ISB study finds higher investments, research driving significant growth of AI in India: SRITNE

Hyderabad: The Artificial Intelligence Index- 2021 (AI Index- 2021) Annual Report launched by the Indian School of Business's IT-focused think tank, Srini Raju Centre for Information Technology and Networked Economy (SRITNE), captured trends in R&D, education, entrepreneurial activity. The ISB research team, led by Professor Deepa Mani, found that investments in AI-managed processes have grown substantially across businesses in India.

This Index track collates and visualises data relating to AI investment, its use and adoption. It also monitors AI readiness along with adoption rates across States. "The research analysis revealed that while overall activity and investments are increasing significantly, these activities are concentrated in a few regions." said Professor Deepa Mani, Professor and Area Leader of Information Systems, ISB and Executive Director, SRITNE-ISB. "AI has helped Indian businesses to be resilient to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country and helped them redesign their models for tomorrow."

Speaking on the study's findings and motivation, Professor Deepa Mani said: "Our study suggests that while there has been a significant advancement in knowledge creation and appropriation in the field of AI, much more needs to be done, especially with respect to skilling and education. We will continue to track the growth of this technology across the critical areas mentioned in the report. We feel that the focus should be on widespread skilling, investments and education building in other regions as well, which in turn would help to reduce inequality."

'The AI Index 2021 Annual Report' was formally launched on Saturday by Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industries & Commerce and Information Technology, Government of Telangana and Dr Rohini Srivathsa, National Technology Officer, Microsoft India, in a virtual event on Friday.

Speaking at the launch event, Jayesh Ranjan, highlighted how the State has proactively provided policy support to AI usage. "We have created an AI/ML based platform Citizens360 which is using 18 million government datasets to profile any citizen based on their government records," he said. Further, keeping with the State's commitment to the conscious promotion of ethical AI, the much talked about Citizens360 platform would be the first subject of the ethical guidelines for AI usage that the Telangana government is developing. He highlighted the use case of AI-ML based predictive tool developed by NASSCOM for the State government to monitor Covid-19 hotspots in the state 15 days ahead of their actual occurrence. The tool, he said, is being actively used this year as well as part of the State's Covid-19 management system.