India is poised to become one of the world’s largest markets for Artificial Intelligence, according to a 2021 report from the International Data Corporation. The report mentions that the market was valued at just over USD 7.8 billion last year. That valuation has likely gone up since then.
The UNESCO agreement on AI which was signed by 193 countries, with India being one of the signatories, should help pave the way for a degree of regulation in the market. A 2018 report from NITI Aayog said that AI has the potential to fix many of the country’s socio-economic problems like health and agriculture. That isn’t to say that AI-based companies aren’t already running in the country aren’t contributing to the struggling economy.
The Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence will ensure that member nations that have signed will have to regulate the entire AI life cycle, starting from research and development to implementation and use. Part of the agreement is the hope that governments will begin to create their own regulation with legislative implementation.
The use of AI has already expanded across to different verticals, especially the banking, financial service and insurance sector which use the technology for enhanced efficiency, not to mention the implementation of Virtual Reality technology in the mining and FMCG industry.
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On the other hand, the process of developing home-grown AI platforms has not been without challenges. According to an IDC report, anything between 30-49% of AI projects failed for one-third of all organizations, on the other hand, 28% saw 10% of their projects fail. But it seems that the government has a plan. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has set up a policy framework which will have four committees each of which track technology capabilities, AI data gathering, cybersecurity and ethics and skill training.