Reimagining AI development: From disruption to societal transformation

Alok Ohrie, President and Managing Director, Dell Technologies India

Artificial Intelligence stands to make a progression in 2024, from training to inference-based applications. This crucial transition will have far-reaching ramifications for businesses across sectors, driving productivity, profits, and return on investment. Maturation of pre-trained models and the widespread adoption of transfer learning techniques for enhancing the overall efficiency of AI-powered solutions is empowering enterprises to generate business value through improved decision making, reduced costs, and faster time-to-market.

In India, wide adoption of Artificial Intelligence— by almost 59% of enterprise as per estimates— is revolutionizing operations through business process optimization, enhanced customer experiences, and risk mitigation and compliance, thereby positioning India amongst the top countries utilizing AI technologies. Artificial Intelligence could contribute up to USD 500 billion to India's GDP by 2025 and increment USD 1 Trillion to the economy by 2035.

India has the capability to emerge as an influential player in the international AI landscape, and as a global hub for tomorrow's AI revolution. To claim its position at the top of the AI value chain, India must adopt a multi-faceted approach that leverages its inherent strengths in IT services, workforce, and vibrant startup ecosystem.

Through strategic investments prioritizing sectors where India has compelling strengths or needs— such as healthcare, agriculture, finance and education, we can improve services, drive economic growth and enhance quality of life while at the same time accelerating relevant research and development.

Recent events have underscored the need for fostering responsible AI innovation in the light of algorithmic bias, inaccuracies, possible misuse and discrimination that could dilute the transformative potential of cognitive technologies and undermine fundamental rights such as privacy and freedom of expression.

India is well-positioned to leverage its extraordinary data diversity and population heterogeneity to shape the trajectory of ethical AI development worldwide. The availability of vast and varied datasets provides a grounded counterweight to inherent biases and allows for the training of more robust and generalized AI models— making India an ideal locale for developing and testing AI technologies that can be scaled globally.

India's approach to AI R&D is notably inclusive, with a focus on leveraging technology for social good. This involves developing AI solutions to address issues like access to quality healthcare, education, financial inclusion, and agricultural productivity. By focusing on these areas, India is not only advancing AI technology but also ensuring its benefits are widely distributed across its large and diverse population.

The Indian government has demonstrated a strong commitment to implementing policies that facilitate collaboration between academia, industry and the government to address wider societal challenges through AI. The National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence published in 2018 outlined a clear roadmap and laid guidelines for inclusive AI development in the country, with the hashtag #AIFORALL.

Several further initiatives, such as an Approach Document on Responsible AI Development, the establishment of the National AI Portal and funding for AI-focused research projects and centers of excellence have also been instrumental in shaping the direction of AI adoption and transformation in India.

To deliver the "greatest good for the greatest number" calls for a multi-stakeholder collaboration between government, industry, researchers, and civil society. Dell Technologies has been actively involved in advancing AI development and deployment in India, and has been providing insights into India's AI roadmap, trends, drivers, challenges and transformation journey through in-depth research and whitepapers.

Our efforts are directed towards progress within an enabling environment that promotes ethical collection, sharing, and use of data to protect individual privacy; one that guarantees security and adheres to strict data governance regulations. The ‘Dell Technologies Principles for Ethical Artificial Intelligence’ establish guidelines for AI applications to ensure they are beneficial to society, human-centered, equitable, transparent, and accountable.

We stand today at the cusp of AI maturity that can unlock new opportunities for growth, revolutionize business and create a just and equitable society. Our aspiration to lead the way in responsible AI innovation is bolstered by the growing confidence on AI deployments to address both local and global challenges, evidenced by the surge in year-on-year investments on AI in India. Dell's diverse portfolio of AI-optimized storage, compute and end-to-end managed solutions underscore our commitment to driving innovation and accelerating the development of cutting-edge solutions in the rapidly evolving Artificial Intelligence landscape.

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