AI and data analytics are undoubtedly driving India’s decisive strategic development in several segments, and intelligent systems: machine learning, quantum computing are at the core of every business model and business DNA. Conventional wisdom, based on extensive research, holds that the adoption of AI and data analytics will bring about radical and disruptive changes in several Indian industries and sectors in the next five to ten years. Investments in AI-driven developments have increased by 1,800% in just six years. Strategists believe this will come as no surprise to Indian decision-makers, as the acceleration in AI adoption and proliferation is creating new industries and business segments and, overall, opening up new opportunities for business monetization.
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However, AI in India is still in its early stages, which means that even though the technology landscape is more skewed towards developed economies than developing economies, the latter and their markets could still outpace developed markets from an AI perspective. This makes countries like India, the fourth largest economy with a strong focus on technology, a strong contender.
The potential impact of AI on India’s GDP will be determined by:
- Productivity gains through process automation (including the use of intelligent machines and autonomous vehicles)
- Productivity gains through augmentation of the existing workforce with AI (Assisted and Augmented Intelligence) technologies.
- Increased consumer demand resulting from the availability of personalized and/or higher quality products and services enhanced by AI.
The consumer revolution sparked by AI is setting the stage for major disruptions, as established companies and new entrants drive innovation and develop new business models. A key part of AI’s impact will come from its ability to leverage parallel developments such as generative AI and quantum computing.
Potential areas of development supported by AI and data analytics:
- AI in the Public Sector: A Field Ripe for AI Redesign and Adoption – A Blue Ocean for AI Investments through Digital India Initiatives – While enterprises and startups are making significant progress in integrating AI into their service architecture and product offerings, and sometimes as part of their core business strategy, the public sector’s challenges in integrating AI can be quickly overcome through the massive digital movements: Digital India, Skill India and Make in India. This will create a strong data and digital footprint base that will serve as the core infrastructure for AI implementation, opening up a huge blue ocean in the public sector, rich in AI investments.
- A new solution for regulatory challenges in implementing AI in the public sector – One of the particular problems that the public sector faces in the widespread implementation of AI is the fact that AI is a continuously self-learning system, capable of making analytical or creative decisions and implementing actions autonomously. Who will then be held responsible for its actions, if they turn out to be unfavorable? Indeed, since AI has a certain degree of autonomous decision-making, it is difficult to anticipate its consequences. AI systems are supposed to improve and enrich the lives of consumers. In such a situation, it will be difficult to decide who is responsible for the actions of the AI system. Therefore, much deliberation will be necessary to carefully reach a precise conclusion regarding the implementation of these systems on an ethical and appropriate basis.
- Indian Governance Initiatives: Huge Potential for AI Investment – With India becoming a prime destination for AI, investment opportunities are opening up in the governance space in several ways. Governance systems have the unique characteristic of being large and requiring large-scale implementation, which can be addressed through deep learning. For example, in the Swachh Bharat initiative, which specifically focuses on toilet construction in rural India, government officials are tasked with uploading images of these toilet constructions to a central server for evaluation. Image recognition can be used to target unfinished toilets. It can also be used to identify whether the same government official is featured in multiple images or whether the photos have been uploaded from a different location than intended. Other initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, and Skill India can be complemented with AI to address the scale issues. The range of applications for AI techniques could range from crop insurance systems to tax fraud detection, subsidy leak detection and defense and security strategy.
An AI system can improve and enrich Indian agriculture by empowering agencies like the Department of Agricultural Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture that runs Kisan Call Centres across the country, etc. It can help the call centre by linking various available information like soil reports from government agencies and linking them to environmental conditions. It will then provide advice on the optimum crop that can be sown in that plot of land.
As the need for large-scale implementation and monitoring of governance initiatives becomes more pronounced, the need for AI becomes absolute and will open the door to massive investments in AI in India’s future.
