Bud Ecosystem has been selected by Microsoft as one of its AI First Movers for FY26 — a curated list of companies shaping the frontier of artificial intelligence across the India and South Asia region. The recognition places Bud alongside enterprises such as Infosys, HCLTech, LTIMindtree, and Tata Capital in a cohort Microsoft identifies as defining what it means to lead in the age of AI.
The Microsoft AI First Movers Programme spotlights organisations that have moved beyond pilot deployments to make AI central to how they operate, build, and compete.
Defining what it means to lead in the age of AI
In his foreword to the programme, Puneet Chandok, President of Microsoft India, framed the cohort as a preview of how work and leadership are changing.
"These firms offer a glimpse into the future of work and leadership — they are not just deploying AI as a tool to do more, but as a catalyst to imagine more."
Puneet Chandok — President, Microsoft IndiaHe continued: "From AI native startups to global enterprises, these firms are defining what it means to lead in the age of AI. They are not waiting for the future. They are building it — one workflow, one Agent and one cultural shift at a time."
The platform and partnerships behind the recognition
The Bud AI Foundry integrates model deployment, inference optimisation, guardrails, analytics, and governance into a single enterprise-grade platform. Strategic partnerships with Intel, Microsoft, Infosys, and LTIMindtree have expanded that capability across global markets.
The company has contributed more than 20 open-source models to the research community, including large language and diffusion models, and topped the Hugging Face leaderboard with a model benchmarking comparably to GPT-3.5.
"At Bud, our mission is simple: to democratize GenAI by commoditizing it. We believe that access to this transformative technology should be as universal as access to electricity or the internet."
Jithin VG — Founder & CEO, Bud Ecosystem"By breaking down the barriers of cost, infrastructure, and technical complexity," he added, "we're enabling every organization to innovate, create, and compete on a truly level playing field."