• 70% of Indian enterprises that deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI) have achieved measurable results
• 74% established either a formal strategy or obtained C-suite sponsorship to initiate or scale-up their AI programs
• 78% believe re-skilling of the existing talent will aid in maximizing value from their AI programs

New Delhi, September 02, 2020: Seventy percent of Indian enterprises that deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI) have achieved measurable results while sixty percent believe that AI will disrupt their business within the next 2-3 years finds a recent study released by NASSCOM in association with EY. Titled ‘Can enterprise intelligence be created artificially? A survey of Indian enterprises’, the report is an outcome of a joint survey, assessing the responses of 500+ CXOs on the maturity of AI adoption and the challenges faced by enterprises in their AI journey.

The survey also outlined that 74% of Indian enterprises have established either a formal strategy or obtained C-suite sponsorship to initiate or scale-up their AI programs while 78% believed re-skilling of the existing talent will aid in maximizing value from their AI programs. As business leaders continue to recognise the role AI can play in providing competitive advantage and generating long-term value, the top three areas cited by the survey respondents, where AI is believed to add maximum value were; operational efficiency, customer experience and revenue growth.

Sharing her thoughts on the report launch, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, said, “As industry witnesses a rapid advancement in new technologies, Artificial Intelligence increasingly becoming an imperative for businesses across industries. Implementing AI will not only catalyze the innovation to stay competitive but also generate long-term value for enterprises. The NASSCOM – EY survey is ready reckoner that AI adoption is a critical competitive lever. It enables business leaders to infuse technology at speed.”

Nitin Bhatt, Partner & Technology Sector Leader, EY India said “AI holds tremendous potential in helping companies innovate, enhance competitiveness and generate significant long-term value. AI adopters have already achieved remarkable success in transforming their business models, operational processes and stakeholder experiences. As business leaders continue to push the frontiers of technology and the future success of AI will be driven only by our inspiration and imagination.”

The survey reflected that enterprises across sectors are embracing artificial intelligence, albeit with varying levels of enthusiasm. Sectors such as BFSI and retail that are intensive in terms of recorded or digitized data were found to be leading in AI adoption with 36% and 25% respectively. However, other sectors like healthcare and agriculture also seem to be catching up, with many meaningful AI endeavors at different levels of implementation.

Vijay Bhaskaran, Partner – Technology Consulting, EY said “AI has immense capability to unlock exponential value for businesses and navigate the complexities of the ever-evolving digital economy. However, enterprises too need to equip themselves with the right AI platform that can help them rapidly adopt and scale AI solutions, resulting in faster, smarter and future ready businesses. It is our constant endeavour to help organizations transform by automating intelligently with our unique propositions in artificial intelligence (AI) consulting.”

While end-customer centric functions were most favoured by organizations in Retail and BFSI sectors, healthcare and agriculture cited operations to be the function with the highest potential for AI deployment.

While AI continues to demonstrate significant potential, the survey delves deeper into some of the significant challenges centered around technology, talent and trust pillars that have been restricting organizations from embracing it. Trust emerged as the cornerstone for enterprise-wide AI adoption with over 55% of business leaders stating that they trust AI to make strategic and operational decisions. However, explainability and bias were perceived as the core concerns that can result in an adverse business impact, among organizations where AI has been deployed. Similarly, data security, privacy, safety/security of people and equipment emerged as the top-of-mind concerns among organizations where AI has not been deployed.

Low digitization and legacy systems were among the major factors citied by 60% of the organizations that have not implemented AI. Whereas 55% believed that cultural impediments and low maturity of external ecosystem especially with respect to technology and service providers, restricted their ability to accelerate AI initiatives.

To summarize, the findings state that an overwhelming majority of CXOs acknowledge that benefits of AI are real and sustainable. As business leaders continue to push the frontiers of technology, organizations will be required to address challenges and build stakeholder trust to rapidly scale their AI programs in the immediate future.

About NASSCOM

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM®) is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India and comprises over 2800-member companies including both Indian and multinational organisations that have a presence in India. Our membership spans across the entire spectrum of the industry from start-ups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Service Centers to Engineering firms. Guided by India’s vision to become a leading digital economy globally, NASSCOM focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enablers for global digital transformation. Our strategic imperatives are to reskill and upskill India’s IT workforce to ensure that talent is future-ready in terms of new-age skills, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities – both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the Industry narrative with focus on Talent, Trust and Innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.

NASSCOM has played a key role in not just the growth of the Industry to become a $180+Billion industry today, but we have helped establish the Tech industry in India as one of the most trusted partners, globally. NASSCOM continues to make significant efforts in contributing towards India’s GDP, exports, employment, infrastructure development and global visibility. Our membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 4 million professionals, and as technology blends into every aspect of the economy, we expect the industry to become key driver of growth, development and inclusion for the country. Our mission is to make India a global hub for Innovation and Talent so when the world thinks Digital, the world will think India.

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

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New Delhi, July 27^th2020: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) along with ICRIER, one of India’s leading think tanks and Google launched their research findings from the study titled “Implications of AI on the Indian Economy.”

India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) moment is truly here and now. The transformational potential of AI stems from its application to a diverse range of applications across sectors and its ability to address developmental challenges in agriculture, healthcare, education and access to financial services. Its pervasiveness is akin to electricity, computers and other examples of General-Purpose Technologies (GPTs), the emergence and diffusion of which have enabled the wealth of nations.

