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Microsoft India showcased progress on its vision to democratize AI in the country to fuel economic and social growth. As part of its mission to empower every organization and individual, Microsoft is working with stakeholders across public and private sectors, civil society and academia in the country to create the right conditions for human-centered AI.

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Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said

The next wave of innovation for India is being driven by the tech intensity of companies – how you combine rapid adoption of cutting edge tech with your company’s own distinctive tech and business capabilities. We believe AI will enable Indian businesses and more for India’s progress, especially in education, skilling, healthcare and agriculture. Microsoft also believes that it is imperative to build higher awareness and capabilities on security, privacy, trust and accountability. The power of AI is just beginning to be realized and can be a game-changer for India.

The four pillars of Microsoft’s AI strategy include

Enabling Digital Transformation

Microsoft is committed to use its Cloud and AI technologies to create breakthrough innovations and accelerate the digital transformation of the nation, focusing on core industries that are critical to economic growth.

  • Over 700 business and government organizations have adopted its Artificial Intelligence [AI] solutions to drive breakthroughs in their digital transformation. Over 60% of these AI customers come from large businesses in manufacturing, financial services. In addition, Microsoft is working with new-age organizations that are leapfrogging and disrupting industries.
  • 715 partners are working with Microsoft in India to help customers design and implement a comprehensive AI strategy, aimed to boost employee productivity, increase business agility, improve customer engagement and jumpstart new product innovation.

Building coalitions for responsible innovation

Microsoft works with government, industry, academic and civil society stakeholders to create a collective approach to AI and build solutions that meets the needs and expectations of citizens.  Microsoft India is partnering with NITI Aayog to combine the cloud, AI, research and its vertical expertise for new initiatives and solutions across several core areas including agriculture and healthcare and the environment. We are also an active participant along with CII in looking at building solution frameworks for application in AI across areas such as Education, skills, health and agriculture.

Bridging the skills gap and enhancing employability

Microsoft believes development of talent pipelines vital for economic growth and is working to empower individuals across all demographics with the skills needed to succeed in an AI enabled world. In India, Microsoft aims to skill over 10,000 developers; set up AI labs in 10 universities; and train 500,000 youth across the country over the next three years. Microsoft also recently announced the Intelligent Cloud Hub Program to equip research and higher education institutions with AI infrastructure, build curriculum and help both faculty and students to build their skills and expertise in cloud computing, data sciences, AI and IoT.

Creating sustained social impact

Microsoft is enabling public and private organizations to apply Microsoft AI technologies to address pressing societal challenges. This includes healthcare, education, agriculture, local language computing environmental sustainability, accessibility opportunities, and supporting humanitarian action. 2018 saw Microsoft roll out several new projects across healthcare, including a partnership with Apollo Hospitals to use AI for early detection of cardiac diseases.  SRL Diagnostics is applying Microsoft AI for more accurate diagnosis in digital pathology and early detection of diseases such as cancer.

Microsoft customers and partners driving AI innovation for transformation in India

Engaging customers with AI

Future Generali India Life Insurance – Future Generali has built a AI based chatbot, REVA, for its life insurance business on the company’s website.  REVA addresses two business requirements viz., customer service and new customer acquisition and onboarding. Through a one-click service, existing customers can get policy status, premium due date, renewal payments, request for a soft copy of unit statement, premium paid certificate, fund charges among others. On the other hand, REVA also enables anytime, anywhere access to customers, enabling new customer on-boarding through a guided sales process that recommends the right products and also generates quotes.

REVA enables zero human intervention for certain products including Cancer Protect Plan and Heart & Health Insurance Plan. Moreover, it facilitates faster policy issuance and real-time resolution of policy queries. REVA has helped improve customer satisfaction scores by 91%, promoter customers by 70% and renewal premiums by 50%.

