UAE-India AI deal to drive growth

Dubai - Collaboration seeks to evaluate dynamic nature of innovation, technology by convening UAE-India AI Working Committee

The UAE and India's partnership to explore further opportunities in artificial intelligence will benefit both countries especially in the healthcare, education, infrastructure, transportation, climate control and oil and gas sectors, industry executives said.
Siddharth Bhandari, CEO of NewBridge Fintech Solution, said the scope and potential benefits of this deal are enormous.
"With a growing talent hub in India and also a strong rise in adoption rate across industries for the use of AI, the treaty will benefit the UAE and India in a number of sectors. From the context of India-UAE strategic priorities, healthcare, education, infrastructure and transportation will be the biggest beneficiaries from the adoption of AI and machine learning," Bhandari said.
Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, and Deepak Bagla, managing director and CEO of Invest India, signed a memorandum of understanding during the weekend to explore options for both countries to grow their AI economies. It is expected that this partnership will generate an estimated Dh73.4 billion in economic benefits during the next 10 years.
The UAE-India collaboration will seek to evaluate the dynamic nature of innovation and technology by convening a UAE-India AI Working Committee (TWG) between the UAE Ministry for Artificial Intelligence, Invest India and Startup India. The TWG will meet once a year with the mandate to increase investment in AI startups and research activities in partnership with the private sector.
"In the coming years, data and processing will be a catalyst for innovation and business growth and serve as the backbone of more effective and efficient service delivery systems," said Al Olama.
"India, the world's fastest-expanding market opportunity, with its talent pool of human capital, well acknowledged for innovation, and the UAE, a hub of cutting-edge technologies, are natural partners in the field of AI. Artificial intelligence is going to play a critical role in our lives and this partnership will provide solutions not only for the citizens of India and the UAE but for the entire world," said Bagla.
Bhandari noted that there is a major shortage of AI and ML skills in both countries and are not keeping in line with a substantial growth in demand for such skills.
"The number of jobs affected by AI will vary by industry; but healthcare, the public sector and education will see major long-term growth in job creation while manufacturing will be hit in the near-term. Overall, once we are through transition period, more jobs will be created across sectors through AI than the ones which will made redundant," he added.
Tariq Qureishy, chief executive officer of MAD Talks and a futurist, media professional and expert on AI, believes both the countries will benefit from this collaboration, especially in healthcare, climate change technology.
"The UAE is keen in climate change technology and there are a lot of things taking place in India about solar technology, etc. India is producing more gigawatt power than many EU countries and it is utilising a lot of AI in the production. So, this technology can be utilised here in the UAE. Plus, there can be a collaboration in oil and gas an agriculture as well," Qureishy said.
He also called for more public-private partnerships in the field of AI. "We should encourage private sector to collaborate with public and within as well."
He pointed out that India can benefit from a lot of stuff happening in UAE in terms of cutting-edge growth in innovation and it can applied a lot in the Indian community because it has a large population and they can benefit from it. And UAE can benefit as it wants to create a hub for innovation around AI from the education and practical use of AI in India.
- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

• India