Bangalore, April 29 2018: India  is well poised for Artificial Intelligence-led economic transformation, and there  is good potential for companies to set up AI- focused innovation centres in India finds a PwC- Assocham report this week.
The technology is largely  undertapped in Financial Services, National Security, Cybersecurity, Environment and in enhancing accessibility for the differently-abled. The report entitled "Advance artificial intelligence for growth Leveraging AI and robotics for India’s economic transformation" recommends forming cooperative relationships with some of the frontrunners in AI—such as Japan, the UK, Germany Singapore, Israel and China—to develop solutions that tackle social and economic challenges can aid and accelerate strategy formulation.  
Other suggestions: Setting up centres of excellence supporting inter-disciplinary research across law, medicine, engineering, management and the social sciences, like Japan’s national R&D institute, ‘Riken’,71 can further AI adoption in India.It is also important to form independent audit bodies and ethics panels to screen research proposals, design and develop, and commercialisation and periodic review and maintenance of AI systems. The Central and State Governments could look at providing fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for AI research/ deployment. Regular cooperation also required between academia and the public and private sectors to find intelligent and innovative ways to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of services delivered to society. 
There is potential for companies to set up AI- focused innovation centres in India with initiatives such as Digital India and Make in India creating a favourable regulatory environment. More than 36% of large financial establishments have already invested in these technologies and around 70% plan to embrace it in the near future.
While AI, Machine Learnin  and robotics have a wide range of use cases in financial services, their potential has not been fully realised in India. Establishing data access frameworks and guidelines for open application interfaces from financial institutions will act as an enabler for increased adoption of AI in the sector.