Empowering employees

UST Global – UST Global has been using an automated BOT framework to empower its employees to gain access to the information they require, without having to make countless calls and be able to make transactions from one single interface. This framework is available for all UST employees across web, mobile and Facebook at Work. So far, it has completed 6 million transactions and services 10,000 unique users every week. The company has also seen a 30% reduction in support ticket count.

Transforming products

Spetkacom Power Bat – The Power Bat, introduced in partnership with Anil Kumble’s technology start-up Spektacom Technologies and Star India, provides cricket players and coaches a new way to engage with the sport and help improve their game. A lightweight Azure Sphere-powered sticker is stuck on the shoulder of the bat. During a live match, as soon as the batsman hits the ball, data on different parameters [speed on impact, twist on impact and quality of the shot etc.] are captured in a new unit of measurement titled Power Speks.

Microsoft’s Azure Sphere ensures that the data is securely captured and processed. Using advanced analytics and AI services on Azure, real-time insights are captured through the stump box and displayed via the broadcaster. During practice or coaching, the same data can be viewed through a mobile app to help players and coaches learn from the shots and enhance their game.

Optimizing operations

Talview – Talview’s automated video interviewing solution helps customers hire from the untapped talent pool from multiple cities across the country. It has saved a customer upwards of 9000 hours of time for a customer in identifying, sourcing and screening talent. The solution is built on Azure Cognitive services to identify behavioral insights for hiring the right candidates. It can be accessed by candidates from any smartphone device and is fully functional even on low speed Internet.

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To ensure the data of its Indian users remains secured and to provide faster and more reliable services, Truecaller confirmed that its entire Indian user data is hosted in India. Truecaller is one of the first international tech companies to proactively take the step of storing its Indian users’ data locally in India. This is a user-centric move that is aimed at safeguarding personal data and encouraging more transparency in the ecosystem.

With locally stored data, and significant investments in its Indian infrastructure, Truecaller has also doubled the search result speed for its core services like Caller ID and Spam detection within the app to ensure users are protected from unwanted calls and potential fraud. It is worthwhile to note that Truecaller was already storing its Indian user’s payments data of its popular Unified Payment Interface [UPI] based payment service in India. Payments as a vertical was built from scratch entirely out of India last year after the acquisition of the Indian payments start-up Chillr. This made Truecaller fully compliant to RBI’s data localization norms from the start, compared to other international entities.

Over the past 24 months Truecaller has invested heavily in the India market, and today more than half of its employees are from India with offices in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, and Mumbai.

Speaking on the development, Nami Zarringhalam, Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Truecaller said

This is one of the many steps we are taking to ensure better quality of our core services across payments, messaging and Caller ID features that Truecaller offers. This also safeguards our user’s privacy and is our way of showing commitment towards our users and their data while being compliant with laws of the geographies we operate in. Truecaller has in the past years built a considerable user base in India with over 100 Million daily active users. To support all of the exciting developments we last year also acquired a company in India and now have half of our headcount in India.

About TrueCaller

People use Truecaller to stay ahead. It helps them know who’s getting in touch, filter out unwanted calls and SMS, and focus on what really matters. The company provides a suite of unique services such as a dialer that offers caller ID, spam detection, messaging and more. Truecaller’s mission is to build trust everywhere by making communication safe and efficient. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company was founded in 2009 by Alan Mamedi and Nami Zarringhalam. Investors include Sequoia Capital, Atomico and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers.

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The lottery and gaming conglomerate Sugal & Damani Group, announced the launch of Khel Group, aimed at becoming India’s largest online gaming platform. Khel Group will be the parent company with two of its own online gaming portals called Khelplayrummy offering online rummy and the newly launched KhelChamps, offering fantasy sports and gaming. Khel Group also has Pokerstars currently operated by Sachiko Gaming Pvt. Ltd., that has an exclusive partnership with the global entity – The Stars Group. Khel Group therefore becomes the only online gaming group in the country offering rummy, fantasy sports/games and poker together through a single, seamless and an efficient interface.

