AI spending trends in India: BFSI, manufacturing among top industry spenders

Artificial Intelligence: Spending on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India is expected to triple to $5 billion by 2027 and Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing industry are among the industry spendors, an Intel-IDC report released on Tuesday said.

"BFSI is moving from robotic process automation (RPA) to AI-driven automation, focusing on security, productivity, and CX. AI solutions with behavioural analysis and fraud detection mark a shift toward more advanced and adaptable systems," the report said.

Sharath Srinivasamurthy, Associate Vice President, IDC also talked about the top challenges that India is facing when it comes to the adoption of AI.

"Unclear or lower-than-expected business outcomes and compliance issues are among the top two challenges the country faces," Srinivasamurthy said.

Other challenges to AI adoption in India are -

- Skill issues - critical skills are hard to acquire or retain

- Cost issues - cost of ownership too high to justify

- Process issues - lack of organisational support to orchestrate cross-function initiatives

Intel India Region Vice President and Managing Director, Santhosh Viswanathan said India is ready for AI as around 20 per cent of the world's data is produced in the country and it is the third biggest global market.

Viswanathan said India leads globally in terms of technical skill availability.

Huge talent base and strong government support a boost to AI in India

India is currently an AI Practitioner (stage 2) based on the IDC Asia/Pacific AI Maturity Study 2024. According to the report, the India and Asia/Pacific averages are similar for the enterprise dimension, it is ahead for the government dimension and slightly behind for the socio-economic dimension