Stories
AI Adoption & Reskilling Crucial for Future Growth, Say Industry Leaders
- •Industry leaders emphasize rapid adaptation to market changes and investment in AI for long-term growth and resilience.
- •Businesses face increasing uncertainty from geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory changes, requiring both tactical and strategic responses.
- •India's AI opportunity lies in application development, leveraging its tech stack and startup ecosystem, rather than competing in compute and energy capacity.
- •AI is seen as an enabler, not a replacement for the workforce, with leaders needing to be "AI literate" to guide their organizations.
- •Continuous reinvention, strong balance sheets, governance, and employee trust remain non-negotiable fundamentals amidst market volatility and evolving challenges.
Key Questions Answered
Panellists at the All India Management Association event broadly agreed that artificial intelligence must be positioned as an enabler rather than a direct replacement for the workforce. They noted that combining AI with human wisdom, judgement, and employee trust is vital for organizational results and productivity.
Vishal Kampani explained that a massive share of global artificial intelligence investment is poured into compute and energy capacity, areas where India would struggle to compete with the United States and China. Instead, India's greater opportunity lies on the application side, drawing parallels to how the country built its software stack and startup ecosystem without constructing early internet backbone.
Shrinivas V Dempo emphasized that despite shifting geopolitical developments, supply chain bottlenecks, sustainability mandates, and regulatory requirements, certain fundamentals remain absolute. Companies must maintain strong balance sheets, robust governance standards, organizational credibility, and deep employee trust.