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According to a recent study done by KPMG and Google in India, the gaming industry is currently estimated at approximately $0.6 billion, of which online gaming is approximately $0.37 billion. This shows that online gaming segment has a great scope in India and Khel Group looks at acquiring a substantial market share in this segment in the country.

Commenting on the development, Naveen Goyal, CEO, Khel Group said

Since the launch, our company has been focused on providing the best customer experience by offering a seamless interface through innovative technologies. With Khel Group, we intend to augment the online gaming experience along with consolidating several gaming offerings. The purpose of Khel Group is to create a strong single platform and identity which is imperative for the brand to communicate effectively with our different stakeholders. I look forward to this new and exciting phase of our journey.

Sharing his perspective on the online gaming industry in India, Nitesh Damani, Founder & Promoter, Khel Group said

India’s growing internet consuming population and smartphone penetration coupled with reasonable data prices is creating a revolution in the online gaming sector. Hence it is important to keep upgrading the back-end technology to intensify our product offerings and give the best user experience to stay relevant to them from time to time. With our foray into the fantasy sports, we are expanding our capabilities and adding value to the customers by offering them ample options to choose from, by way of which our vision to be the only online gaming group offering multiple games can be reinstated.

Technology and ease of attractive user interface is the mainstay of Khel Group’s range of premium brands across all its verticals. The Group takes pride for the massive reach that it has and looks forward to shape the online gaming industry.

About Khel Group

Khel Group aims to be the largest online gaming group by meticulously engineering superlative online gaming experiences. The group strives to adapt to changing trends, evolve and reform, producing better versions of work each time. The utmost priority is to ensure smooth, exciting and safe game play which subsequently attracts gaming enthusiasts.

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Aeris, a technology leader in the Internet of Things [IoT], announced it is working with the Roambee Corporation, an IoT supply chain and enterprise asset visibility company, to help enterprises improve their monitoring of shipments and assets through IoT-based technologies offered by both companies.

Roambee provides IoT-based real-time global condition monitoring and visibility services for in-transit goods and in-field assets. Roambee’s unique end-to-end solution simplifies global shipment visibility across the supply chain, including the entire cold chain process for enterprises. The company provides patented hardware and software technology, combined with an array of senor data, analytics, predictive reporting and open application programming interfaces [APIs] to increase Return On Investment [ROI], improve supply chain operations, and reduce inventory loss.

Aeris offers end-to-end IoT and machine-to-machine [M2M] solutions through its comprehensive Aeris Mobility Platform [AMP] and Aeris Connectivity Platform [ACP]. Collectively, these platforms enable enterprises and original equipment manufacturers to embark on a digital transformation journey to enhance revenue, create new services and form new business models.

ACP provides Roambee with the ability to manage its global data connectivity, which in turn is being used by Roambee for its shipping, inventory, pallet, asset and fleet monitoring services. This helps Roambee advance its service delivery while improving supply chain predictability and throughput for enterprises.

The Aeris Connectivity Platform provides a ‘smarter’ cold chain because real-time monitoring devices provide managers with live data and situational alerts, thereby mitigating risks along the cold chain before they arise, while providing actionable insights for future business improvements.

Christina Richards, Vice President of Global Marketing, Aeris, said

Aeris is an Internet of Things industry leader. Through our work with Roambee, we enable them to easily manage a host of cold chain monitoring data analytics and connectivity capabilities for global enterprises. The Aeris Connectivity Platform is built for IoT and has been globally tested at scale. For more than a decade, we have unlocked IoT value for enterprises and look forward to helping Roambee be the preeminent provider of cold chain monitoring solutions.

Vidya Subramanian, Vice President of Products, Roambee, said

By utilizing Aeris Connectivity Platform’s data management and location capabilities, Roambee better manages our own quality of global service for enterprises at scale. This is an integral part of Roambee’s portfolio of end-to-end, real-time visibility and monitoring solutions, and we are proud to partner with Aeris in this capacity.

