From sorting cucumbers to curing cancers, Artificial Intelligence algorithms will not pause at anything.For the past 30 years, technology outsourcing has generated massive employment for India, but now AI and Automation is changing the traditional IT Service Model. Indian outsourcing industry is under serious threat and is going to change sooner than we can think of.

1. 7 Reasons Why India is Going to
Lose The Artificial Intelligence
Race
From sorting cucumbers to curing cancers, Artificial Intelligence algorithms
will not pause at anything. Google CEO recently stated that AI is more
profound than electricity and fire in his statement “AI is probably the most
important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more
profound than electricity or fire,”
For the past 30 years, technology outsourcing has generated massive
employment for India, but now AI and Automation is changing the traditional
IT Service Model. Indian outsourcing industry is under serious threat and is
going to change sooner than we can think of.
We should not forget what Vineet Nayyar, former CEO of HCL
Technologies once said
“ IT industry in India was built on the back of
cheap labour”
Will India be a lead player in this game of AI or will India play catch-on and
turn into a follower just to be in the game. No undue prejudice will be done if
we say India has already missed the Bus.

2. 1 - Lack of Government Policies/Support
US, China, Japan, Israel and a few of EU countries are heavily investing in
AI technologies and developing mammoth plans around the prospect of
Artificial Intelligence driven economy.
Based on PwC report the greatest economic gains from AI will be in China
(26% boost to GDP in 2030) and North America (14.5% boost), equivalent to
a total of $10.7 trillion and accounting for almost 70% of the global
economic impact.
India has few dozen startups in the field playing here and there, we will be
short-sighted if we rely on these AI startups funded by VCs and carrying no
long-term goals
In a decade or two from now, the future of India’s national security and
economic progress might depend on such technological innovations. If India
wants to leverage the potential of Artificial Intelligence, it is necessary for the
government bodies to fixate on new policies for AI.
How open should we be for an AI research? Should we be concerned that
there is too much of money flowing into advanced AI research by private
sectors that government is not conscious of? How these AI research is value
aligned to the nation’s bigger goals? AI policies for India should be inclusive
of philosophy, ethics, security, and politics.

3. 2 - Lack of AI Data Sets
Data is the fuel for AI, without data AI is nothing; Quality data set is
instrumental in the accuracy and efficiency of any AI based solution. AI
algorithms and machine learning systems need unusually large volumes of
high-quality data to function efficiently.
The democratization of data is a significant step towards accelerating AI and
without open data platforms and data policies how anybody would make a
product, tool or platform that does disruption. If we don’t have open data that
is machine readable then India’s Artificial Intelligence innovation is stalled
forever.
If India has to create open data platform it has to look at various data
resources, create guidelines for storing data and then create discoverable data
platform – for the public consumption. All AI solutions be it prediction or
demand forecasting, they all are based on the quality of data.
There is sufficient talent in India, and more than often innovation comes from
the unlikely place; once India is prepared to build open data platform, there
will be many new businesses that will become viable by exploiting new
knowledge and insights.
Legal, technical and social requirements for an open dataset need to be
defined in order to realize any social and business value

4. 3 - AI is More Than Chatbots and Automation
Since 2016 there are dozens of AI startups, most are nothing more than the
supplier of chatbots and RPA (robotic process automation); this is not
even AI. Soon voice based AI assistants will take over AI chatbots.
Futurist AI based RPA will improve their own performance and make a
complex decision trajectory based on quality datasets with little intervention
or programming. Future of RPA market belongs to self-learning capabilities
and in the lack of quality data sets, we can’t continually improve upon RPA.
4- India’s Paradox: Leadership
We can’t pursue any further what we have been doing since last 30 years –
executing technology outsourcing projects from US, Europe, and other
geographies because of our large pool of English speaking IT engineering
graduates.
If India has to realize the goals of smart cities and Digital India, then there
can’t be any better time in the future than now, if we don’t act now the gap
between technologically advanced countries and India will expand further
and within a few years from now India will turn into a technology laggard in
the world where China will gain exponential influence because of technology
adoption.

5. The baby steps in India’s Artificial Intelligence evolution are no more useful.
India needs to accelerate the speed of innovation. Infosys co-founder NR
Narayana Murthy trashes AI as hype and said
“There is this whole thing about automation and artificial intelligence. That is much
more hype than the reality, at least in the software services,”
Leaders of the private companies should come forward and think 10x instead
of 2x, they should influence government bodies on the long-term values of
AI-based innovation across all vital functions that public sector and
government serves.
5 - The Great Decoupling
Exponential technological development brings in its own problems like
stagnation of income and disappearance of the middle class – adequate to
disrupt the cycle of prosperity. First time in the history, productivity and
employment are not related and we are observing The Great Decoupling.
Labor’s share of GDP had declined in 42 out of 59 countries, including
China, Mexico, and India. We don’t know what the new ride will feel
like. While creating open data platform we need to discover and create new
markets – enabling employment of re-skilled labor
India has 4 million IT employee generating $150 billion in revenue. World
Bank data estimates 69% of today’s jobs in India are threatened by
automation.

