How do businesses in India perceive AI?

A report by PWC India found that businesses in India believe artificial intelligence (AI) will help boost productivity and growth over the coming years.

Bangalore skyline
About 68 per cent of Indian business decision makers believe that AI will help their business in various ways such as boosting productivity, generating growth and addressing societal issues, a new report from the PwC India found.

AI’s affect across industries 

Drawing on a analysis of the business impact of AI, the report examined the most popular AI powered solutions across industries, with machine learning coming out on top in nearly every industry from IT/ITeS to education.While the IT/ITeS industry has potentially been the most disrupted sector by machine learning solutions, which are replacing numbers of manual jobs, most of the survey respondents identified AI as having the potential to deliver appropriate training and education to a vast majority of the population.The global mobility industry has already benefitted from AI. In 2017 MoveAssist’s global mobility chatbot, MAIA, an online chat-based experience for assignees won the Relocate award for Technological Innovation.The report also found a majority of participants (60 per cent) believe that AI will enable people to live richer lives and further socio-economic causes such as economic growth, health and education and cybersecurity. However, only 40 per cent favourably indicated their perception about AI helping to improve gender and income quality.While 65 per cent of participants agreed that AI is likely to have a severe impact on employment in India, a majority believe that the benefits outweigh any employment concerns, as AI will open up opportunities for people to do more value-added work, apart from allowing for greater flexibility and work life balance.The report sheds light on the increasing expectations that businesses and customers have of AI in terms of providing personalised services and enhancing customer interactions.About 72 per cent of business decision makers believe that AI can provide a better experience of one-to-one personalisation.

Challenges to adopting AI remain

Sudipta Ghosh, partner and leader, data and analytics, PwC India, “While AI holds the potential to truly transform our lives as individuals and enterprises, its growth and adoption are wholly dependent on overcoming challenges related to reducing costs, securing the right talent and data, and addressing concerns around privacy and trust. “The market reality we exist in today demands that we not only work towards upskilling our people, but also produce the smartest machines that can work with us,” Given that AI integration requires significant time and investment, the report also suggests that organisations would do well to prioritise those areas that can be automated with relative ease and with ready availability of data. They should also focus those areas that will provide the most tangible and immediate returns in terms of improved efficiency, cost savings and customer reach.
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