Intel is taking strategic steps in the Indian market to build a competitive advantage through artificial intelligence (AI) investments. The US-based semiconductor giant has been taking a holistic approach to developing an AI ecosystem by partnering with several leading academic institutions and governments on national AI programs. The company intends to develop a rich pool of AI talent that can help it achieve greater efficiencies and act as a catalyst to fast-track India’s AI vision.

Artificial intelligence has intrigued everyone with its vast capacity to propel a transformative new world. The concept includes deep learning, machine learning, and predictive analytics technologies that enable organizations to gather more data, analyze it, and automate processes. (See: AI in banking now geared for a takeoff and CIOs to focus on network transformation for business continuity)

Amidst the digital transformation wave, AI holds a huge potential to address several challenges of the Indian economy, comprising, healthcare, disaster management, and smart mobility. (See: AI is a must now to speed up digital transformation)

Taking an all-inclusive AI approach in India

Intel has been at the cutting edge of the AI revolution. As AI is becoming mainstream, it has been widely used in developing technologies and apps in speech recognition, virtual agents, machine learning platforms, cyber defense, biometrics, and facial recognition. (See: India gears up for AI leap in post-Covid-19 era)

With 5G technology at the doorstep, Intel, through its initiatives, preparing coders, data researchers, and analysts for the future of artificial intelligence-based technologies.

More emphasis has been given to increasing the computing power of diverse processors while simplifying their architectures. And none of this can happen without a solid talent pipeline. The company has launched programs such as AI for Youth, an initiative to prepare India’s young talent on AI-skills and Intel AI academy.

Last July, Intel invested US$253.5 million in India’s Reliance Jio platform. It is expected that this investment will support Jio’s future university projects. The next university will likely offer programs about future technologies, such as artificial intelligence, data science, and digital media.

Last month, Intel teamed up with IIIT Hyderabad, the Public Health Foundation of India, and the Telangana government to launch an applied research center in artificial intelligence. AI-powered solutions need significant capacity and power to match application demands. Intel is rapidly developing capabilities to meet the scope of AI’s future workloads.

Thanks to its AI developer education program, Intel has already trained Indian professionals on AI platforms like Machine Learning and Deep Learning. Another key initiative run by the global tech major is “Responsible AI for Youth,” which focuses on promoting artificial intelligence among Indian school students.

Attempt to win the AI race

In the post-COVID-19 world, a robust ecosystem supported by powerful computing capabilities is needed to speed up the technological change in all companies. This is where the technology company like Intel is attempting to make a difference.

Amidst growing digital transformation focus, data analysis, and innovation based on artificial intelligence have been used extensively by India’s growing e-commerce and research sectors. The tools are being rapidly deployed to understand the new digital behavior and demand trends. Besides, manufacturing firms have started to use the benefits of AI tools to control quality, reduce the size of the design team, and build predictive models for supply chains. Then, there is the healthcare sector, where AI-based tools are being used to improve diagnosis, treatment, and patient monitoring. (See: How artificial intelligence is transforming Indian retail sector)

Throughout the world, Intel has been making aggressive investments spanning technology, research and development, and collaborations with enterprises and governments, enabling efficient decision making based on algorithms. Early in May this year, Intel’s funding arm parked aside $500 million for investments in several startups that operate in business data and analytics.

In October this year, Intel purchased SigOpt, a San Francisco-based provider of a cutting-edge platform to optimize Artificial Intelligence (AI) software models at scale. Intel announced its intention to use SigOpt software technologies across Intel Artificial Intelligence hardware products to accelerate, amplify and extend Intel Artificial Intelligence software solution offerings to developers.

Intel’s latest efforts are in line with developing production-ready solutions for various enterprise-wide deployments. The company recently introduced its 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable processors and additions to its hardware and software AI portfolio to help its customers accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics workloads running in the data center, network and intelligent-edge environments.

In 2019, Intel gained over US$3.8 billion through AI-based solutions. With the AI market expected to become worth more than $30 billion in the next 3-4 years, Intel seems to be going in the right direction to capitalize on the opportunity.