The report estimates that a unit increase in AI intensity by Indian firms can result in a 2.5% increase in India’s GDP in the immediate term. AI intensity is measured as the ratio of AI to total sales of the firm. In the absence of a direct measure of AI at the firm level, the model uses investments in software, databases and computer machinery as a proxy for AI. The results of the model find a positive and significant relation between AI using firms and growth in total factor productivity (TFP)

However, the current rate of growth in AI investments is unlikely to increase the levels of AI intensity adequately. In order to trigger a positive growth shock, AI intensities should be sharply increased. For example, the investment of Rs. 7000 crores approved by the Ministry of Finance towards an Artificial Intelligence program could increase AI investments at rates higher than the business as usual rates. This increase in investment will lead to approximately 1.3 times increase in AI intensity, translating into spillover benefits of 3.2% increase in India’s GDP.

The report’s econometric estimation provides adequate evidence for policy measures required to support AI’s wider adoption in India, including (1) identifying a nodal agency for the development and diffusion of AI, (2) building collaborative frameworks for engagement between governments, Industry and academia; (3) building an all-encompassing data strategy for India; (4) addressing India’s skill gap in AI and (5) promoting the development of AI safety standards. 

In his special address, Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog said “India is in the midst of a once-in-a-generation disruption driven by Artificial Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence has become a strategic lever for economic growth across nations and will continue to be one of the most crucial technologies of the future. By integrating new technologies like AI and ML into various sectors, we can radically leapfrog and catch up with advanced economies.”

In his presentation of the report findings, Rajat Kathuria, Director and CE, ICRIER said, “The government has an active role to play in creating institutions and providing public goods that enable India’s AI ecosystem, while also encouraging private actors to innovate and thrive.”  “The vast impacts of AI and the current circumstances combine to merit mission mode action of AI programs across sectors, by government at all levels. This will help overcome the inherent market failure evident in early phases of any technology”, he added.

During the discussion Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM said, “In hopes to accelerate growth and pave a path towards innovation, Artificial Intelligence has a definite role to play in empowering industries, infrastructure and the society at large. With sheer enthusiasm we are now fostering investments in the new generation of digital natives to elevate industry growth trajectory and further boost productivity levels.”

Sharing his thoughts on Google’s vision for India, Mr. Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & VP, Google India, said “This is a seminal report, estimating a 2.5% growth in India’s GDP if India adopts AI in a sustained way. There is no doubt in my mind that with close collaboration between the private and public sector, and by focussing our collective expertise and energies on the most pressing problems of today, we will go a long way towards achieving the vision of a socially empowered, inclusive, and digitally transformed India.”

Dr. Manish Gupta, Director, Google Research said, “We at Google are now working on future products that will be highly impactful with the help of AI. The healthcare sector is personally close to my heart — it is something India doesn’t have enough of, and there is room to get smarter in both wellness and preventive healthcare. Analysis of data from sensors in mobiles and wearable devices can help prevent diseases, while there are people who are not even aware that they have a disease. We are planning to apply AI in healthcare in a big way.”

About NASSCOM

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM®) is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India and comprises over 2800-member companies including both Indian and multinational organisations that have a presence in India. Our membership spans across the entire spectrum of the industry from start-ups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Service Centers to Engineering firms. Guided by India’s vision to become a leading digital economy globally, NASSCOM focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enablers for global digital transformation.  Our strategic imperatives are to reskill and upskill India’s IT workforce to ensure that talent is future-ready in terms of new-age skills, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities – both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the Industry narrative with focus on Talent, Trust and Innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.

NASSCOM has played a key role in not just the growth of the Industry to become a $180+Billion industry today, but we have helped establish the Tech industry in India as one of the most trusted partners, globally. NASSCOM continues to make significant efforts in contributing towards India’s GDP, exports, employment, infrastructure development and global visibility. Our membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 4 million professionals, and as technology blends into every aspect of the economy, we expect the industry to become key driver of growth, development and inclusion for the country. Our mission is to make India a global hub for Innovation and Talent so when the world thinks Digital, the world will think India.

The post IMPLICATIONS OF AI ON THE INDIAN ECONOMY: REPORT LAUNCH BY ICRIER, GOOGLE AND NASSCOM appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Move aimed at creating a one stop shop for Enterprise AI:  While Haptik bots tackle consumer use cases, Leena will complement with HR bot solutions & others like IT, Admin

Mumbai, 15 November, 2018: Leading conversational AI player Haptik has entered into a strategic partnership with Y-combinator backed Leena AI to offer enterprises a one stop shop for all types of bot solutions. The two leading Conversational AI platforms of India aim to leverage each other’s strengths to offer a holistic chatbot solution that can efficiently handle various operational needs of enterprises. While Leena AI’s solutions are focused on offering bot-based HR, IT, Admin solutions for employees, Haptik offers its diverse engagement bots to tackle consumer use cases. As a result of this partnership, both companies will offer each other’s product offerings in collaboration to help enterprises make a seamless transition to automated operations.

Conversational AI solutions have become extremely popular with enterprises all over the world due to a number of reasons, including greater optimization, higher ROI, cost-efficiency, 24X7 accessibility and consistency of engagement. However, with an increase in demand, a large number of chatbot integrators have emerged, leading to high fragmentation in the industry. In such a scenario, a partnership between two of the leading platforms offers a great solution for enterprises to integrate diverse domains such as HR, IT, customer support and engagement.

