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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Udandarao, Vikranth, Misra, Nipun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16684
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author Udandarao, Vikranth
Misra, Nipun
author_facet Udandarao, Vikranth
Misra, Nipun
contents India's developer community faces significant barriers to sustained experimentation and learning with commercial Large Language Model (LLM) APIs, primarily due to economic and infrastructural constraints. This study empirically evaluates local LLM deployment using Ollama as an alternative to commercial cloud-based services for developer-focused applications. Through a mixed-methods analysis involving 180 Indian developers, students, and AI enthusiasts, we find that local deployment enables substantially greater hands-on development and experimentation, while reducing costs by 33% compared to commercial solutions. Developers using local LLMs completed over twice as many experimental iterations and reported deeper understanding of advanced AI architectures. Our results highlight local deployment as a critical enabler for inclusive and accessible AI development, demonstrating how technological accessibility can enhance learning outcomes and innovation capacity in resource-constrained environments.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_16684
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Democratizing AI Development: Local LLM Deployment for India's Developer Ecosystem in the Era of Tokenized APIs
Udandarao, Vikranth
Misra, Nipun
Software Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction
India's developer community faces significant barriers to sustained experimentation and learning with commercial Large Language Model (LLM) APIs, primarily due to economic and infrastructural constraints. This study empirically evaluates local LLM deployment using Ollama as an alternative to commercial cloud-based services for developer-focused applications. Through a mixed-methods analysis involving 180 Indian developers, students, and AI enthusiasts, we find that local deployment enables substantially greater hands-on development and experimentation, while reducing costs by 33% compared to commercial solutions. Developers using local LLMs completed over twice as many experimental iterations and reported deeper understanding of advanced AI architectures. Our results highlight local deployment as a critical enabler for inclusive and accessible AI development, demonstrating how technological accessibility can enhance learning outcomes and innovation capacity in resource-constrained environments.
title Democratizing AI Development: Local LLM Deployment for India's Developer Ecosystem in the Era of Tokenized APIs
topic Software Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16684