Ajay Data on why the future belongs to single-person unicorns and nation-building entrepreneurs

Serial entrepreneur Ajay Data believes the world will very soon see “single person unicorns”, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), and if his conviction sounds dramatic, it is meant to be.

In a conversation with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory, Data, the  Managing Director of Data Group of Industries, sketched a near-future where individuals, armed with AI agents and entrepreneurial drive, can build companies of extraordinary scale. 

He does not frame this as idle optimism but as a structural shift: AI compresses labour, multiplies capability, and reduces the need for sprawling teams. Where today a unicorn requires a vast talent and capital, he suggests, soon it may emerge from the work of one super-enabled person.

As he puts it, “A single person will be the unicorn owner. It is possible. You don’t require a large team, because you will have such (AI) agents with you.”

Data’s declaration sits at the heart of a broader argument: AI is not merely a tool; it is an industrial-level multiplier that redefines who can create value. 

He cites the huge compensations being paid to talent in the AI space as evidence that an individual’s contribution can be astronomically valuable. If people are being paid unprecedented sums for their thinking, then those people or anyone who masters the new tools can translate that value into ventures of their own.

AI: The next great revolution

Ajay Data has no doubt about the scale of change. He calls artificial intelligence “a technology…which will permanently change mankind,” likening its arrival to a revolution on the scale of the internet. 

For him, this is not merely a novelty but a velocity problem, an idea arriving at tsunami speed. “What is the difference today? ... the speed at which AI is entering into our life, it is a velocity issue. It’s like a tsunami.” The image is instructive because it captures both opportunity and disquiet: change arrives whether we are ready or not.

He is emphatic that the power of AI is twofold: machines can now both think and reason. “If we think about it, then humans have two powers, which differentiate us. Power to think, power to do reasoning. … Now you think, both these powers have come into the machine.” That is the radical claim: what was once the monopoly of human cognition is being shared, which reshapes everything from problem-solving to creative production.

If AI is a fast-moving revolution, Ajay Data wants to make it comprehensible and usable for ordinary people. His book, Zenith: Mastering AI for Everyday Life and Work, offers a practical antidote to alarm and jargon. 

“Who will tell a common man how to talk to AI? Who will tell him? How will he understand?” Data asks, underscoring the book’s intent.

At the centre of that literacy is prompt engineering, the craft of instructing AI. 

Data is blunt, “The way you write it is called prompt. And the way you construct it, the (words) formula that is written in it, that is called your prompt engineering.” 

For Data, the “new programming language is your own language. It’s not Java and Python. It’s English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu.” It is an important democratic claim: interacting with AI should not be the preserve of those with formal technical training. It is a skill anyone can learn.

Impact of AI on work and jobs

The implications for employment are stark. Ajay Data repeatedly emphasises the reach of AI into knowledge work.

“Whatever we are doing, which is knowledge-based, and which can be done on a computer with a keyboard and mouse, AI will do it better than us,” he says.

The conclusion is chilling and liberating at once. Chilling, because whole categories of work—coding, analysis, content creation are up for fundamental change. Liberating, because those who adopt AI as an assistant might become “superhuman”.

“If you make him (AI) your assistant. You will become superhuman,” Data remarks.

His prescription is practical, not fatalistic. He urges workers to reframe their relationship with AI  to “make AI your assistant” and to learn to write prompts and systems that amplify human judgment. 

For professionals such as developers, writers, and entrepreneurs, the new skill is not merely coding but the ability to orchestrate AI agents and integrate them into daily workflows.

Innovation beyond AI

If AI levels up individual capability, Data’s other innovation focuses on access. Data is a pioneer in Email Address Internationalization (EAI), a technology that allows email addresses to use non-ASCII characters (like those in Hindi scripts), making email accessible in local languages for users worldwide.

“To break that barrier, we have a global protocol…EAI. … We integrated that protocol in our software, in XgenPlus.” The goal is simple but profound: a Hindi speaker should not feel alienated by an English-only email address when everyone else seems to assume English as the default.

He frames this as a matter of dignity and communication, “If I don’t know English… You can guess that if it is an at the rate sign, then it must be an email id… Just as you think about Chinese or Russian email id, similarly a Hindi person thinks about English.” 

By supporting email IDs in 28 languages, he argues, digital inclusion becomes practical and immediate. This is the softer, human side of technological innovation, ensuring that tools designed to create possibility do not simultaneously close doors for those who speak different tongues.

Entrepreneurship in India

Ajay Data addresses the big national question: how does India harness these shifts to build wealth and jobs? His answer is a hunger for entrepreneurship and a dramatic scaling of ambition. 

“We have almost 100,000 startups in the country. We should have 1 million. 1 million is a smaller target,” he says, calling for districts, states, and institutions to foster founders with funding, mentorship, and infrastructure. 

“Because this is the only way we will touch $10 trillion economy. To create entrepreneurs. We need another NVIDIA or Apple or Microsoft in this country. Which will be equivalent to our GDP. We need companies like that,” he adds.

He rejects complacency and argues for risk: “We have to take more bigger calls. More riskier calls.”

There is a civic element to the way he views success. Data speaks of duty and return in near moral terms, “When we help the country…, the entire country helps you. The law of Karma applies.” 

The entrepreneur he imagines is not only profit-seeking but nation-building, creating employment, and retaining economic value at home. 

“If you plant a seed of help for the country, you are planting a seed of receiving help in return. I tell everybody: become selfish. What do you want? Money? Then help with money. Gold? Then help with gold. Do miracles in people’s lives, and you will see miracles in your own.”