Started in 2013, Haptik processes close to 10M chat each month and offers conversational AI for customer-facing use cases like support, engagement, feedback and lead generation. Backed by Times Internet, Haptik counts some of the leading Fortune 500 companies like Samsung, Coca-Cola, ICICI Bank, P&G, KFC and HDFC as its customers. With a 120-member strong team at present,  The company has processed over a billion interactions to date and helps enterprises leverage the power of AI to improve overall customer experience.

Having identified the need for automation in HR, Leena AI was launched in August 2017 and has the coveted title of being one of the six startups from India to be selected by Y Combinator. With its core focus on HR and employee-centric use cases, Leena’s Machine learning models specifically are trained to understand employee questions and concerns and has one of the most compelling solutions for HR helpdesk automation. Leena’s client list includes Coca-Cola, Pidilite, Marico, Reliance Capital, L&T Defense, Viacom 18, CEAT Tyres, RPG Group, Axis Bank amongst others and serves more than 200,000 employees every day.

Commenting on the association, Mr Aakrit Vaish, co-founder and CEO, Haptik said, “As a leader in the conversational AI space, we get a lot of requests from customers for internal use cases like HR automation and IT support. We are happy to now work with Leena AI and address these use cases and increase our product offering for our customers. With this partnership, Haptik now has a conversational AI solution for all major use cases which enterprises are looking to service. We were impressed by the domain expertise and models Leena has built for employee-centric scenarios and realised that partnering with them would be a great win for our customers.”

“Our approach of going deep in internal use cases has worked really well. HR automation is a huge need at this point and more and more organisations are looking to drive efficiencies in their HR processes and response management. We are extremely excited to partner with Haptik and leverage their deep market relationships to offer our solutions to their customers. Having personally looked at their tech stack and platform capabilities, we are looking forward to offer Haptik’s bots to our customers as well. While Leena AI is the leader in the HR tech domain, this partnership enables us to offer more solutions to our customers and also helps both organisations learn from each other,” said Adit Jain, CEO and Co-founder, Leena AI.

Haptik and Leena AI’s association is a shot-in-the-arm for the Indian chatbot industry, which has been registering an overall growth due to a growing interest among enterprises that want their businesses to be future-ready. The partnership presents a unique opportunity for enterprises to opt for the combined solutions on offer as they get to cover a maximum number of use cases while simultaneously optimizing the enterprise’s internal as well as external communication.

About Haptik-

Haptik is one of the world’s largest Conversational AI platforms reaching over 100 million devices monthly. The company has processed over a billion interactions to date through more than a 100 bots, helping enterprises leverage the power of AI to automate critical business processes and improve overall customer experience. The company has been at the forefront of the paradigm shift from apps to chatbots, having built a robust set of technology and tools that enable integration of any type of conversational application.

About Leena

Leena AI is the largest employee-facing Conversational AI platform globally & touches over 200,000 employees every day. Automating of repetitive & mundane questions or processes using Leena AI helps internal HR/IT/Admin professionals save upto 4 hours daily while significantly improving employee experience. Leena AI leverages AI & NLP to understand employee questions & needs and caters to them by connecting with all enterprise applications like SAP, Oracle, Workday, etc.

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New York, NY and Redmond, WA – (November 13, 2018) – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) today released details around a newly developed enterprise data solution that democratizes one of the largest consumer data sets in the world.  This strategic alliance has been brought to life through Nielsen Connect, powered by Microsoft Azure, the trusted and global-scale intelligent cloud platform.

In today’s rapidly changing marketplace, Microsoft and Nielsen are together focused on helping Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and retail companies find growth and accelerate innovation within an open data environment.

Already, Nielsen Connect is inspiring companies to glean more value from their data and sparking a movement for the industry to reimagine its approach to data strategy.  Through advanced analytics and artificial intelligence services built on Azure, Nielsen Connect is helping companies integrate data assets to more easily spot emerging trends, diagnose performance gaps, and act faster on opportunities to grow. Most notably, this platform enables clients to use their data as an enterprise asset across all parts of their organization.

“Nielsen’s powerful data is as much of an enterprise asset as people and products,” said John Tavolieri, President, U.S. FMCG and Retail and Chief Technology and Operations Officer at Nielsen. “It’s our priority to make sure clients are maximizing their data assets, so Nielsen and Microsoft are breaking down the silos of the status quo. We are helping the retail industry reimagine its approach to data by creating a truly open and global environment of collaboration, encouraging companies to evolve beyond mere data management. Adopting a holistic data strategy will be the only way to win in FMCG and retail.”

“The first critical step toward digital transformation, especially among retailers, is breaking down the barriers between customer and operational data to fuel insights for the business,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business. “Because retail happens wherever customers are and whenever they choose, Nielsen Connect provides high reliability at a global scale 24/7. Microsoft is a natural partner for Nielsen, trusted by global enterprises to protect their data and power their critical business solutions.”

Grounded by the richest data available in the fast-moving consumer goods space, Nielsen Connect brings clarity to what’s happening in the market from every angle.  Nielsen’s deep media and consumer measurement (including retail point-of-sale data, consumer panel, e-commerce, fresh food and cross-platform media data), is integrated with a robust variety of data sources, including  data provided directly from clients as well as from Nielsen Connect Partners. Nielsen’s reference data, which provides structure to the world’s most robust retail and shopper information, powers this system to make integration across data sources and countries simple. Within this open and agile platform running on Microsoft Azure, customers can easily access data sets via APIs and connectors, allowing them to extract the data they need to fit their own technology strategy.

