We may not know it, but Artificial Intelligence  has crept up on us, spurred by  dozens of startup innovations.
By Anand Parthasarathy
January 2 2018: Are you a user of Artificial Intelligence?  Most of us would say ,'no'.  And most of us would be wrong.  
We tend to think AI is used by  large enterprise harnessing   supercomputers which  try to outwit humans at things like chess. 
The year gone by,  has seen AI making an uninvited  backdoor entry into our lives. A  global study by enterprise software company  Pegasystems Inc. reveals that most  consumers  are surprised to learn they are already  users of AI. Only 34 percent of  the respondents thought they had directly experienced AI,  when in fact 84 percent had actually used at least one AI-powered service or device –  like virtual home assistants, intelligent chatbots, or predictive product suggestions.  Less than half, knew that Microsoft's  virtual assistant Cortana or  Amazon’s Alexa, iPhone's Siri or the Google Assistant actually ran on  AI.
But make no mistake. AI is here; we might as well get used to it -- and  make use of it.
Research by IT services leader Accenture, last week  suggests that AI  could  pump  nearly $ 957 billion  into the Indian economy.  Nice, if rather than overhyping the technology itself, businesses focus on using AI to provide real value for the rest of us.    And as we glide  into 2018 it looks like hundreds of Indian startups are doing just that. From banking to healthcare to  education, they are creating  a range of solutions, from AI-driven 'bots' to actual humanoid robots. |
What's more, they are making it easier than ever  for other developers to create intelligent apps or solutions.   Delhi-based Engineer.ai  has created  a platform called Builder where  one can use ready-made software building blocks,  to achieve huge economies in the creative process. 
Another  startup Absentia has  launched an AI-based animation tool Norah AI which can be used to  generate interactive content from animations and textures, to mobile games.
On this  spot, in coming days, we  focus on  innovative products and solutions that will touch you in the months ahead, all  of them backed by brainy computer technology trying to  mimic Man! 

• See the first in this series here,  Nino the humanoid robot for education  from Sirena Technologies.
• Read about the made-in-India  Robotic cooker here