How a few of India’s greatest corporations cope with AI governance

Within the coronary heart of Mumbai’s bustling monetary district, the workplaces of Vodafone Concept hum with exercise. However it’s not simply human workers driving the telecommunications large ahead. Synthetic intelligence (AI) has develop into an integral a part of the corporate’s operations, from customer support to community administration.
“We’ve been an AI and machine studying manufacturing facility for years,” says Hitesh TK, chief info officer at Vodafone Concept.“It’s essential for dealing with the quantity of information generated by our 200-300 million prospects.”
Throughout city, on the headquarters of IndianOil, an analogous revolution is underway. Suresh Nambiar, govt director of knowledge techniques, speaks proudly of the corporate’s AI-driven predictive upkeep techniques. “We’re utilizing AI to optimise refinery processes and enhance provide chain logistics,” Suresh says. “It has considerably diminished downtime and enhanced operational effectivity.”
These illustrate a big shift in how the nation’s largest corporations are embracing AI. However as AI’s position grows, so does the necessity for sturdy governance frameworks to make sure its accountable and moral use – particularly in India’s essential industries like telecom and oil & gasoline.

Rishi Aurora, managing accomplice at IBM Consulting for India and South Asia, says that 71% of chief executives in India imagine that with out secure governance, AI fashions won’t achieve success.
Technique group & hackathons
At IndianOil, the journey in the direction of efficient AI governance started with their digital transformation initiative. “Once we began that transformation in 2019, we engaged a guide,” Suresh says. “We carved out a particular objective car, a Strategic Data Methods group, devoted to driving the digital transformation of IndianOil.” This group, which began with simply 4 members and has now grown to 30, has been instrumental in implementing AI governance practices throughout the organisation.
One among their key methods has been to conduct hackathons throughout the organisation. “We did one for the enterprise intelligence instrument, one for the analytics instrument, one for cell instruments, and one for generative AI instruments, in coordination with Microsoft,” Suresh says. These hackathons not solely helped establish potential AI use circumstances, but additionally fostered a tradition of accountable innovation inside the firm.
Knowledge governance & engineering
Hitesh says Vodafone Concept targeted closely on knowledge governance as the inspiration of their AI technique. “We moved from a number of factors of information sources right into a single knowledge lake.” This consolidation of information sources has been essential in making certain the accuracy and reliability of their AI fashions. Hitesh additionally emphasises the significance of correct knowledge definition in AI governance. “Three folks take a look at the identical knowledge in three other ways,” he says. “So, it’s essential have a correct knowledge definition. In any other case, a prediction, for instance, from a customer support viewpoint will look correct, however from a advertising and marketing viewpoint, it might not look so.”
To deal with this problem and construct belief in AI, Hitesh says, they applied an information engineering course of. Each corporations have additionally needed to grapple with the problem of privateness safety, particularly in mild of India’s new Digital Private Knowledge Safety Act.
Vodafone Concept has needed to take this problem notably critically, given the delicate nature of the client knowledge they deal with. Hitesh’s staff had to make sure their work processes by no means retailer or reveal any private info of their prospects. “Even for primary duties like criticism decision, we guarantee we’re not revealing precise buyer areas,” he says.
Steady monitoring and enchancment of AI techniques is one other essential facet of governance, particularly contemplating the tempo of development of AI fashions. Each corporations have applied processes for normal updates and variations to their AI techniques.
Constructing expertise, utilizing specialists
The scarcity of expert expertise presents yet one more governance problem. Each Vodafone Concept and IndianOil have applied in depth coaching programmes to upskill their present workforce. “We carried out a compulsory coaching programme on generative AI for all workers, no matter their position,” Hitesh says. Making certain that every one workers perceive the know-how they’re working with is seen as a key a part of a superb AI governance technique.
Regardless of this, addressing the multifaceted challenges of AI governance requires most enterprises to accomplice with know-how corporations like IBM. Suresh says these collaborations convey not solely superior AI instruments and platforms, but additionally invaluable experience in implementation and governance. “Know-how gamers convey a wealth of data and expertise. They assist us navigate the intricacies of AI improvement, making certain our methods align with finest practices and international requirements,” he says.
As Indian enterprises broaden their use of AI, the deal with governance will intensify. Rishi predicts that 2024 will see many pilot tasks in AI being transformed into full-scale implementations, notably in areas like finance, expertise transformation, and IT modernisation.