R&D has to be stepped up by industry and academia, say experts at the 'AI for India' summit in Bengaluru

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], June 28 (ANI): Research & Development (R&D) has to be stepped up by the industry and academia, which is a constant pain point, highlighted experts in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) during a fireside chat at the ongoing 'AI for India' event in Bengaluru.
"This is an opportunity. R&D must step up, and this effort needs to be implemented across the industry and in academia. I must empathise with the industry; there are pain points they face in adapting to changes, not just AI, but to pretty much anything disruptive. So we need industries to step up, but we also need academia to step up, and this is an opportunity," said Ganesh Ramakrishnan, Professor at IIT Bombay.
Speaking about the change in classroom learning at IIM Bangalore, Rishikesha Krishan, Director, said that they have already witnessed the industry asking students questions about how they will utilise AI in areas such as digital marketing, etc.
He said, "This year itself, in our placement interviews, we found companies asking prospective candidates. Questions like if you have to make a digital marketing plan for the company, how will you use AI tools to do it more effectively, what tool will you use, how will you go about it?, etc. - so that's what's happening on the employer side. So what we are trying to figure out right now."
Krishnan further added that the focus of academia is 'co-creation'. "We want the human being and the AI to work together. We don't just want some output of that GenAI engine," he added.
During the event, in a separate discussion about areas where traction has been witnessed, Gourav Gupta of India 2W TVS Motors stated that the company's AI is being utilised in manufacturing efficiencies, equipment efficiencies, predictive maintenance, safety, and other areas.
"In terms of consumer-facing activities already at our end, we are working in the area of, uh, conversational AI. We're working already in the area of, uh. You're familiar with voice AI as well, so whenever our call centres are interacting with our consumers, the entire sentiment analysis and other aspects are being actively worked on. The third area is now leveraging marketing and tools. In fact, I'm more than happy to share with you a look at what our team has now leveraged and put across an entire AI-generated advertising campaign as well. Uh, you know, so in terms of making sure that, uh, and using GI content that is very specific to consumers, that's an area that can always evolve even to higher levels, and the third area is actually for employee engagement," Gupta added.
Sateesh Seetharamiah, of CEO EdgVerve, said, "We are seeing close to a 40 to 50 per cent improvement in productivity."
'AI for India' summit aims to create a platform for actionable collaboration among industry leaders, deep tech startups, academia, civic bodies, and policymakers, according to the official release by AI4India.
AI4India is a public-interest initiative working to build India's AI ecosystem through open innovation, ethical research, and collaborative capacity building. Its DataDaan campaign and national engagements aim to make AI work for every Indian.
The ongoing summit is witnessing a diversity of Industry Speakers from TVS Motors, HDFC Bank, Sahamati Foundation, Tejas Networks, EdgeVerve, Yotta, among others. While leading AI startups, Sarvam and BharatGen, will showcase their latest models, innovations from Latlong AI, Parlaxiom, Pienomial, and others will also be on display. (ANI)