected the number to reach 10 lakhs by 2035. Both new-age startups and traditional small businesses, he said, will be the employers of the future.

3. Tokenisation moves from concept to use

Nilekani said the RBI is exploring tokenised certificates of deposit and working with SEBI on tokenised corporate bonds. Tokenisation creates a digital representation of an asset along with the data needed to verify it, letting the asset move across lenders, insurers, fintechs and marketplaces.

4. Three pilots, one common infrastructure

Built on the Finternet architecture, an interoperable financial infrastructure layer, the pilots include: tokenising cattle by recording identity, ownership, health and milk yield data for lenders; tokenising warehouse receipts by capturing stored produce’s quantity and quality; and standardising loan documents across marketplaces using smart contracts. All three run on common infrastructure designed to work across asset classes and public blockchains.

5. AI agents to unlock demand

Nilekani said tokenised assets need interoperability and liquidity to be useful at scale, and AI agents could drive that demand by transacting on businesses’ behalf – for instance, converting an invoice into a token and matching it with lenders. Pairing a tokenised asset with an AI agent that continuously searches for financing or market opportunities, he said, could give small businesses access to capabilities so far available mostly to large enterprises.

His remarks came a day after Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state is drafting India’s first state-level legal framework for blockchain-based tokenisation of land and other immovable assets, under the proposed Maharashtra DELTA Act.