Indian enterprises increasing their adoption of AI and ML

The uptake of artificial intelligence and machine learning in India’s corporate landscape sector continues to grow, according to a new report.

The adoption of AI in India at the pilot level has increased from 40% in 2020 to 56% in 2022. Further, 66% of respondents agreed that the adoption of AI and machine learning (ML) make businesses more trustworthy. That is according to a report from global consulting firm PwC examining the impact of AI in the post-Covid era.

“Due to the pandemic, AI adoption grew exponentially across a wide range of industries. For instance, AI is being used to automate tasks in manufacturing, improve customer service, and develop new products and services. As the world emerges from the pandemic, AI is poised to play an even greater role in our lives,” the report states.

Around 64% of organizations in the industrial products and manufacturing sector say they are still at an early stage of their AI-based transformation journey, which indicates that more adoption is likely on the way as the technologies continue to develop.

PwC surveyed over 220 CXOs and decision-makers in the Indian market, following up on a survey done back in 2020. While sectors like technology, media, telecom, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals have made steady progress, results show they face challenges in measuring returns on investments.

AI adoption has grown significantly and shown impactful returns, notably in technology, media, and telecommunications, as well as healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. The travel and hospitality industries seem saturated, retail faces reduced AI adoption due to changing market forces, and financial services maintain a steady AI adoption rate.

While the industrial products and manufacturing sector saw a remarkable 20% surge in AI and ML implementation from mid-2020 up to now, the travel and hospitality industry’s AI adoption has grown by around 7% in the same time. Though travel and hospitality did not grow as fast, it is currently the industry with the largest amount of adoption, with almost 99% of surveyed organizations incorporating AI/ML to some extent.

Companies have increased AI implementation and also diversified their investments beyond the main and most obvious AI applications. The main use cases for AI in manufacturing are becoming clearer as companies learn to better quantify the value of its application.

Similarly, the ‘industrial metaverse’ is a very promising sub-sector of the metaverse that is already beginning to offer immense value, according to one recent study. Rather than for leisure and gaming, these metaverse tools are geared towards practical industrial applications such as smart factories with sensors and connected devices, robotic automation, and remote monitoring, among other things.