India secures top rank in world AI race

New Delhi: NetApp, a data infrastructure company, has released a report on cloud complexity indicating a clear division between countries leading the way in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and those lagging behind. 

According to the NetApp report, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States are leading the charge on AI adoption and innovation. Conversely, countries like Spain, Australia, and Germany are identified as laggards in this technological advancement.

The report, conducted in collaboration with Savanta- a market research company, surveyed over 1,300 executives across ten countries to gauge AI implementation status in various industries. The report highlighted global insights into the progress, readiness, challenges, and momentum of AI adoption and the critical role of a unified data infrastructure in achieving AI success.

It revealed that 60 per cent companies in leading countries have AI projects up and running or in pilot. In contrast only 36 per cent of companies in AI-lagging countries have embarked on similar AI initiatives.

The report also mentioned that, both AI leaders and AI laggards show a difference in their approach to AI. Globally, 67 per cent of companies in AI-leading countries report having hybrid IT environments, India leading with 70 per cent and Japan lagging at 24 per cent.

AI leaders are also more likely to report benefits from AI, including a 50 per cent increase in production rates, 46 per cent in the automation of routine activities and 45 per cent improvement in customer experience.

“The rise of AI is ushering in a new disrupt-or-die era,” said Gabie Boko, Chief Marketing Officer at NetApp. “Data-ready enterprises that connect and unify broad structured and unstructured data sets into an intelligent data infrastructure are best positioned to win in the age of AI.”

The report suggested AI-laggard countries must swiftly innovate and adopt AI if they want to remain competitive.

“AI is only as good as the data that fuels it,” said Pravjit Tiwana, Senior Vice President of Cloud Storage at NetApp. “Both the AI leaders and AI laggards show us that in the prevailing hybrid IT environment, the more unified and reliable your data, the more likely your AI initiatives are to be successful.”

The report says that IT cost and data security are major challenges for AI adoption and innovations, but it won’t stop the progress of AI.

The report concludes that the disparity underscores the growing importance of AI in driving economic growth, innovation, and competitiveness on a global scale.

Nations that are proactive in embracing AI technology are likely to enjoy significant advantages in various sectors, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation. However, those slower to adopt risk will fall behind in the race for technological supremacy and the associated benefits it brings.