About 36% of financial firms adopt AI, 70% plan to: Report

MUMBAI: Over 36 per cent of the financial institutions in the country have invested in artificial intelligence-focused technologies, and around 70 per cent plan to embrace it in the near future, said a report.

With 'Digital India' and 'Make in India' creating a favourable environment, the potential for companies to set up AI-focused innovation centres in India has vastly increased, consultancy PwC said in its report today.

However, it added that while AI, machine learning (ML) and robotics have a wide range of use cases in financial services, their potential has not been fully realised.


According to PwC, 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.

Meanwhile, the report also highlighted that AI can be leveraged to protect economic sectors and infrastructure such as airports and power plants that are vulnerable to attacks.

"Along with AI applications in defence, robots can be used to perform jobs which are unsafe for humans " such as recovering explosives, detecting mines, space exploration, deep water probes, scouting for hostile territories, among others," it said.

AI-enabled cyber security systems rely on historical data of cyberattacks and apply ML to predict and detect similar threats likely to arise in the future, it added.

Further, the report said that AI-enabled assistive technology for differently-abled individuals is an untapped market in India.

"AI, in combination with other emerging technologies like 3D printing and IoT, has great potential to fuel widespread availability, affordability and feasibility of innovations in smart prosthetics," it explained.

PwC in its report also highlighted that in the area of environmental sciences, AI technologies have not picked up.

The potential in this space, according to the consultancy, includes AI optimised 'smart' energy grids for power generation, precision manufacturing for reduced waste and emissions, disaster management and recovery, conservation of ecological habitats and disease prevention and outbreak control.