How AI, automation, data analytics can help India become a $1 trillion economy

The internet economy in India is currently valued at $175 billion and it is expected to reach the $1 trillion-mark by 2030, said Ankit Bose, head of artificial intelligence (AI) at Nasscom, during a panel discussion at the Mint Digital Innovation Summit and Awards held on 9 June. 

He further added that the income in Indian cities has gone up and consequentially the spending too. This growth has spilled over to tier-2 and even tier-3 cities. This, combined with digitisation, e-commerce spending, a large pool of young talent, and favourable regulatory environment have acted as enablers of the Internet economy, he said. 

In the context of digitisation and integration of emerging technologies in the banking sector, Deepak Sharma, president and chief data officer of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said that while the tech evolution is impressive, it needs to be seen how much of its impact is immediate and relevant. “Within a bank, we break it into two buckets – mature vs emerging technology, and relevance to financial services.”

He added that AI, machine learning, blockchain, hyper-automation, and cloud technologies have become relevant for banks like Kotak Mahindra in current times. Whereas, others like Metaverse are yet to scale and prove relevant. Answering a question about how new-age technologies would impact jobs, Sharma said, “Banks will not grow large if we look at technology from a cost optimisation point of view. Instead, tech should create an economic value add to increase the market growth.”

Rupesh Khare, global head of advanced analytics and AI at engineering and automation services firm ABB India, said that compared to industries like BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance) and e-commerce, the response to digital transformation wasn’t as aggressive in his sector. The major challenge was to convince stakeholders. The journey towards digital transformation for a company like ABB began only in the last decade, he added.

On the other hand, for a company like Yellow.ai, an enterprise chatbot platform, the adoption of AI was quick. Jaya Kishore Reddy, Yellow.ai’s co-founder and chief technology officer, said that newer technologies like generative AI have helped them make more money. He also added that such technologies have had a positive impact on productivity and efficiency.

Nasscom’s Bose also said that amid the several opportunities that emerging technologies offer, there are a few challenges that the country needs to tackle. Some of them are infrastructure requirements, upgraded talent to meet demands, and focus on ethics.