Roambee’s real-time monitoring solutions provide managers with live data and situational alerts, thereby mitigating risks along the cold chain before they arise, while providing actionable insights for future business improvements. By leveraging ACP and its location-based services, Roambee’s services alleviates on-time delivery risks; reduces spoilage and damage risks; lowers theft and financial risk, and improves its overall delivery of service.

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Capillary Technologies, Asia’s leading SaaS company, launched its first exclusive deals and coupons shopping app ‘DealHunt‘. The app is a one-stop destination for best offers and deals across 20+ categories. Consumers can choose from 1000+ trusted brands on both online and offline platforms, including fashion, beauty, food, health, travel, electronics and more. The Android version is available to download on Google Play Store, while the iOS version is slated for release later this month.

The offers and discounts on DealHunt app are backed by Capillary’s AI-powered technology with in-depth analysis on user preferences, thereby, enabling customers to avail the most recent offers at stores within their vicinity and at the best price. The app offers a seamless and user-friendly interface and allows consumers to save big with just one click. The app aims to strengthen customer acquisition strategy for brands which would be an addition to customer loyalty programs that Capillary already offers.

Speaking on this latest product by Capillary, Aneesh Reddy, CEO & Co-Founder, said

Our association with multiple brands over the years has played an integral role in our journey towards the creation of DealHunt App. The AI-powered platform makes the app a unique offering to the users to identify and pick offers and discounts across top brands. Through this initiative, it is a win-win situation for both consumers and retailers. The coupon code can be used offline as well which increases footfall in stores.

To ensure the credibility of all offers listed on the app, a DealHunt team will diligently update the latest and most recent offers only after consultation with the respective brands. The parent company of DealHunt, Capillary Technologies is also set to launch a loyalty program through which users can redeem loyalty points at their convenience. Capillary provides CRM and loyalty management solutions to more than 80% of all the best-selling and popular brands across categories in the market.

DealHunt for Android can be downloaded from here.

About Capillary Technologies

Capillary Technologies help businesses get ahead of the digital evolution and stay ‘Always Consumer Ready’. Over 400 marquee brands across 30+ countries, including Pizza Hut, VF Brands, Walmart, Madura Garments, Valiram, KFC, Starbucks and Samsung, trust Capillary to enable easy and seamless consumer experiences. With over 300 million consumers and 25,000 stores on the platform, Capillary is Asia’s leading SaaS product company. Over 700 Capillary associates across 11 global offices are continually innovating to find new ways for brands to make their consumers’ lives easier, and experiences memorable. For more information, please visit Capillary Technologies.

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SmartOwner, the fastest growing FinTech firm in South Asia, launches SmartOwner Capital Growth Fund I, a SEBI-registered Category II Real Estate Alternative Investment Fund, structured to deliver strong upside protection with superior risk mitigation. The portfolio is expected to comprise of highly curated opportunities in the fastest growing locations and asset classes in real estate, such as co-working and commercial spaces. The fund has a target size of Rs. 500 crores with a greenshoe of INR 500 crores.

Strong projected growths in commercial & residential real estate markets, high current inflation-adjusted returns, and opportunities from the sale of distressed assets due to RERA, have created a uniquely profitable time to invest in Indian real estate. By combining the growth potential of the best opportunities across asset classes and locations, SmartOwner’s AIF offers a way to profit from the fastest-growing sectors of Indian real estate.

About SmartOwner

SmartOwner is Asia’s largest property investment management firm and marketplace, offering opportunities not available on the general market. SmartOwner brings together the financial expertise of a large PE fund, the legal expertise of a major law firm, and the real estate expertise of a top developer onto a common platform to give real estate investors access to exclusive high-return opportunities that are normally the domain of large financial institutions. For more information, please visit SmartOwner

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Truecaller introduces three new smart updates called ‘SMS Classification‘, ‘Smart Notification‘ and ‘Messages Backup‘ to its existing Messaging Inbox feature, to enhance the SMS messaging experience for all Android users. Truecaller in its continued effort to make life easier by providing safe and efficient communication tools, has launched the new features to empower users to effectively manage their cluttered Messaging Inbox while ensuring they don’t lose out on valuable information every time they uninstall the app or change their smartphones.

