AI, New Tech To Contribute $154 Billion To India's GDP By 2021, Says Microsoft India President

Reiterating what most of the world is already talking about, a new study commissioned by the tech giant Microsoft has said that by the year 2021, over 60 percent of India's GDP would be derived from digital products and services such as AI, IoT and cloud computing, among others. According to a study titled Unlocking the economic impact of digital transformation in Asia Pacific, over $154 billion would be added to our GDP by 2021. The research was produced by Microsoft in partnership with IDC Asia/Pacific. “India is clearly on the digital transformation fast track. Within the next four years, it is estimated that nearly 60% of India’s GDP will have a strong connection to the digital transformation trends... Organisations are increasingly deploying emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, and that will accelerate digital transformation led growth even further," said Anant Maheshwari, president at Microsoft India. The survey was conducted with 1,560 business decision-makers in mid and large-sized organisations across 15 economies in the region. It highlights the rapid impact and widespread disruption that digital transformation is having on traditional business models. The study identified five key benefits from digital transformation. According to the research findings, organisations are seeing significant and tangible improvements from their digital transformation efforts across these benefits in the range of 11 to 14 percent as of today. Business leaders expect to see more than 40 percent improvements in those key areas by 2020, with the biggest jump expected in productivity, customer advocacy as well as profit margin. "There is a pressing need for organisations to fully capitalise on the potential value of digital transformation in the next few years. To do so, organisations need to invest in building their ecosystem, from employees, to customers, to partners, across their value chain by gaining new insights through new data sources, and incorporating digitisation in their products and services," said Anil Bhansali, managing director, R&D at Microsoft India.