India among top 10 global AI adopters, poised to grow sharply: Study

According to a report published by The Brookings Institution, India is among the top ten countries in the world in terms of technological breakthroughs and funding in artificial intelligence. While India does not rank among the top ten countries in terms of commercial and research activities, it does rank sixth in terms of public and governmental spending and investments in AI, as well as private institutes and organisations.

According to the report, in addition to rising acceptance of next generation technologies, India is "ideally positioned from a financial aspect" - a characteristic that provides it power to achieve faster AI technology developments and overtake other countries that are now leading AI achievements.

The United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and Germany are leading AI advances ahead of India. According to the survey, India is followed by Canada, South Korea, and Italy in the top ten AI adopters list.

The data backs up the idea that AI usage has been fast increasing in India across many sectors. According to a December 2021 assessment by McKinsey Analytics on the state of AI in 2021, India was the largest commercial and business adopter of AI among emerging economies. Artificial intelligence has been adopted by a number of significant worldwide businesses, including software services, product development, and contact centre automation.

Meanwhile, Deloitte's research on the state of AI adoption in India, published in December 2021, broke down AI adoption in India by industry. According to the research, the Indian retail industry was the most advanced in adopting AI technology and services, followed by telecommunications and finance.

However, the Brookings paper acknowledges in a prior chapter that the entire technical ecosystem is not necessarily mature. "Among democratic countries, those with an immature technical environment are more likely than those with a mature one to address ethics and governance. We believe this reflects countries' lack of experience with these difficulties, forcing them to 'catch up.'"

The report used India's 2018 AI Plan as an example, pointing out how the latter emphasises the necessity of public consent in anonymizing data for AI models - something that more mature countries' AI plans have moved beyond.

The study measures each country's peak computer power, as well as the number of papers published and patents filed in the field of AI, in terms of technological breakthroughs and research activities. The study does not, however, go into detail on the number of patents and research papers filed outside of India, or how that number has grown.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.