India leads the world in AI adoption amid the Covid-19 pandemic

The pandemic that hit the world disrupting the lives of both individuals and organisations produced a winner—high-tech adoption across the globe, with Indian organisations leading such changes.

The largest rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) during COVID-19 has been observed in India, according to a global report by PwC India.

94% of the more than 200 chief executives surveyed in India said that they have either adopted or are preparing to introduce AI in the company.

While the survey was conducted globally among 670 high ranking officials in September-October 2020, the study for India was conducted between August 2020 and September 2020.

Compared to major economies such as Britain, Japan and the US, the study said India witnessed the highest rise in AI use, with over 70% of Indian organisations adopting AI in some functional areas in 2020 compared to about 62% last year.

More than 90% of businesses are also implementing or intend to invest in AI solutions to tackle existing market problems, the survey said.

According to the survey, with 89% of the companies surveyed doing so, AI adoption in India was driven by the travel and hospitality industry, followed by telecoms, media & technology companies (86%), financial services (82%), and 73% of healthcare and pharmaceutical companies adopting it during the year.

AI is deployed across business functions such as customer support, finance, tax, HR, IT, cyber protection, production, operations, R&D, risk, legal and enforcement, sales, marketing, supply chain and logistics.

The survey also shows that confidence with regard to AI in cost reduction and revenue maximisation has risen dramatically from 72% to 92% in India, and since the pandemic affected them, 45% of organisations have increased the use of AI.

In addition, 94% of respondents have either introduced AI in their organisations or are preparing to incorporate it.

Ms. Sudipta Ghosh, a partner and leader for data and analytics at PwC India, said, “AI is now considered as a crucial enabler for organisations to emerge from the current crisis, prepare for transformation and make radical changes to the operating model for enduring competitive advantage.”

Businesses need to begin to perceive it as a necessity rather than a privilege and weave it into the organisational fabric to get the best out of AI, he added.

Companies, however, still find it challenging to embrace AI and fail to realise the optimum value of their AI investments. For example, 37% of them find it challenging to define the correct use cases for AI and 28% have limited knowledge on the high-quality data for use in AI solutions, the survey said.

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