Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to evolve over the past few decades from being an unachievable fantasy to a tangible reality. The pace of innovation in recent years and the all-pervasive nature of AI are all indicative of the unprecedented growth potential it holds. With the technological prowess led by the IT Software and Services industries, India will emerge as the AI powerhouse for social and industrial development.

Tech enterprises have led the digitalization and cloud journey enabling Business 4.0 transformation for enterprises. AI has been a vital pillar of this transformation, defining new-age paradigms such as Machine First. Enterprises are rapidly adopting the Machine First philosophy and evolving their operating and business models. AI is going beyond automation to augmentation and amplification of human effort. Machine first world is the future where humans and machines will operate seamlessly. The future AI machines will need to focus on three Cs that will lead to a new era of creative coexistence resulting in the next societal evolution.

Contextual: Machines of the future will have a much greater understanding of the environments they operate in. Semantic intelligence is key. It is not so much about how well we humans understand the machines, but how they understand our environment. The field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) has made great strides in being able to understand implicit/explicit knowledge of a domain and enable conversations with near-human accuracy. This has significantly augmented human capabilities. For instance, NLP engines effectively address queries on HR policies boosting the productivity of HR personnel. Cognitive systems continuously learn from past data of a help desk, self-train and auto process service requests. AI machines, such as Ignio, are used to self-heal enterprise IT systems.

Cognitive agents are being deployed effectively for public services too. For instance, help exporters and importers, traverse the complex Foreign Trade Policies data and answers traders’ questions on foreign trade policy in real-time. Such systems are not only bringing in much-needed transparency in government services but elevating citizen experience.

Collaborative: Machines will execute many cognitive tasks in an environment that involves collaborative work with humans. For instance, warehouses and fulfilment centers that form the backbone of retail, consumer goods, and the e-commerce industry, will undergo complete transformation through collaborative coexistence. The fulfilment centers of tomorrow will significantly amplify human efforts by bringing intelligent, highly trained, and dextrous robots that undertake complicated tasks like packing, picking and stowing, loading, and unloading. The rise in online commerce post-COVID has only accelerated this imminent transformation.

Conforming: In their coexistence as a part of the ecosystem, the machines will be expected to conform to existing norms and be governed largely by the same rules as us humans. The AI decision-making process should not harm humans, should be unbiased and, in general, comply with ethics and standards established in human society.

While this future state is exciting, for a broad demographic like India, realizing the AI potential will mean large-scale reskilling, fostering entrepreneurship, focused engagement between industries, academia, and government, and a clear policy framework. With the recently announced New Education Policy and the AI Policy, India has laid a roadmap to harness the unique opportunity encouraging social development and inclusive growth.

As one of the oldest civilizations, India has attracted many who came seeking the balance between material and spiritual. The future is all about the human-machine balance – the ultimate state of Nirvana for AI. And, India is poised to lead!

Author of this article is a Steering Committee member of AI Gamechangers. This article was originally published on NASSCOM Insights.