How will cloud support the AI boom?

Businesses worldwide, including in India, are undergoing AI-driven transformation that is opening fresh opportunities. AI as the cognitive core, plays a crucial role in catalyzing innovation and fostering transformation. It enhances sustainability, efficiency, and optimizes costs. 

Gen AI, the new entrant in the market, is helping businesses in countless ways.  The technology is rapidly expanding across India, encompassing multiple regional languages besides English. Research labs such as AI4BHĀRAT, are spearheading this expansion by introducing large language models (LLMs) tailored to the Indian market. Majority of us are already familiar with gen AI through web search tools such as Microsoft’s Bing and Google’s Gemini. With the increasing integration of gen AI into consumer technology devices, it has seamlessly woven into our everyday lives. Gen AI is proving highly lucrative for both business and professional use cases also, for example, hospital chains in collaboration with hyperscalers using AI are able to extend the healthcare ecosystem beyond urban cities. Similarly, automative companies are adopting AI to incorporate autonomous features into vehicles.

The AI-first cloud enabled transformation

The symbiotic relationship between the cloud and AI is the driving force for business agility, innovation, and competitive advantage. As businesses go AI-first, it is crucial to recognize the tangible influence of cloud technology and how the two are interlinked.  

Cloud-led digital transformation interconnects the entire business process value chain within the enterprise and across the supplier and partner ecosystem, enhancing data availability. AI initiatives seamlessly integrate with cloud-powered digital and data transformation projects. The cloud is the preferred platform for running data platforms, including aggregation, storage, insights, and visualization. By first preparing enterprise data for AI applications, and further enriching this data, organizations can unlock greater value creation. 

Further lowering the entry barrier for AI initiatives, Cloud platforms provide necessary processing power (across CPU, GPU, and neural engine-specific units), and a vast library of AI models as a service, to manage, process and work with data in the AI projects. In an AI-first approach, data is a key asset, while AI models are perishable. Cloud providers bring various AI models from different entities under a unified consumption framework, simplifying hosting and management so businesses can focus on selecting the right model for their specific use case.

Cloud provider’s pay-as-you-go model for AI technologies and services, allows organizations to experiment with AI/gen AI without huge investment upfront, then rapidly scaling from experimental to production stages as needed. This is great for the enterprises now, where they are eager to experiment with AI technologies but option to the processing power (mainly GPU) is limited due to scarcity of the chips.

Becoming AI-first organization more than using technology, it is about enabling/ educating the people in the organization to use the technology the right way. Cloud providers offer comprehensive service documentation and informational resources, ensuring businesses are well-informed about their exploration areas, opportunities, and potential risks. 

The Transformation Journey Starts Within

Powering digital transformation and adopting technologies like blockchain, big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, can be done with ease on a public cloud.  As this transformation progresses, starting from delivering on IT and business process efficiency as outcomes, it advances to enable autonomous and intelligent systems with an AI-first and data as central enablers. The AI-first journey can seamlessly build upon the robust technological foundation provided by the cloud, spanning the entire lifecycle—from understanding the possibilities, to experimenting to productizing and continuously evolving.

Throughout this journey, several key elements require focus. Firstly, selecting the appropriate AI stack—whether from native cloud service providers or open-source options—is crucial, as it significantly impacts the cloud strategy. Organizations should leverage cloud providers for the necessary AI infrastructure, allowing them to concentrate on business objectives rather than managing the infrastructure and models, thus enabling faster time to market. It's also essential to evaluate the costs associated with building and operating an AI foundation using open-source tools versus hosted services from cloud providers. Additionally, choosing models and services that meet acceptable standards in data security, privacy, and ethical responsibility are paramount. 

Cut the chase short with the right partner

Embarking on an AI-first transformation requires significant effort, needs to complement with expertise and experience. Whether the enterprise is cloud-native with a modern development approach or an established company with traditional assets, the right partner is essential to create the solid foundation and take them through the journey. AI & cloud transformation extends beyond technology; it also involves people, skills, and processes.  As each company has unique cultures and capabilities, the approach must bring in suitable change agents to navigate their journey. 

With the right partner, attuned to evolving developments, AI's integration into a cloud environment becomes a catalyst for ongoing business success, marked by cost advantages, resilience, and faster turnarounds.  

Madhan Raj J

---

Madhan Raj J is Associate Vice President, Cobalt Cloud Solution Strategist at Infosys.