Watch: IBM India CTO Subram Natarajan on AI security, bias and mitigating skills shortage

While digital transformation initiatives were already underway well before 2020, the pandemic accelerated adoption of key technologies. Among them, AI or artificial intelligence has gained much prominence. 

A recent April 2021 study by IBM showed that there was an acceleration in adoption of AI in India, with 53% of respondents saying they had increased rollouts. The 500 organisations surveyed in the country also pointed towards some key barriers that were a deterrent to taking AI forward. 

Out of the many hindrances, some of the key factors were AI security, data silos, trust and transparency, AI’s inherent bias and lack of skillsets, among other factors. The Data Security Council of India , in a recent study echoed similar findings. DSCI showed that AI could potentially add $957 billion by 2035 to India’s economy.   

Also read: AI adoption highest in India amid Covid-19: PwC

Despite AI being the buzzword and knowing its significant potential, widescale adoption of AI solutions is still a considerable challenge. In terms of AI issues around privacy and security, India has the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, and the National Cyber Security Strategy, 2020, which address some parts of the problem. 

In an interview TechCircle, IBM India CTO Subram Natarajan spoke about each of these AI based challenges and what steps could be taken to mitigate the same.