The joint Microsoft and Nielsen solution is live today and will serve as a one-stop-shop in creating scalable, high-performance data environments that enable greater real-time collaboration for faster results. Through this strategic alliance, the two companies will continue to work toward a mutual vision of an open and connected data universe, empowering a new generation of solutions for the FMCG retail marketplace.

ABOUT MICROSOFT

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

ABOUT NIELSEN

Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides the most complete and trusted view available of consumers and markets worldwide. Our approach marries proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. For more than 90 years Nielsen has provided data and analytics based on scientific rigor and innovation, continually developing new ways to answer the most important questions facing the media, advertising, retail and fast-moving consumer goods industries. An S&P 500 company, Nielsen has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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NASSCOM And Industry Come Together To Empower Employees With Futureskills Platform

Chennai, 26th July, 2018: As digitalization expands its horizons and upskilling becomes indispensable for professionals across the IT spectrum, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) today showcased the roadmap for their pilot reskilling initiative – FutureSkills. Conducted on the sidelines of the HR Summit, Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM and Amit Aggarwal, CEO, IT-ITES Sector Skills Council, NASSCOM discussed the industry response and ultimate objective for the platform.

The demand for emerging technologies like Big Data Analytics, Artificial intelligence, Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, Internet of Things and Robotics is increasing with the brimming need for a robust talent pipeline. NASSCOM’s FutureSkills platform (powered by Edcast) aims to position India as the talent hub for emerging technologies, as the pioneer in global digital capabilities. An industry utility for skills development in 9 emerging technologies, 66+ job roles and 155+ skills, the platform is a complement to the government’s Digital India initiative. The programme is pivoted on 9 emerging technologies: Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Robotic Process Automation, Internet of things, Social & media, Virtual Reality, 3D printing and Cloud Computing.

Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM said, “Capacity building and skill development have emerged as core components to bridge the digital disruption. As technology permeates through various industries, we are confident that the symbiosis of skills and innovation will be well absorbed across industries. With reskilling, productivity enhancement, and automation emerging as the future drivers of the industry, NASSCOM’s FutureSkills platform is surfing a new wave of growth through the automation tide.”

Most companies today are generating and using huge amount of data. Hence, Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence will have propensity to impact many sectors in the near future. The first few sectors to be impacted will be healthcare, retail, telecom and manufacturing, who will leverage insights from Big Data Analytics to drive their businesses. The total demand for AI and Big Data Analytics roles in 2018 will be 511,000 and will increase to 786,000 by 2021. Additionally, job creation for more traditional Big Data Analytics roles will grow at 7% compared to Data Scientist roles, which will be 65% over the next 3 years according to a Zinnov Report. Keeping this in mind, the priority focus of the FutureSkills initiative will be re-skilling the workforce in AI and Big Data Analytics.

10 NASSCOM member companies will be the pioneers who have enrolled in the first phase of the initiative, the second phase will open its doors to universities and colleges.  Some of the ‘Pioneers’ include, Wipro and Tech Mahindra (IT Services), Cyient (Engineering Services), Genpact & WNS (BPM), CGI (Global Capability Center), Purpletalk (Products), Dev-IT and Kellton (SMEs). Personifying co-creation and collective collaboration of the industry, these companies will work along with NASSCOM to curate the courseware and leverage the content to re-skill their employees. Industry experts will also contribute relevant information to keep updating the current learning content. Currently we have a user base of 200,000+ from member firms who have committed to re-skill their employees, from the 30,000+ content pieces available on the platform.

Across the entire spectrum of the industry, skill profiles are undergoing rapid changes witnessing a rising demand for enhanced digital capabilities. The FutureSkills programme which was launched earlier this February, ultimately aims to reskill 1 million professionals along with skilling 1 million potential employees and students in the industry over a period of 5 years.

About NASSCOM

NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPM industries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 2100 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM’s member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services and animation and gaming. NASSCOM’s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 3.5 million professionals.

The post AI AND BIG DATA ANALYTICS ARE CHANGING THE JOBS ECOSYSTEM ACROSS THE SPECTRUM; NASSCOM SHOWCASES THE ROADMAP FOR FUTURESKILLS INITIATIVE appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

AI, Digital Reading and Paid Knowledge in Focus at Book Fair Seminar

20 July 2018－ Technology has changed the publishing industry more than anyone could have predicted just a decade ago. While this has led to many publishers leaving the market, it has also created exciting opportunities for others that are ready to adapt and embrace new technology, according to speakers at the International Publishing Forum, held on 18 July at the 19^th edition of the HKTDC Hong Kong Book Fair.

Sharing their views and experience at the forum themed “The Global Trend of Publishing with the Application of Technology” were Fang Jun, a knowledge services expert and Partner at KChain Lab; Natasha Leung, Senior Publishing Manager at publishing and education company Pearson Hong Kong; and Luo Li, Senior Vice-President at China Literature, the operator of a leading online literature platform in China. The forum included a Q&A session in the final half hour, moderated by Edmund Chan, Director of the Hong Kong Publishing Federation.

Paid Knowledge

Mr Fang discussed the potential for paid knowledge in the Internet age, specifically paid-subscriber online columns, which can be personalised, can be offered on audio channels, and can help build new online communities for people with common interests. “This is becoming a major market,” he said. “Within only a year, some columnists have become very popular.”

For a paid knowledge product to be successful, he said, it must lead online users to act and provide an interactive experience. An appropriate app can enable communication and sharing, which is what makes cinemas, gyms and cafés popular, said Mr Fang. People can watch films, work out and have a coffee at home, but they prefer to do so in a social environment. Similarly, many people enjoy sharing and discussing what they are reading, the speaker noted.

“In the past 50 years, Hollywood dominated the field of entertainment,” concluded Mr Fang. “But in the future, Silicon Valley may take over.”

Artificial Intelligence

Ms Leung, from Pearson Hong Kong, best-known for its English-learning textbooks from pre-primary to higher education under the Longman brand, described the company’s collaboration with International Business Machines (IBM) and Microsoft in adapting artificial intelligence (AI) to English learning in higher learning and primary school, respectively.

Pearson’s collaboration with IBM involves adapting IBM’s AI engine, Watson, to Pearson’s higher-education platform, she explained. Watson allows Pearson to create custom curricula to match each student’s needs and ability and provide students with a virtual one-on-one tutor, which asks them questions about the content and gives hints or adapts the information for each student to guide them on their learning path. Teachers can also use the data provided to focus on individual students’ needs.

Pearson’s collaboration with Microsoft started with the successful launch of Longman English+, an English learning application (app) last year, integrating Longman’s Welcome to English series and Microsoft’s AI technology.

The WeChat-based interactive Longman English+ app being piloted this year on the Chinese mainland covers three main language areas: vocabulary, listening/speaking, and phonics. In the listening and speaking section, the students listen and then read a passage. They get an instant score and words that need improving are colour coded. They also participate in a scenario dialogue, with the app asking questions and the students answering. In the phonics section, the students read commonly confused sounds and receive personalised feedback. The scoring system uses a complex algorithm. “Pearson’s vision is to become a lifelong learning partner offering personalised learning to help make a positive difference in people’s lives,” concluded Ms Leung.

Digital Reading

Mr Luo of China Literature focused on development trends in digital reading. “Changes in technology, particularly AI, will have a great influence on our reading habits,” said Mr Luo. “The content has not changed. Reading is still the most fundamental demand in entertainment, and it satisfies people’s desire for knowledge. But how audiences are targeted has changed.”

Companies such as China Literature, a leader in the mainland’s online literature field, are providing more personalised services than ever and the technology used to provide varied reading formats and target readers will continue to improve, he said. China Literature also provides services for authors. In the past, for example, writers of historical fiction may have had to travel across the world to visit places such as the British Museum to verify historical information, but now China Literature has accumulated a huge number of historical and other documents online to help make writing more efficient.

Mr Luo spoke of the marketing revolution that is taking place in the online literature field. Online literature can never compete with the entertainment industry regarding promotion expenditure, so players are using new technology, such as WeChat and key opinion leaders (KOLs). The KOL’s can be a very efficient means of promotion because a popular KOL can reach up to 10,000 readers. They are also using virtual figures instead of celebrities to promote their books, reducing costs and giving instant feedback to followers through the use of AI.

With Big Data technology, platforms such as China Literature can analyse data from individual users and promote material based on their past reading experience, recommending content that is potentially attractive and even tailoring the introduction or welcome page of their website to their interests. This is similar to the technology social media and online shopping platforms are using. Big Data also provides China Literature with an analysis of the popularity of each novel by city, and by reader age and gender, for example.

Another way in which technology is affecting online literature is by providing greater interactivity. There are now more audio books, robot reading, virtual reality and augmented reality, which are enabling many new scenarios and many new types of reading experiences.

“The love of reading will continue as long as humans exist,” concluded Mr Luo. “But the reading experience will change. We need to broaden our vision and include technology in this experience.”

About the HKTDC

Established in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is a statutory body dedicated to creating opportunities for Hong Kong’s businesses. With 50 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China, Asia and the world. With more than 50 years of experience, the HKTDC organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in international markets, while providing business insights and information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room.

The post Technology Seen to Create New Opportunities for Publishing appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

India, July 12, 2018 – Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today announces Atos Codex AI Suite, the most comprehensive Artificial Intelligence (AI) software suite available on the market, to support businesses and research institutes in the development, deployment and management of AI applications. With Atos Codex AI Suite data scientists now have an easy-to-use, efficient and cost-effective solution to rapidly build and deploy artificial intelligence applications, better extract value from data and develop new business opportunities.

Leveraging machine learning and deep-learning capabilities, Atos Codex AI Suite fosters a new generation of AI applications, which are able to sense, reason, act and adapt, to address a range of scientific, industry and enterprise challenges, in areas such as personal medicine, homeland security, smart cities and intelligent and autonomous data centers.

First infrastructure agnostic solution on market

Using Atos Codex AI Suite, apps can be deployed and relocated on multiple complementary environments:

• Cloud: on a wide variety of public Clouds, including AWS, Azure and Google Cloud, with which Atos recently announced a global agreement,
• On-premises: on any server infrastructure, including on Atos’ BullSequana S server, its BullSequana X exascale-ready supercomputer and
• Edge computing: on Atos’ future edge computing box, one of the first of its kind worldwide, which will enable businesses to extract and process valuable insight from data in real-time, close to the data source, to transform it into knowledge to support instantaneous decision-making while reducing costs. This break-through machine has a ruggedized design, allowing it to be used in any type of environment.

“This software suite is a new step forward to support our customers in their own digital transformation. Atos Codex AI Suite tackles new enterprise, scientific and industry challenges, such as precision medicine, advanced prescriptive maintenance and prescriptive security, with a new generation of cognitive applications, capable to address complex functions. It paves the way to new application domains and helps our customers to increase their business opportunities.” says Arnaud Bertrand, SVP, Strategy and Innovation BDS at Atos.

Key features and benefits:

• Accelerates time-to-market: Using Atos Codex AI Suite’s secure, shared environment data scientists are able to use even the most complex applications by using qualified components, applications and trained models to improve quality and rapidly develop applications.
• Delivers affordable performance: Atos Codex AI Suite delivers optimal performance at the lowest cost, as only the most relevant resources are allocated. Cloud resources are used whenever possible and high-performance resources only when necessary.
• Enables High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI convergence: HPC businesses can harness the benefits of AI, overcoming the limits of traditional simulations, to develop new applications in sectors such as precision medicine, prescriptive security and person recognition.
• Runs on multiple environments: Cloud or on-premises to ensure fast allocation of resources and applications at any time.

Availability

Atos Codex AI Suite is available today, and can be purchased as a standalone software platform or together with a server infrastructure. Atos Codex AI Suite is Atos’ latest innovation as part of the Atos Codex portfolio.

About Atos

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with approximately 100,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of around € 12 billion. European number one in Big Data, Cybersecurity, High Performance Computing and Digital Workplace, the Group provides Cloud services, Infrastructure & Data Management, Business & Platform solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payment industry. With its cutting-edge technologies, digital expertise and industry knowledge, Atos supports the digital transformation of its clients across various business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Energy & Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications and Transportation. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, Unify and Worldline. Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

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Microsoft India today showcased several of its own and third-party solutions that use Microsoft Cognitive Services and bring the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to users and organizations through vision, speech, language, knowledge and search scenarios. Over 370 enterprise customers in India already use these cognitive APIs from Microsoft. Microsoft is working with over 650 partners to bring AI solutions to benefit large, medium and small enterprises in the country.

Microsoft Cognitive Services is a collection of intelligent APIs that allow systems to see, hear, speak, understand and interpret human needs using natural methods of communication. Developers can use these APIs to make their applications across platforms more intelligent, engaging and discoverable. Available at www.microsoft.com/cognitive, it includes APIs on

• Vision: From faces to feelings, allow apps to understand images and video
• Speech: Hear and speak to users by filtering noise, identifying speakers, and understanding intent
• Language: Process text and learn how to recognize what users want
• Knowledge: Tap into rich knowledge amassed from the web, academia, or your own data
• Search: Locate relevant information among billions of web pages, images, videos, and news with the power of Bing APIs

To date, more than a million developers around the world have already discovered and tried Microsoft Cognitive Services.

Microsoft and partner solutions available to Indian customers are many. Here are a few examples.

VISION

• Seeing AI: Designed for users with visual impairment, the Microsoft Seeing AI App combines artificial intelligence and rich computer vision to describe surrounding people, text, objects, colors, and currencies in real-time to the user, and is available for download on iOS devices. It can now detect Indian currency and narrate the denomination to the user. This includes all the currency notes that are currently in circulation including the new currency bills issued recently. The Seeing AI app now supports five different currencies including the Euro, US & Canadian dollars as well as British Pounds.

• The Intelligent Kiosk: The Intelligent Kiosk is a Windows 10 Universal App showcasing workflows and experiences using Microsoft Cognitive Services. The kiosk app is a great example of an intelligent application, one that can analyze the emotions on human faces as well as still photographs and predict their age, gender and emotion. It also allows developers to quickly create and train a model to perform face identification against any pre-determined set of faces.

• Transforming remote hiring: Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company, India’s leading private general insurer, is using an automated video interviewing solution from Microsoft partner Talview to hire from the untapped talent from multiple cities across the country. The cloud-based solution, powered by Microsoft Azure, can be accessed by candidates from any smartphone device and is fully functional even on low speed Internet.

To be more competitive and agile in today’s dynamic marketplace, Bajaj Allianz needed to tap talent from multiple locations. This otherwise came with huge investments in time and resources from both the recruiter and candidate.. Deploying automated video interviewing has saved the company time and resources while vastly improving the recruitment process. Candidates are now remotely participating in interviews via smartphones at their own convenient time and place, and  hiring managers have the flexibility to assess and evaluate  candidates without the need to travel to different locations. The company is also using Talview Behavioral Insights (TBI) to build behavioral profiles of candidates. These profiles are enabling hiring managers to find the right person for the job backed by data-driven insights.

LANGUAGE        

• Real-time language translation: Microsoft has recently brought the power of AI and Deep Neural Networks (DNN) to improve real-time language translation for Hindi, Bengali, and Tamil. With DNN-powered language translation, the results are more accurate and sound more natural.  Users can avail the benefits of DNN-enhanced Indian language translation while surfing the internet across any website on the Microsoft Edge browser, on Bing search, Bing Translator website, as well as Microsoft Office 365 products like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Skype. The Microsoft Translator app in Android and iOS can recognize and translate languages from text, speech and even photos. AI deployed in Microsoft’s language translation technologies is bringing more accurate speech recognition and higher quality machine-powered translations to all 60 languages supported by Microsoft’s translation technologies worldwide.

KNOWLEDGE (CONVERSATIONAL USER INTERFACES)

• WittyParrot: WittyParrot is an AI & ML powered knowledge and process automation platform for sales, support and knowledge workers. Key solutions include Voice enabled Chat Bots, Document Automation, Contract Lifecycle, Omni-Channel Communication and Engagement. WittyParrot was part of Bengaluru-based Microsoft Accelerator’s 10th batch where they underwent an intensive six-month coaching and mentoring programme. They are using Microsoft’s Azure cloud offering and leverage it for technologies like big data, internet of things (IoT) and advanced analytics, among others, while being fully integrated with Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office 365, several CRM platforms and various voice enabled chat-bot technologies. WittyParrot solutions are being used by leading IT and ITES organizations such as Oracle, Couchbase, Collabera and Data Endure.

• Ruuh:  Ruuh, Microsoft’s social AI chatbot created specifically for India, has approximately 1.5 million users. Launched a little over a year and a half ago, Ruuh has exchanged 100m messages with her users so far. You can engage with her on Facebook in the same way you would interact with a friend. She is built using the vast social content available on the Internet (with strong checks and balances to protect her from exploitation). Further, she is well versed with Bollywood and has a good sense of humor too. As an AI chatbot, she is learning increasingly from human interactions to respond emotionally and intelligently, providing a unique viewpoint, with manners and emotional expressions.

KNOWLEDGE (PRODUCTIVITY)

• AI in Office 365: Microsoft’s AI infused Office 365 helps organizations and employees get the most out of O365 in the following ways:

• Intelligent, personalized search: This personalized experience uses signals from the Microsoft Graph to provide tailored search results across content and people in an organization based on a user’s work patterns. The redesigned results are easier to explore and allow users to preview files with support for over 270+ different file types without ever leaving the search page.
• PowerPoint Designer: It is easy to get beautiful designs in minutes for even more types of slides. Designer in PowerPoint now can recommend professional design options for bulleted process lists. This expansion builds upon previous Designer updates to incorporate facial detection, color extraction and more in images. Additional categories of text will be supported in the future, such as timelines.
• QuickStarter in PowerPoint and Sway: Powered by the Bing Knowledge Graph, QuickStarter in Sway and PowerPoint provides carefully curated outlines for any topic, including recommendations on information to include, categories to consider and associated images tagged with Creative Commons This provides a solid starting point to then continue building a presentation.
• MyAnalytics: Users can create better work habits with the help of Microsoft MyAnalytics (formerly Delve Analytics). It provides insights to help understand how users spend time at work, across meetings, email, time they designate as “focus time” and after-hours work. This way, they can set productivity goals and monitor progress over time. Users can also gain visibility into who they collaborate with most. In the future, MyAnalytics will deliver insights to teams and Office 365 Groups to help them establish better ways of working together, uncover hidden inefficiencies and align on priorities.

AI and Microsoft

Microsoft has an ambitious goal to make AI accessible and valuable to every individual and organization, amplifying human ingenuity with intelligent technology.

Microsoft is infusing intelligence across all its products and services to extend individuals’ and organizations’ capabilities and make them more productive; providing a powerful platform of AI services and tools that makes innovation by developers and partners faster and more accessible; and helping transform business by enabling breakthroughs to current approaches and entirely new scenarios that leverage the power of intelligent technology.

In its work to deploy AI everywhere, Microsoft is taking a thoughtful and trusted approach – designing AI innovations that extend and empower human capabilities in all aspects of life, while keeping people in control. Microsoft’s approach to AI puts users in control, with intelligence that is transparent and secure, and sets the highest bar for protecting privacy, while also being inclusive and respectful to all.

About Microsoft India

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India have over 8,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing, research and development and customer services and support, across 11 Indian cities – Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers its global cloud services from local datacenters to accelerate digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and government agencies. In 2016, Microsoft opened one of its eight Cyber Security Engagement Centers in the country to address security needs of both public and private sectors.

For more information:

Visit Microsoft India News Center: https://news.microsoft.com/en-in/

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next big step for retail and FMCG companies following the implementation of advanced big data and analytics (BDA) solutions, which can unlock huge data volumes in an automated way in real-time and ultimately lead to maximum profitability, according to leading data and analytics company GlobalData.

The company’s Disruptor Database revealed that although retailers have grown to their current size by capitalizing on profitable bits of digitalization, they are often challenged in understanding what their customers need at scale. There is a colossal amount of customer data with enterprises, but only a handful are able to generate value deemed from low conversion rates of below 5% overall.

This broadens the scope for retailers and consumer goods companies to use predictive analytics to enhance decisions related to supply chain management, customer behavior, staff allocation and the likelihood of goods being damaged, lost or returned.

Rena Bhattacharyya, Technology Research Director at GlobalData, says: “While most analysis  related to understanding market trends, achieving greater customer personalization, and improving operational efficiency can be performed with BDA methods, AI in many cases is less cost intensive and faster –  at times even  instant.. Intelligent machine learning systems can replace expensive armies of data scientists and provide solutions or product recommendations in an automated way. The timing of the analytics is crucial, since opportunities for cost savings or additional sales are frequently limited to minutes or even seconds.”

What made their way through the experimental phase of AI in FMCG and retail are the use cases related to predictive analytics.   For example, thanks to the integration of machine learning, eBay is now able to help sellers on its platform with solutions ranging from delivery time to fraud detection. It can also discover gaps in inventory of a particular product and alert related sellers to stock up on that item, as well as make price recommendations based on trending events automatically.

Procter & Gamble used deep learning technology to create a skin advisor service for its Olay brand. After screening millions of selfies and spotting key age characteristics, Olay’s service can provide women with personalized product recommendations based on skin analysis.

Leading retailers including Amazon, Alibaba, Lowe’s and Tesco are developing their own AI solutions for automation, analytics and robotics use cases. At the same time, many retailers have not implemented any AI solutions yet and are likely to fall behind their competitors.

“AI is the path to maximum profitability. It will be the technology platform that reaps the biggest rewards. Retail and FMCG companies looking to launch AI-based solutions should start by understanding the needs of their target customer base, focus on providing an omnichannel experience, and strive to achieve cost savings through greater efficiency,” concludes Bhattacharyya.

About GlobalData’s Disruptor Database 

Disruptor Technology Database decodes emerging tech-enabled opportunities with must-have information on promising start-ups, technology led innovations, latest sector trends, consumer insights, and venture capital portfolio investments. It helps monitor competitor strategies, pre dict emerging trends, monetize disruptive innovation, decode smart money, mine thought leadership, and capture digital consumers. 

About GlobalData 

4,000 of the world’s largest companies, including over 70% of FTSE 100 and 60% of Fortune 100 companies, make more timely and better business decisions thanks to GlobalData’s unique data, expert analysis and innovative solutions, all in one platform. GlobalData’s mission is to help our clients decode the future to be more successful and innovative across a range of industries, including the healthcare, consumer, retail, financial, technology and professional services sectors.

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SkinVision has the potential to change millions of lives across the country

This week sees the arrival of the Netherlands Trade Mission to India. A selection of the leading Dutch firms in Life Sciences & Health will be meeting with Ministers & Industry Leaders, as well as visiting hospitals in Delhi and Bangalore.

One of the most exciting companies to be part of the Mission is a scale-up named SkinVision, that is revolutionising the way skin health is monitored around the world.

SkinVision was founded in 2012 and is a smartphone app that supports individuals with checking for signs of skin cancer. It is a specialist in the (early) recognition of Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma,  Basal Cell Carcinoma and Precancerous Actinic Keratosis, and has so far found over 15,000 skin cancers globally.

Skin cancer and general skin disease is a growing problem in India. Whilst there has been little comprehensive research on skin cancer across the country, the World Health Organisation estimated that over 5,700 died in 2016 alone, a number that is probably well understated.

More worrying is the high incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer in India. These conditions are less deadly but are often left undiagnosed and untreated in India. This is due to a lack of awareness and difficulty accessing the health system, leading to life-altering disfigurement. SkinVision offers a way even for those living in remote communities to monitor their skin health and to ensure that they receive treatment early enough to gain the best treatment.

The app works on both Android and iOS. When a user takes a photo, it is put through a machine learning algorithm that calculates the fractal dimension of skin lesions and surrounding skin tissues and builds a structural map that reveals the different growth patterns of the tissues involved. It indicates which skin spots should be tracked over time and gives it a low, medium or high-risk indication within 30 seconds.

The algorithm has been tested in several clinical studies. The most recent data shows that the service has a sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 80%. Well above that of a GP (sensitivity 60%), a dermatologist (sensitivity 75%) and even a specialist dermatologist (sensitivity 92%).

In Europe and Australasia SkinVision is partnered with a number of health insurance providers. These companies provide the app for free to all of their policyholders and reimburse SkinVision for its use. This model has allowed thousands of people free access to SkinVision and has offered huge savings to the insurance providers by bringing down the cost of both diagnosis and treatment.

Dick Uyttewaal, Director of Business Development at SkinVision, stated that “the barriers to healthcare is a phenomenal challenge in India for many people and we would like to make a contribution for people with skin conditions. Our technology has the potential to be used by millions of individuals and by clinics across the country to allow for a quick and accurate indication of the early stages of skin cancer even if you live far away from a doctor and don’t have the means to pay for regular skin checks.

The huge distances inherent in the country often mean that people can be a long way from or simply have no access to adequate specialists. We allow anyone with access to a smartphone and an internet connection to have access to dermatologist level care. We can also help health services quickly and efficiently identify at-risk populations, helping bring down costs and waiting times.

We have a team of image recognition experts and dermatologists checking each photo for quality purposes and all high-risk photos receive extra personal advice from our doctors on next steps to take within 48 hours.

SkinVision has been invited on this Trade mission to explore the value of AI health solutions in India. We are extremely excited to have this opportunity to meet potential partners that can help us investigate the scope of this technology to impact the health system in India, we encourage anyone who can help in this mission to reach out to us”.

SkinVision was founded in 2012 and is a service that supports individuals with checking for signs of skin cancer. We are specialist in the (early) recognition of Melanoma, Squamous Cell Carcinoma,  Basal Cell Carcinoma and Precancerous Actinic Keratosis.

SkinVision is the first certified skin cancer application globally based on extensive clinical trials in partnership with the university clinic of Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich in 2013, published in the JEADV in 2014.

The company has built up a customer portfolio of 1,200,000 users globally and a database of 3.5 million pictures of suspicious skin conditions. SkinVision’s headquarters is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

More information at www.skinvision.com

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