In this episode of Interpreting India, Nidhi Singh is joined by Shalini Kapoor, chief strategist for Data and AI at the EkStep Foundation, and Tanvi Lall, director for strategy at People+ai. They unpack why so many AI initiatives get stuck after impressive demos, and what it takes to move from pilots to real, sustained adoption. Drawing on research spanning 1,000+ use cases across 25 countries, the guests introduce the Use Case Adoption Framework (UCAF) and explain how India can translate AI ambition into population-scale impact—especially across public services, agriculture, health, and other high-priority sectors.Why do AI pilots stall in “pilot purgatory,” even when the technology works? What does a concrete AI use case look like beyond a chatbot demo? And what institutional changes—trust, accountability, workflow redesign, safeguards, and data readiness—are required for adoption at scale?