Bengaluru: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a game changing disruption and India is at risk of missing the digital leap, said Soumitra Dutta, Professor of management and former founding dean of SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, New York at a Leadership Masterclass organised by the CII – Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership.

“AI is the next frontier for competitiveness and the country that leverages the true potential of AI will dominate over the next 30 years. Leading nations such as the United States and China have recognized the critical role of such emerging technologies and India needs to do more to stay in the race. Part of the JAM trinity, bold digital initiatives such as Aadhar are India’s best chances in scaling the Innovation ladder” Professor Dutta said.

Highlighting the increasing disparity between large, high-income economies and smaller countries in terms of absolute innovation, Prof. Dutta emphasised the importance of long terms Investments in AI research, world class academic institutions and breakthrough reforms. He suggested that for both the Government and Industry, responsible governance and data analytics are key in bringing India up to speed.

“Analytics drives transition in firms – from reactive to proactive, myopic to holistic and from people to augmented Intelligence” said Prof. Dutta, further stressing on the importance of data analytics in digital transformation

While there has been a sustained focus on the ‘consumer Internet’ which has transformed the way we live, the spotlight is now shifting to Industry, because this is where the biggest transformation is taking place – and where the greatest value will be created over the coming decades. “The Internet of Things (IoT) is extending digital platforms across Industrial and Consumer Internet” Prof. Dutta added.

He also highlighted the emergence of extremely powerful platforms such as Uber and Amazon, which are environments where consumers and people can interact at scale.  “Industry needs to recognize that platforms require unique Innovation ecosystems and transitioning from a pipeline business into a platform model is challenging for every organisation” he said.

Prof. Dutta is also of the opinion that evaluating an organization’s own digital readiness in an excellent starting point to build a smart digital strategy that is inherently scalable and can succeed in the face of disruption. Business leaders need to plan for failure as well as focus on learning with the objective of building a shared digital future.