Satya Nadella, the chairman and CEO of Microsoft, commenced his visit to India by reaffirming the company’s dedication to supporting India’s evolution into an AI-driven nation. This pledge corresponds with India’s ambition to achieve self-sufficiency by cultivating a proficient AI workforce and enabling every sector and industry to undergo AI-driven transformations.
Nadella delivered these remarks at the Microsoft CEO Connection event in Mumbai on Wednesday, attended by prominent business leaders and decision-makers. During his speech, Nadella unveiled Microsoft’s ADVANTA(I)GE INDIA initiative, aiming to offer AI skilling opportunities to 2 million individuals in India by 2025. This initiative aims to bridge skill gaps nationwide and bolster India’s capacity to excel in the AI era.
“India possesses a unique position to realize the potential of AI,” stated Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chairman and CEO. “We are committed to forging broad partnerships across the public and private sectors to address the nation’s AI skills deficit and foster fresh opportunities throughout the country.”
Nadella underscored how Microsoft Copilot, alongside the company’s other AI solutions, is driving tangible productivity enhancements for individuals and organizations. For instance, recent research on early adopters of Copilot for Microsoft 365 revealed a 29 percent increase in task completion speed, encompassing tasks like searching, writing, and summarizing.
Several organizations in India are already leveraging Copilot for Microsoft 365 and GitHub Copilot to enhance productivity and spur innovation. These include:
– Axis Bank, the inaugural Indian bank to implement Copilot for Microsoft 365 at an enterprise scale, experiencing over 30 percent productivity gains in daily operations.
– Infosys, a prominent IT consulting firm in India, with over 7,000 developers utilizing GitHub Copilot to innovate swiftly.
– HCL Tech, a global IT services and consulting company, developed a Copilot for Microsoft 365 plugin for Microsoft Teams to streamline bug resolution.
– LTIMindtree, a leading IT and consulting services firm, created a Copilot for Microsoft 365 plugin for Teams to optimize staff management.
Numerous Indian organizations are witnessing substantial returns on investment in AI projects, with an average return of US$3.86 for every US dollar spent. Over 150 organizations are already leveraging Azure OpenAI Service across diverse industries, such as agriculture, aviation, e-commerce, and fast-moving consumer goods. Examples include:
– ITC, a diversified Indian conglomerate, introduced the chatbot Krishi Mitra for farmers, employing Microsoft’s voice-to-text technology to address farmers’ queries in local languages.
– Karya, an Indian social impact organization, collaborated with Microsoft to create new data sets in local languages, fostering economic opportunities in rural India.
– Arvind Limited, India’s largest denim manufacturer, anticipates saving 60 percent of time spent analyzing annual reports with its Annual Report Copilot, facilitating better business strategies.
– Air India, the national airline, deployed a generative AI virtual agent named AI.g, managing over half a million customer queries since its inception in March 2023.
Nadella is set to address a large gathering of developers and technology leaders at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru on Thursday, February 8.
