A new report from Accenture states that AI might contribute an enormous $957 billion to the Indian economy, by enhancing the nature of work, generating better results for society and businesses.
The report named “Rewire for Growth”, highlighted that AI will add 1.3% to Indian economy per year, lifting the national income by 15% in 2035.
“AI’s transformative power can be compared to the advent of computing itself, and there’s strong early evidence that AI can play a key role in unlocking socio-economic value in India. The time to act is now. With the right investments AI can create a flywheel effect ‘liberating’ people to create long term economic and societal value,” said Rekha M. Menon, senior managing director and chairman, Accenture India.
Tech giant Accenture studied the strengths of India in field of artificial intelligence across universities, startups, large businesses, policymakers, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. The study found that AI startups have grown higher than the average since 2011, and ranked third among the G20 countries in 2016.
Accenture also found that over 88% of large businesses in India were expecting to make moderate-to-extensive investments in AI technology in next three years. Along with them, the digital platform companies too will play a very significant role to unlock AI’s economic value in the country.
Flipkart, Indian online retailer, is working on AI for smart shopping experiences related to ordering, distribution and product pricing. It will enhance the efficiency of Flipkart, and offer products at a lower price, and further it can compete with global companies like Amazon India.
For the society, Indian Railways and RailTel are working with ISRO to devise safety mechanisms, using AI and machine learning. It will improve travel by train safer, and might save lives.
Even though India has renowned universities, healthy levels of entrepreneurship, and technical talent pool, it lagged on key indicators of AI development, and is behind US and China. It shows the limited success of Indian AI startups.
To unleash the full potential of AI, Accenture suggested that India should build an AI blueprint, bolster research and development, enable greater access to data, and invest in building next generation skills related to AI.
Also read: Accenture transforms its ‘Code of Business Ethics’ using AI and machine learning capabilities
“The economic boost will be driven by innovative AI technologies that enable people to make more efficient use of their time and do what humans do best – create, imagine and innovate new things. What’s needed is a clear, long-term vision, and a multi-stakeholder action plan that balances growth with the ethical questions posed by AI,” Menon added.
