Generative AI is evolving by leaps and bounds, and India seems to be at a critical juncture of this phenomenon. With over 65 million small and medium businesses (SMBs), India presents some massive opportunities. On the eve of the much-anticipated AWS re:Invent 2024 keynote, Praveen Sridhar, Head (Partner Business), AWS, India and South Asia, said India holds significant potential to shape the global technological narrative. "India will have a big role to play in the future of AI and contribute not just to the Indian economy, but to the world," Sridhar told indianexpress.com during an interaction, as he offered his perspective on how partnerships, talent, upskilling and innovation are coming together to drive transformation for enterprises. AWS has been enabling enterprises to come up with innovative solutions since the launch of its first data centre in 2016. The Amazon company, known for offering cloud-based computing platform, has been following an approach to the Indian market that is rooted in partnerships. "Partners are not just a force multiplier, but are the way we want to go to market as we engage in this new era of journey and transformation,” said Sridhar. Amazon Partner Network (APN) is a global programme that assists businesses in building, marketing, and selling solutions and services using AWS. APN partners around the world have access to resources such as training, marketing tools, technical support, etc. AWS has categorised APN as consulting, technology, and business advisory, essentially focussing on how technology can bring business transformation in these categories. When asked how critical is the partner network for AWS and its customer success, Sridhar said, “In one word, it is vital.” “While AWS develops technologies, such as generative AI tools like Bedrock and SageMaker, the industry needs these technologies to be transformed into solutions that end customers can easily consume,” he told indianexpress.com. Partnerships are crucial, as according to Sridhar these allow raw technology to get converted into industry-specific solutions. The Amazon executive cited the examples of Lumiq, which developed a solution for HDFC Life’s challenges related to insurance, Shellkode which automated invoice management for DataTwin, a finance platform; and IBM setting up innovation centres to solve specific industry problems. "The power of three needs to come together," he noted, referring to AWS, partners, and customers. AI skilling and adoption in India Sridhar also talked about skill development, which is another crucial component of AWS’s strategy. Considering India hosting over five million developers, AWS has ambitious plans. Sridhar said AWS aims to skill two million people globally in generative AI technologies, with a significant focus on India. "We have already skilled 5.9 million people in cloud technologies in India and are partnering with organisations like Shellkode to train a lakh of women in generative AI,” he said. When asked how India Inc is embracing generative AI and integrating it to their products and services, Sridhar said India is at the forefront in terms of adoption. He said AWS supports this adoption through its innovations like Trainium and Inferentia chipsets, that are cost effective and improve sustainability. The Amazon brand also collaborates with partners like HCLTech and startups such as Yellow.ai to provide some impactful solutions. “By leveraging AWS's Bedrock, they reduced operational costs by 20 per cent, improved performance by 15 per cent, and saw a 50 per cent improvement in customer journey completion.” While discussing India’s aptitude for generative AI, Sridhar is unequivocally optimistic. He said AWS sees India as a massive opportunity, and highlighted some crucial statistics like the presence of over 65 million SMBs, being one of the world’s largest developer ecosystems, and India as a thriving startup ecosystem with hundreds of unicorns. The company is backing this with substantial investment. "By 2030, we will be investing an additional $12.7 billion, bringing our overall investment to $16.4 billion," Sridhar said. This commitment is expected to contribute over $23.3 billion to India's GDP and create approximately 1,31,700 jobs. Talent in India Sridhar looked at both challenges and opportunities while talking about the talent in India. He said that recent statistics revealed that nine in 10 employers want AI skills, but 79 per cent struggle to find such talent. And 91 per cent of employers recognise the need for AI skills but are unsure about implementation. Sridhar said AWS's initiatives, like training a lakh of women in generative AI, aim to bridge these gaps. When asked which sectors in India are adopting generative AI more rapidly, Sridhar said this adoption was not limited to startups of digital-native companies. “Adoption is widespread across banking, manufacturing, startups, digital natives, media, and gaming. For instance, HDFC Life uses generative AI for insurance, while Deloitte and Apollo Tyres leverage it to enhance factory operations. generative AI’s ability to unlock data at scale is transforming industries across the board,” he said. The author is at AWS re:Invent 2024 in Las Vegas at the invitation of AWS.
