On the 23rd Anniversary of Digit Magazine, we invited stalwarts and leaders from the tech industry to give their perspectives on the role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in India. Mr Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President & Managing Director, India Region at Intel, shares his thoughts on the role of AI in shaping India’s future as we head into an era of increased adoption of AI and increased availability of products in the market, powered by processors made by industry stalwarts like Intel.
According to Mr Viswanathan, “AI truly is going to be an inflection point, not just in the technology space, but across a multitude of verticals. Whether it’s art, design, engineering, farming, healthcare or the corporate workplace, AI is going to be a transformative force impacting each and every one of these areas. This represents a great opportunity for India to not only be a part of change, but also be a leader of this change. ”
Here’s the full article below. The article was originally published in the June 2024 AI Special Anniversary issue of Digit magazine.
As the world enters an era defined by artificial intelligence (AI), India stands out as a land brimming with opportunities. With its robust digital infrastructure, remarkable engineering talent, and innovative spirit, India is uniquely positioned not only to adopt AI technologies but also to lead in their development and implementation.
According to a recent report by IDC and Intel, AI infrastructure spending is projected to reach $733 million by 2027, with substantial investments expected in 2024 and 2025 to enhance infrastructure for high-impact use cases. The report indicates that, in the long term, AI spending will likely depend on the size of economies and populations, as these are primary drivers of data—a critical resource for AI applications. This underscores the potential for markets like India to emerge as future AI powerhouses, highlighting the necessity for ongoing investment and innovation in AI.
AI is Amazing India
AI in India is not just about artificial intelligence; it embodies ‘Amazing India.’ Technology is deeply ingrained in the fabric of the nation, and every problem seemingly has a digital solution. India Stack has been a game changer, and no other nation has digital infrastructure on the scale that India has. With 936 million internet subscribers, 1.1 billion mobile subscribers (over 630 million using smartphones), and 400 million active social media users, India already boasts a highly connected population.
Initiatives like UPI, Jan Dhan Yojana, CoWIN, Aadhaar, DigiLocker, and ONDC are world-leading examples of digital solutions at scale. DigiLocker has more than 137 million users, UPI has 390 million active users, and CoWIN has registered 1.1 billion individuals. We do 11 times the transactions that US and Europe combined does in a day, reflecting the population scale of these innovations. We are just getting warmed up for the AI era!
Fostering talent for making AI for the world
India is home to an exceptional talent pool. With the second-largest AI/ML/Big Data Analytics workforce globally and the top ranking in AI skill penetration, India boasts a highly skilled workforce ready to make solutions not just for India but also for the world. India’s massive developer community, poised to surpass the US by 2027, fuels innovation and further strengthens India’s position in the AI race.
Driven by a large population and limited resources, India fosters a unique approach to AI innovation. Indian developers are at the forefront of creating scalable, efficient, and remarkably frugal solutions. These India-specific AI solutions address real-world challenges across agriculture, healthcare, and education, offering affordability and effectiveness where they are most needed.
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Having said that, to enable the software and developer ecosystem, an open approach that lowers barriers to entry and unlocks AI innovations is crucial. Intel is advancing this open AI software ecosystem through investments in oneAPI, SYCL, and OpenVINO, which break down walled gardens and provide multi-platform access for developers and businesses. Intel’s end-to-end AI pipeline allows developers to write once and deploy anywhere, offering a unified programming model. Furthermore, the Intel Developer Cloud provides early access and the fastest path to scaling AI solutions.
Bringing AI Everywhere
AI truly is going to be an inflection point, not just in the technology space, but across a multitude of verticals. Whether its art, design, engineering, farming, healthcare or the corporate workplace, AI is going to be a transformative force impacting each and every one of these areas. This represents a great opportunity for India to not only be a part of change, but also be a leader of this change.
India generates 20% of the world’s total data, which could act as a means to train India-centric AI models. However, with only 3% of the world’s servers, much of this data currently resides outside the country. This presents a huge opportunity for India to develop its domestic AI infrastructure and fully unlock the potential of its data.
For our role in all this, Intel is committed to “Bringing AI Everywhere” in India, making AI more accessible across all use cases. By infusing AI across all its technologies, Intel supports not just current AI workloads, including GenAI, but also fuels emerging uses like AI PCs and AI at the edge. Intel’s software platforms and heterogeneous architectures, including CPUs, GPUs, and deep learning accelerators, are facilitating rapid deployment of AI at scale, from the cloud to the network and out to the edge.
Xeon processors, optimized for AI workloads, are powering data centres in India, allowing customers to deploy cost-effective hardware and infrastructure to address the growing utilisation of AI. For those looking for training and inferencing of large language models (LLMs), Intel’s Gaudi accelerators are providing increased efficiency and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO). The new AI PCs powered by Intel Core Ultra processors feature a new architecture where the CPU, GPU, and NPU are all optimized to run AI workloads. This brings the ability to execute AI workloads on-device, without having to send it to a datacentre, ensuring privacy, low latency and also eliminating the need for an internet connection. This kind of accessibility ensures that AI innovations are within reach of a broader audience in India, fostering a culture of creativity and innovation.
As India sets sail on its AI odyssey, the horizon brims with boundless possibilities for transformative impact. We have much to do to unlock areas like education where rote learning shifts to a problem-solving approach using AI PC, healthcare becomes accessible across all, and many more transformations all around us. By harnessing its digital infrastructure, nurturing its developer talent, and fostering collaborative efforts, India stands ready not only to contribute AI innovations to the world but also to steer the course of global AI evolution. Intel stands as a proud and steadfast ally in this journey.
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