The Resounding Failure of Builder, the Startup That Instead of an AI Had 700 Indian Programmers

While the world of work trembles at the idea that Artificial Intelligence could replace humans in every job, a paradoxical case goes in the opposite direction to the technological apocalypse. For years, a group of Indian developers have worked in the shadows pretending to be an artificial intelligence system.

The reason? To allow their company, Builder.AI, to sell a supposedly advanced solution to the market, gain credibility, and raise hundreds of millions of dollars from international investors. Builder.Ai is at the center of what could be one of the biggest scams in the technology market in recent years. The British startup, celebrated as an AI powerhouse so much so that it reached a valuation of $1.5 billion, had to declare bankruptcy in recent weeks.

What Happened to Builder.AI

Dull balance sheets, inflated sales, but above all a non-existent technology. For almost a decade it has been telling the market (and its investors) that it has developed an artificial intelligence capable of allowing customers to order and obtain a personalized application "like ordering a pizza".

At the heart of the user experience was a virtual assistant called Natasha. But Natasha, it turned out, was not an advanced AI system, but rather the interface of a team of 700 Indian programmers who manually executed user requests. A joke that sums up the entire scandal has been circulating on social media for days: “Builder.AI, AI = Actually Indians” – in reality, they are Indians.

A Brief History of Builder.AI and its Founder

Builder.AI is a company created in 2016 by Sachin Dev Duggal. Now 41, the entrepreneur has long been considered one of the most promising in the field of AI and programming: a child prodigy, a young founder of companies valued at hundreds of millions, then the founder of one of the first real companies that dealt with AI. He described Builder.AI as a company capable of creating applications in a way that was accessible to anyone, capable of democratizing programming.

Despite several investigations (including one by the Wall Street Journal in 2020) questioning the technology, Builder.AI continued to grow. It brought Microsoft on its side as a technology partner. It raised 30 million from Softbank in 2018. Then another 445 between 2022 and 2023 with the entry of the Qatar Investment Authority and Viola Credit. It was the latter that withdrew its loan (37 million), leaving the company's coffers dry. The bankruptcy comes after the company was put on the grill for weeks.

Marketing Over Technology: The Builder.AI Case Is a Lesson in What's Wrong

From what emerges Duggal has always played on corporate communication, on marketing, investing nothing or almost nothing in technology. Everything becomes clearer when the manager a year ago is accused for the first time of having inflated revenues by 350% and replaced at the helm of the board of directors. Investors want to see clearly, the first investigations begin, the first doubts, culminating with the revelation that the team was made up of Indian developers published on Linkedin by Lina Beliunas, director of the financial analysis company Zero Hash.

The epilogue has arrived in recent days. The company was forced to close its doors and fire everyone. The official staff (about 270 people) and the 700 Indians who programmed from New Delhi. Doubts remain about how the company was able to deceive everyone for eight years. Doubts that call into question not only Builder.AI, but also the ability of the technology sector to distinguish true innovation from artfully packaged marketing in the midst of the AI ​​boom.