Indian enterprises outshining global counterparts on AI adoption, says IBM India MD

Log on to any banking app or website, and you are most likely to be welcomed by an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ready to answer all the basic questions. Call any customer service helpline, it is more likely that you will be answered by an AI bot. Are you a human resources manager, searching for suitable candidates for a particular role in the company? An AI bot could collate a list in quick time. AI is the buzzword these days, with companies across sectors rapidly looking to adopt it in their operations and processes, and Indian enterprises are not far behind in adoption.

In fact, technology giant IBM did a survey recently on AI adoption globally and 59 per cent of Indian enterprises reported they were deploying AI in some form, according to Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India and South Asia. This number, he said, was the highest across all the markets they had looked at.

"AI is clearly India's growth accelerator. I don't think there is any discussion around IT that doesn't have the discussion around AI and generative AI. Indian enterprises are actually outshining their global counterparts on AI deployment and adoption," Patel said on Tuesday at IBM Think 2024, the company's flagship event.

While AI and its usage is only going to grow over time, he stressed the need for adopting responsible AI models when enterprises looked to scale AI across their businesses.

"Your AI must pass what I call pre-tests, for which you should ask three fundamental questions. How do I make AI more practical, ensuring that you lead with real life use cases that carry business impact. Second, how do I make AI more responsible and ensuring that you trust AI especially as automation and decision making is deployed at scale. Third, how do I make my AI more embedable, ensuring AI is infused seamlessly into your day-to-day operations," said Patel.

He added that scaling responsible AI will be key to achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat and is clearly characterised by five pillars of transparency, explainability, robustness, privacy, and fairness.

Speaking at the event, Ritika Gunnar, general manager, product management for data and AI at IBM, compared the development of AI to things like development of the internal combustion engine, or even the computer and internet, which changed our lives in a big way and significantly boosted world GDP.

"Throughout history, we have seen technology being a driving force. If you look at steam engine, the invention of electricity, the combustion engine, the invention of computers and internet... Each one of these had a profound impact on technology and the way we work and our lives. They made GDP go way up and today we stand on the cusp of another wave of revolutionary technology that is going to propel us into new frontiers. AI is the transformative technology of our generation," she said.

It is anticipated that by 2030, it will have an additional $4.4 trillion of impact to the GDP, Gunnar added.

She expects over the next four years, around at least a billion applications will be developed using AI.

On Tuesday, Star Union Daichi Life Insurance and QuantumStreet AI announced plans to collaborate to incorporate generative AI powered by IBM's Watsonx AI platform into the life insurance company's investment offerings. IBM had also recently concluded an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with the government of India, under which IBM's Watsonx platform will be integrated into India's Airawat supercomputer.