How Ready Is India For AI?

- Kunal Kislay

Revolutions do not always follow a linear timeline. They can be sporadic and unpredictable. NITI Aayog’s roadmap for national AI Program hopes to bring on one such revolution.

The allocated Rs. 3,073 crore will spearhead work on fifth-generation technology startups like artificial intelligence, machine learning (ML), Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing and blockchain. The magnanimity of effort can be gauged by the almost doubling fund for the program. Atal Innovation Mission can give 10 crore to start-ups that fit the criteria. 200 crores is allocated in 2017-18. India is now ready to take the AI assisted leap of faith, with pre-meditated outcomes for before, during and after the leap.

What needs to be done for enterprises to adopt AI solutions?

1. Create Secure, Usable, Scalable Data

Data is the smallest and the most important unit of an AI system. AI is all set to revolutionize manufacturing, transport, healthcare, finance and retail to name a few. But, the biggest problem in India, across industry verticals is the severe paucity of usable data. We need to create a system to convert records on paper to create data lakes for Machine Learning (ML) to take over from humans. ML will start to analyze data and then an AI enabled system learns by itself and provide actionable insights. The mindset needs to shift from find and fix mentality to that of a preventive maintenance.