India catching up with others on AI race: Microsoft's Anant Maheshwari

Maheshwari said there is highest penetration of AI skills among the workforce that will fuel digital transformation in the country sooner than thought

In a renewed push for Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge use cases in the country, Microsoft India on Wednesday said there is highest penetration of AI skills among the workforce that will fuel digital transformation in the country sooner than thought.

"A tectonic shift is happening in AI. Nearly 85 per cent of enterprises globally will use AI in some form or the other by 2020. Indian firms are now fast catching up," Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, told reporters at the company's flagship Media and Analysts' Day here.

Nearly eight per cent of GDP components in India are currently impacted by digital technologies and by 2021, 60 per cent of those will be impacted.

"Almost every sector is becoming digital and that transformation is impacting every company in India," stressed Maheshwari.

Today, 97 per cent of the top banks, 75 per cent of the top retailers, 81 per cent of the top auto firms, 75 per cent of the top pharma players and 67 per cent of the top healthcare firms are Microsoft's customers in India.

Wipro, Future Generali, L&T Technology Services and Apollo Hospitals are some of the key customers.

"With over 9,500 partners, nearly 3,000 Cloud partners and 88 own IP-ready partners, we are ready to unlock the full potential of AI, Cloud and data for the Indian firms," stressed the Microsoft India President.

Over 700 AI-driven enterprises in India today are driving businesses with New Age technologies.

Driven by Intelligent Cloud, Intelligent Edge and spurt of data, AI and its growing use cases are set to change the game.

Microsoft currently has 54 Azure Cloud regions -- more than AWS and Google combined.

"We will continue to work closely with the countries when it comes to data localisation. India already has three Azure regions which shows how serious we are for keeping data within the boundaries," said Maheshwari.