Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a fringe technology in India. Although penetration in application is relatively low, the AI market in the country is witnessing a broad-based awareness and adoption among both enterprises and providers, according to a latest report by Bain & Company.
Though organisations in India are deploying AI tools and solutions in some form or the other over a period of time, the adoption rate has seen a spurt in recent times.
“About 80 per cent of enterprises have at least one AI model in production, indicating an extensive penetration of AI/Machine Learning (ML),” the survey, conducted in association with Microsoft and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), said.
“Providers in India are either ahead of or on par with their global counterparts when in it comes to AI capability on scale implementations,” it added.
The survey—From Buzz to Reality: The Accelerating Pace of AI in India—has captured the scale of adoption of AI and interest among organisations in deployment of AI-based solutions.
About 150 providers and 340 enterprises were surveyed for the AI Maturity Index to examine their relative strengths across metrics such as level of adoption, deployment of use cases, data management, technology adoption and talent.
“There is a significant uptick in interest in adopting AI to drive business outcomes. While the stated breadth of AI adoption is significant, penetration of the technology across use cases is still low,” Velu Sinha, Partner at Bain & Company and co-author of the report, said.
Concerns
“While the availability of data and cloud-based infrastructure have aided AI adoption, concerns related to data security, infrastructure, and management continue to be the most significant barriers for enterprises,” he said.
The thrust in adoption for enterprises is maximum in sectors such as communication, over-the-top (OTT) and gaming (55 per cent); technology (48 per cent) and financial services (39 per cent).
Talent gaps
Although India constitutes a small share (one per cent or $3 billion) of the global AI market, it produces 16 per cent of global AI talent, placing it among the top three contributors in the world.
Much of the talent today exists in AI application development due to avenues available for upskilling, retraining, self-learning, and experimenting with open-source tools.
Skill gaps are most widely observed for providers in data science, data operations, and legal and compliance areas.
“On the other hand, enterprises lack domain-specific expertise, data visualisation/analysis talent, and data engineers,” it said.
Published on
June 28, 2022
