Mumbai: India demonstrates remarkable resilience in the face of a challenging global landscape, according to the World Bank. Robust domestic demand, public infrastructure investments and the strengthening of the financial sector collectively contribute to India's performance. As a testament to this resilience, a staggering 77 per cent of business leaders surveyed maintain a positive outlook for the upcoming year. These findings emerge from a comprehensive study conducted by forrester consulting commissioned by Experian, a global information services leader. The study also explores the profound impact of AI on analytics, risk assessment and customer experience. Notably, India demonstrates impressive AI and Machine Learning (ML), adoption rates, reaching 49 per cent in customer service and 40 per cent in identity verification.

The study highlights India's leadership in the EMEA and APAC regions, with 85 per cent of surveyed Indian businesses using external cloud providers for analytics. India's adoption outpaces countries like Germany (66 per cent), New Zealand (per cent), and Spain (58 per cent), solidifying its position as a front-runner in cloud, AI, and ML utilisation.

Role of AI in mitigating top risks:

The report delves into the transformative potential of AI, the biggest risk priorities, and underscores how AI plays a pivotal role in fortifying resilience. Data privacy (59 per cent) and cybersecurity (53 per cent) emerge as the top risk concerns for the upcoming year, followed by ESG risk (47 per cent) and credit risk (41 per cent).

Effectively mitigating these risks depends on improving the predictiveness of models and unlocking value from a wide variety of data sources. In this regard AI, particularly ML stands out as an instrumental tool with immense potential.

Data integration and cloud investments drive AI success:

Achieving AI success requires large volumes of data and the right data infrastructure. Despite an increase in new data sources, the biggest data-related challenge (for 48 per cent of respondents) pertains to the difficulty in effectively sharing data at a large scale while ensuring trust and security. As a result, 86 per cent of business leaders are prioritising investments in new data sources to better understand risk and affordability.

The research shows that the biggest analytics-related challenge for nearly half of respondents (55 per cent) is the ability to seamlessly connect different data assets in a data warehouse that can adequately support AI/ML use cases. To address this issue, 86 per cent are prioritising investments in cloud technology for seamless data integration with 63 per cent agreeing that externally hosted cloud services are the best way to avoid data silos and aggregate data sources.

Unlocking AI's potential: productivity and efficiency enhancements:

There are multiple ways in which AI can improve productivity, efficiency, and service delivery. Many organisations are actively exploring AI use cases, with a diverse range of possibilities, including enhanced underwriting with ML-based models, proactive and early identification of vulnerable customers, improved fraud prevention and faster customer service. More than half (65 per cent) of those already using AI find that their productivity gains have offset the initial cost – a clear indication of positive ROI from AI adoption.

Experian managing director Saikrishnan said, “AI is currently leading the way in identifying innovative approaches to unlock the power of data, revolutionising business operations and elevating customer experience. As businesses engage with increasingly intricate decisions, AI plays a pivotal role in optimising the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes. Embracing the enduring role of AI becomes imperative, providing unparalleled insights for precise decision-making, particularly in critical areas such as risk management and fraud prevention. Simultaneously, it ushers in a new era of operational efficiency through automation, ultimately elevating the customer experience to new heights.”

"AI/ML has increasingly emerged as a pivotal catalyst in combating new fraud challenges, automating credit risk processes, and leverage alternative data. AI is rapidly transitioning from a choice to a necessity, driving improved business performance and fostering inclusive financial growth," he further added.

Adding to it, Experian CEO, EMEA & APAC Malin Holmberg said, "While AI is driving innovation and enhancing analytical performance, it is critical to ensure this technology is used in a responsible and ethical way. It is reassuring that 61 per cent of our respondents have a comprehensive AI risk management program in place and are actively addressing unintentional bias through fully transparent and explainable AI. Businesses that embrace this technology will find themselves at an advantage as they unlock new growth opportunities through process efficiency and greater automation,”