Lenskart Did What No One Expected - Infosys Co-Founder

We started with cycles, Kris said, moved to two-wheelers, then cars. We stopped walking. Sedentary lifestyle became the biggest issue. Solution - gym, physical exercises. Same thing we need to do now. We are outsourcing our brain to AI. So we need mental exercises on a disciplined daily manner.

The Infosys co-founder was drawing a specific parallel that most technology commentary misses. The lesson from a century of industrial transportation is not just about the specific technology. It is about the pattern of what happens when humans offload a fundamental capability to a machine.

The Deep Tech Question

Before the mental education thesis, the interviewer asked Kris why India has not built ChatGPT-level deep tech.

India has a very talented workforce known to the entire world, the interviewer said. Why can’t we build ChatGPT and other deep tech at scale?

Kris’s answer was structural.

It is the model, Kris said. It requires the venture industry to be strong. The venture industry in India started really in 2008-2009. The first generation of startups like Flipkart came in that period. The second wave happened. The third wave is now happening.

The venture cycle explanation is important. India’s first true venture-funded generation is barely 15 years old. The US venture ecosystem has been running since the 1960s.

The Indian Product Companies

Kris then celebrated specific Indian product companies with their own IP.

Now we have unicorns, Kris said. We are starting to have product companies like Ather or IdeaForge. These are product companies with our own IP. Look at a company like Lenskart - they created the largest eyewear factory in the world. I am proud to see companies like that coming out of India.

The three companies Kris named are meaningful because they represent Indian product IP creation across three domains. Lenskart in eyewear and retail. Ather in electric two-wheelers. IdeaForge in drones.

The China Regret

Kris then made the aspirational comparison.

We could have been like China, Kris said, but whatever we have done in IT - especially software services - can we replicate that into other industries? I believe we can. Two-wheelers - we are number one in the world. On EV, we have done reasonably well. International models will find it difficult to come into India.

The China comparison is aspirational rather than antagonistic. The pathway China took - from manufacturing to design to global IP - is available to India.

The AI And IT Jobs Question

The interviewer asked the most anxiety-inducing question.

Will AI replace Indian IT jobs, the interviewer asked. Infosys has lakhs of people employed.

Kris’s answer was measured.

You have to go after the jobs of the future, Kris said. How will banking change? How will healthcare change? All healthcare workers need to be trained now to use AI tools. Reskilling is required. Their job is enhanced, but they need retraining. Massive retraining and reskilling of people.

The framework is worth understanding. Kris is not predicting mass unemployment. He is predicting mass reskilling.

The word “if” is critical. Reskilling at national scale is not automatic. It requires committed capital, curriculum design, corporate participation, and sustained effort over years.

The AI Enablement

Kris listed specific new possibilities.

AI will allow us to do things which were not possible to do before, Kris said. Automate reading an X-ray. Automate reading a radiology report. Summarize a document. Convert a document into a podcast.

Each of these is a task that used to require significant professional time. AI can now do each in seconds to minutes.

AI is challenging almost all the status quo, Kris said, high-skilled level. Even doctors, scientists, researchers. All these biggest of the best jobs.

The interviewer added an honest note.

Including podcasts, the interviewer said.

Kris agreed.

Including podcasts.

The Mental Education Thesis

Then came the segment’s most original argument.

One more thing we need to do, Kris said. As we started depending on cars - it started with cycles and two-wheelers to cars - we stopped walking. Sedentary lifestyle. From farm to offices, we became office workers. So what do we do? Go to the gym. Do physical exercises.

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Kris then made the parallel.

Same thing we need to do now, Kris said. We are outsourcing our brain to computer, to AI. How do we make sure that our mental health is proper, our brain is healthy? By doing mental exercises on a disciplined daily manner.

The specific institutional prediction is worth quoting.

Including classes in colleges and schools, Kris said. In schools and colleges, you have physical education. You will have now mental education. Mental fog is coming into mainstream. You will have to proactively take care of your mental health.

The prediction is specific. Just as physical education became a formal school subject after the industrial transition made most work sedentary, mental education will become a formal school subject after AI makes most cognitive work outsourced.

The Business Opportunity

Kris closed with the entrepreneurial observation.

People are not so proactive by nature, he said. That is why you have classes. That is why you have gyms. First we will spoil them by giving all the perks. Then only the conscious ones will change their lifestyle. And that becomes a new business also.

The framing is worth sitting with. Kris is describing how every major technology transition creates two markets. The first is the market for the technology itself. The second is the market for the human response to what the technology takes away.

Cars created the market for cars. They also created the market for gyms, treadmills, nutrition supplements, fitness training, and health tech. The second market is often larger than the first over the long run.

AI will create the market for AI. It will also create the market for mental fitness, cognitive training, brain health, focus tools, digital wellness services, and everything else humans need to remain functional in a world where AI does the routine thinking.

What This Reveals

Three things from this segment will stay with me.

The mental education prediction. Kris is describing a specific curriculum change that will happen over the next 10-20 years. This is a testable prediction.

The physical-to-mental parallel. Every technology that takes over a physical function creates the need for a compensating physical practice. Cars created gyms. AI will create mental fitness training.

The business insight. The entrepreneurs who see this parallel earliest will build the equivalent of Nike, Peloton, and MyFitnessPal for the mental fitness era.

The Universal Insight

The Kris framework applies globally.

Every economy where AI is being deployed will see the same pattern. Cognitive outsourcing will create cognitive atrophy for the unprepared. The response will be deliberate mental exercise practices.

The Investment Implications

Kris’s framework points to several specific opportunities.

Mental fitness apps. Cognitive training platforms. Brain health assessment tools. Focus and attention services. Digital wellness curricula. Corporate mental fitness programs. School and college mental education curricula. Coaches trained in cognitive exercise methodology. Assessment tools for cognitive decline.

Each of these is a new business category. Most do not have entrenched incumbents. The category leaders will be built in the next decade.

The Personal Implications

The Kris framework also has personal implications worth taking seriously.

If you are using AI daily to summarize documents, write emails, generate ideas, and research questions - you are outsourcing cognitive functions that you used to perform yourself. The Kris parallel says this will have consequences.

The specific answer is not that AI use is bad. The specific answer is that AI use requires compensating mental exercise. Reading. Writing without AI. Doing math in your head. Memorizing things. Thinking through problems without assistance. Debating without shortcuts.

The people who become genuinely capable in the AI era will be the ones who deliberately practice the cognitive functions they are simultaneously outsourcing.

The Real Question For Readers

The uncomfortable question the segment raises is what your own mental exercise routine looks like right now.

If you have a physical exercise routine but no mental exercise routine, you are treating your body as more important than your brain in an era when your brain is under more disruption.

The routine does not have to be complex. Fifteen minutes of reading a challenging text. Solving a problem without looking things up. Writing without AI. Memorizing a poem. Debating an idea in your head from multiple sides.

These practices are as fundamental to cognitive health as walking 10,000 steps is to physical health. Kris is arguing that they will become as institutionally supported.

Watch the full episode here: