India set to lead digital transformation race: Microsoft India President

 In a renewed push for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its use cases in India, 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 on the company's flagship Media and Analyst Days 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 across the spectrum," stressed Maheshwari.

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

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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.