At a time when experts across the globe have touted this decade as the era of artificial Intelligence, technology companies are pushing India to adopt machine learning in mainstream applications in the country.
At an event organised by industry body Assocham, industry experts noted that AI capabilities for predictive modelling could help resolve several of the existing challenges that mar the growth of the country.
Arnab Basu, partner, Technology Consulting at Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC), points out certain sectors that could greatly benefit from AI if adopted efficiently. “AI augmented manufacturing operations can employ more reliable demand forecasting, a flexible and responsive supply chain, quicker changes in operations and more through accurate scheduling and inventory optimisation.”
Apart from manufacturing, experts are also betting big on AI applications in logistics, healthcare, and agriculture. “A key area of AI intervention in logistical operations involves adaptive scheduling of deliveries and routing of vehicles. Products can be transported more efficiently through vision based driver assist and automated systems. This has made transportation less susceptible to disruptions caused by weather, traffic and unnatural events,” says Sudipta Ghosh, partner, Data and Analytics, PwC.
In the healthcare sector, predictive analytics is expected to significantly revamp the industry. According to Ravinder Pal Singh, director, Mega Projects, Dell International Services, AI has already helped medical experts reduce the time to configure genome sequencing. “Earlier, genome sequencing used to take a few weeks but now it can be done in a few days. And with AI getting more sophisticated with time, we expect something as tedious as genome sequencing to happen within a few hours.”
With predictive intelligence, healthcare experts could probably diagnose a disease, thus saving a life. Other AI applications in healthcare includes predicting safety and efficacy of newly launched drugs , providing decision support for medical assessments among others.
However, the biggest challenge that the industry faces is lack of skilled talent. Besides, government policies too have not been too supportive. Experts across industry are hoping that the government will soon address these issues, thus propelling the adoption of this technology across industries in India.
By Purba Das
