The India AI Impact Summit 2026 highlighted how artificial intelligence is transforming lives across sectors, with a special focus on empowering women at the grassroots level.
The summit showcased how AI-driven initiatives are redefining entrepreneurship for rural women by helping them overcome barriers such as language, market access, and limited resources.
Against this backdrop, She Leads Bharat is working to increase the incomes of rural women who run small businesses by providing structured training and capacity-building support.
The organisation supports women entrepreneurs by onboarding them onto its digital platform ‘Meri Saheli App’ where they receive better pricing, improved margins and access to services that address challenges faced at the village level.
UNI spoke with Ruchi Singh, who is from ‘She Leads Bharat’ initiative and also a Frontier Market’s “Saheli” from Nawahanipur village in Sevapuri block of Varanasi district, which is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency.
Ruchi is also an active member of a Self-Help Group (SHG), reflecting her deep engagement in community-led entrepreneurship.
Through her journey, Ruchi has transitioned from limited exposure to digital tools to confidently using smartphones and AI-enabled platforms in her work, becoming a role model for other women in her village who now look to her for guidance and inspiration.
To scale up its efforts, She Leads Bharat has partnered with Microsoft. Under this collaboration, 25,000 women entrepreneurs will undergo 60 hours of AI training over the next six to seven months.
The training will enable women to use AI tools integrated into the Meri Saheli App to tackle key business challenges, including overcoming language barriers, identifying high-demand products, setting the right pricing, and expanding customer reach.
AI-based insights are expected to support better decision-making and improve profitability.
She Leads Bharat is currently active in five states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat, and has a network of 40,000 women entrepreneurs, known as “Sahelis.”
The initiative is expected to strengthen women-led rural enterprises and promote inclusive growth through the responsible and practical use of artificial intelligence.