6. The abundance of labor and very low (relatively) wages just mean that AI
adoption will be slow in India. But this slowness won’t stick around long and
we need to move forward on national level deliberate AI policies before we
are late in the game. We need to bring in digital labor model while we
say good bye to India’s dying cheap labor based IT service model
AI is an ingenious instrument that we need to explore for strengthening
ourselves with the challenges that we will face in the near future.
6 - Not Futuristic Enough
"How can you achieve your 10 year plan in the next 6 months?" -- Peter
Thiel, co-founder of Paypal and Palantir
If you closely observe where we stand in realizing the target of 100 smart
cities by 2020 it still appears to be a far-fetched goal.
If we want to stay in the list of Top 5, we need to plan “AI for India” from
the bottom up, by paying attention to India’s social, political, cultural, ethical
and economic situations. This model need not be a Jugaad or copy-paste from
some other country.
How you set up the game is more important than how you play it. If we don’t
have leaders, evangelist, visionaries and futurist that can’t use Artificial
Intelligence to augment our ever-greater capabilities, resources,
opportunities, and achievements – then we must blame ourselves for our
upcoming failures.

7. Technology is advancing faster than ever, faster than our need to innovate,
swifter than we can adapt. If we want to make of use accelerating the growth
of technology for solving some of the biggest problems we have today, then
we need to think exponentially. We need more technology evangelist,
visionaries, and digital futurists.
7 - Issues with Education
With this exponential growth in a technology where 1) Everything will be
connected to the internet 2) Artificial Intelligence will change everything 3)
Every company is becoming a technology company; China is already leaping
ahead in the AI race on many levels (research, investment, and government
policies). India is just waking up to the AI morning. Academics, researchers,
government and private investors have to realize the potential of Artificial
Intelligence for India’s growth.
Our educational system needs to be updated to acquire and enhance skills
required to cope with the changes AI brings along with it. While online
education helps Indian students to get access to a world-class learning
experience but traditional higher education is simply not feasible due to
financial constraints, and infrastructure is still an issue.
We need an education system that instills skills and provide opportunities for
students to use these skills as they learn. The system should not impose “first
complete school, then try IIT, then try MBA”.

8. India produces thousands of engineers per year but we still lag in innovation.
AI requires a mindset of innovation, research, and experimentation. New
education policies, system, and curriculums need to be made future ready and
adaptive enough to suit Artificial Intelligence-based future economy.
Risks of Not Advancing in Artificial Intelligence
India’s initiatives like Start Up India ,Make in India and Digital India might
benefit India constitute a truly Digital India and it is important to have
Artificial Intelligence in the agenda; but I cannot resist drawing my readers'
attention to the irony they will observe upon visiting these websites. Artificial
Intelligence Task Force, constituted by Ministry of Commerce and Industry,
Government of India has nothing to offer for the public community.
After reading this article I am afraid that you may be left inquiring about
what is the author’s argument here. My judgment is that India hasn’t
produced big technology players; till now current large IT players were able
to create jobs in India for serving customers outside of India which is getting
harder and harder with AI technology disruption. If we don’t see any large AI
initiative now with huge intellectual and financial investment India will
suffer its competitive technology position resulting in the bad impact on the
economy – The AI-based technological space will be filled in by Chinese
firms.
India should for the futuristic wave of opportunities even if we have to go
back to the blackboard and labor hard rather than protecting underperforming
legacy IT and business models

9. Yogesh Malik
✅Presales & Solution Architect, ✅Digital Futurist
More from Yogesh Malik
Demystifying IoT's Fog, Edge & MistComputing
5 Reasons Why I Love Data Science
How to Become an ExponentialThinker?
What Innovation? RFP Didn’t Ask ForIt.
Will Artificial Intelligence Bring BackThe God? - Story of AI, from "Good for us"
to "God for us"
The Rise Of The Futurist
How to Future Proof Your Career andStay Market Relevant in This Automation
Age?
India IoT (Internet of Things) — Early2017 Update
How Artificial Intelligence is Writing the Mysteries and Myths of Our Future
Life?