By
Vishal Bhidu
The Indian Business Council (IBC) in collaboration with the SBI (Mauritius) hosted in August a talk-themed, “Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Various Facets of Business and Our Day-to-Day Life” as part of the Entrepreneurial and Candid Talk Series. Moderated by the Managing Director of Symphony Capital & IBC President Dr. Suresh Nanda, the panel was composed of COO at Peach Payments Sandeep Chagger, SVP & Head of Africa Intellect Design Area Vishal Singh, and Managing Partner at The Cloud Factory Mr. Vivek Mathur.
At the outset, Chagger defined AI as: “A connection about millions of data points leading to conclusive results and actions, based on what needs to be done in that particular context. For instance, financial services automation leads to operational efficiency and better customer experience. Conversely, automated vehicles won’t need humans to drive vehicles on the roads.
He told that it trickles to different connections spanning across different situations and data points, resulting in a particular action. AI is imbibed with the ability to mimic actions pertaining to supervision learnings where data points are based in terms of variables coupled with the fact that AI is rare as a commodity of intelligence by relying on the usage of multiple data points to take actions over a period where it is often refined and enhanced while ushering into way better convenience and instant gratification cum operation excellence across industries.
The talk got livelier as Vivek Mathur brought to the fore operational efficiency in multiple areas where data is used with software effort to mimic humans in various aspects such as natural language processing and visuals, its usage into call centers designed to spur operational efficiency, decoding where calls are coming from, voice assessed in using AI while understanding sentiments of the caller. Simply put, assessing the voice as to whether the caller is happy or angry.
What are the key challenges posed to the implementation of AI technology, asks Dr Nanda. Purity of data, says Vishal Singh, drawing inference to both the right inputs and data to help ensure that whatever is being produced is to reach billions and trillions pertaining to terabytes of information. He hinges on the need to produce the right results and thus, the quality of data existing in finance across banks or insurance is quite questionable.
Vishal Singh says: “Everyone has an eye on the AI space where they want to go there yet don’t know how and why with lots of thoughts pondering on how to embrace it?”
To which the panel moderator Dr. Nanda asks: “Do they have an option not to go at this stage?” Vishal Singh replied: “It’s a catch-22 situation where some want to go and some don’t want to. The right question depends on when and whether one should go with the media hype on the need for AI to be enabled. Suppose one chooses to look at it in terms of realistic terms before the adaptation of AI. In that case, we are half a decade or already more away as we look at the adaptation where the ball is rolling faster and it’s already at the forefront. This is what everybody is planning for.”
A comparison is drawn to the blockchain where a few years back, it was the call of the day and when bitcoin came it was seen as an opportunity. The same is happening with AI and the hype will settle down in a year or two. However, he sees Chat GPT as a game change and the biggest fear for any commercial institution trickles into compliance and regulation aspects where many countries still don’t know how to draw a boundary. AI remains a global issue.
The question of generative AI comes to the fore with intellectual property entering the public domain with global vendors such as Google and Yahoo resorting to generative data related to AI. The moot question comes on risks as to whether generative AI can be internal to an organization and in making sure it doesn’t come out in the open with a promise that it solely takes place to enhance productivity, and efficiency while ensuring that corporate data stays behind closed doors even if it’s been using generative AI which is not being leaked. He says: “Let’s not be naïve about one very simple fact and it’s that all commercial banks need to be monetized sooner or later, in some shape or the other.”
On that count, the event’s moderator makes a pertinent observation: “When AI gets very commercial with Google and Microsoft competing with each other, we wouldn’t know what’s the limit.”
During the audience interaction, Executive Director at AMG Solutions Meenakshi Saxena asked a question on AI becoming dearer for all organisations who may not be able to afford it and what’s missing in the present times is training. She shares: “I am into compliance and as we speak about regulatory lines we cannot cross, coupled with the fact that training is missing. How do I know that it’s my drawline and am not supposed to cross the line? Who is responsible for the training?”
Vivek Mathur advocates that there is no need to stress in the banking sector since the regulators will take care of documentation in case of demand for loans and even in this particular case, physical files will be a thing of the past where the probability of AI doing the job will be higher than humans. Another point is the redundancy of training since information will be fed to AI the latter will get the job done that will not require heavy and intensive training unlike Microsoft Word and Excel, which are becoming things of the past.
On this point, commenting on the role of AI driving business processes, Meenakshi Saxena shares several challenges for Management Companies in terms of identifying signatures and what is being done and checked by AI is not accepted by banks. An answer to that, according to Dr Nanda would be a Central KYC in Mauritius which the AMG Director agrees to, what with AI guiding companies in drafting reports through several apps such as equity, Bridger and World check Risk Intelligence.
While many see AI bringing in multiple benefits to the economy, particularly the financial services, Sandeep Chagger as part of the talk asked a legitimate question: What has contributed in a big way to Mauritius’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)? It’s the offshore and the international financial centre.” He argues by putting into context the Central KYC System spearheaded by the Central Bank of Mauritius whose aim is to pose as the central repository of key information pertaining to individuals and organisations holding bank accounts while feeding a central repository.
It was several years back it happened in India’s telecom sector where one could switch SIM card between different operators while keeping the same number. Now, the central repository similar to what has been done with the Aadhar card in India will streamline faster onboarding activations and at the same time slash the need for tons of information while applying for bank loans with repetitive information going to several institutions and organisations for conducting similar activities.
“Here we are not talking about a single or few transactions but rather bulk and volume. I understand that this project starts at a domestic level and the role of AI in all this. The base level is that AI is a supervised machine learning where one identifies and applies matching with photographs and details, approving applications made from banking to other services I am looking into,” underlines the COO of Peach Payments.
Ideally like it is done across global jurisdictions, where the process should be instant to set up a company with the taking of information and conducting verification within a fraction of seconds like it is done in Delaware. And the company goes live unlike going through an entire grind from A to B which can get time-consuming for lots of people.