SMS’s are so frequent that sometimes even important messages are treated no differently than spam-led, coupon codes or promotional updates. SMS Classification, equipped with advanced machine learning algorithms will help sort messages in 3 groups [contacts, others, spam] based on the content of the message. For instance, personal messages will be shown under the contacts tab, blocked/top spammer messages will directly land under the SPAM tab while the rest of the messages will be classified under the others category based on the content. The classification happens offline and locally on the user’s phone without any data being stored on Truecaller’s servers.

The Smart Notification feature scans through incoming SMS locally on the phone without touching Truecaller’s servers, and creates a smart card highlighting relevant data like OTP number, transaction amount or payment reminders for the users to act on. Additionally, the user will also be able to perform certain actions like recharge or pay bill straight from the smart card that appears on the notification tab by just clicking on the pay option provided.

The first update will initially show smart messages from HDFC, AXIS, ICICI, CITIBANK, SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB, BOI, Union Bank and mobile operator including Airtel, Idea, Jio and Vodafone. In line with Truecaller’s aim to provide secured tools, this feature is also designed to work completely offline and will take place only on an individual’s handset ensuring that none of the user’s transactional info or OTPs touch Truecaller servers. Users can choose to disable this update when preferred.

Further, one of the key pain points identified by users is the process of resetting a fully functional Truecaller account in case a user accidentally uninstalls the app or changes phones. The new Message backup feature is built to securely backup and recover all messages [SMS and Truecaller Chat], contacts [saved and ones identified by Truecaller], call history, block list and other preferences with just the click of a button. Integrated with Google Drive, Android phone users can enable the backup feature through the Truecaller app settings. Users can then select their own Google account and grant access to Truecaller to create a private folder on Google Drive to store the backed-up files. Truecaller does not inspect nor have access to this folder making the process entirely secure.

These updates have already been rolled out to all Android users. More support questions for Truecaller Backup can be found on their support page.

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The global key trends for 2018 brought about some significant changes in innovation and technology. With the start of 2019, Shailesh Kumar Dave, Vice President, ManageEngine a division of Zoho Corp. and a technology veteran expects technology trends to disrupt, shift and change the way you do business.

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Below are 5 key exponential technology trends to watch out for in 2019.

Digital process automation will accelerate

Enterprise adoption of process automation technologies will continue with the same vigor as the technologies are expected to make the enterprises nimble, data-centric and quick to make decisions across geographies. More importantly, process automation will also help enterprises to go beyond the simple operational and efficiency gains made with basic automation to tap new revenue opportunities.

For example, a bank embracing fintech can use digital process automation to improve real-time visibility into its customers’ data and factor the improved view into real-time risk assessment of the customers.  To elucidate further, a bank could provide its customers with digital tools related to accounting, receivables, payables, and all other back office functions. The customers can give permission to the bank to use selective data to have good visibility on the velocity of their businesses. This could enable the bank to provide financial services at a faster clip to the customer and at lower cost, not only due to automation but also do due to better risk visibility of the customer.

OCR/NLP/Voice/Video/Image processing will aid productivity gains

The main nemesis of process automation is any web form customers, employees, or partners must fill out when an organization wants to capture their data.  Every one dreads screens with forms.

AI/machine learning technologies are mature enough to process voice, video, text, and images reliably. Using these mature technologies, the natural activities of making a phone call, taking a video, or taking a picture could be used to fill out data-enriched forms automatically. Hence both objectives will be met – collecting adequate data and filling out fewer forms – and these technologies will continue their march into the enterprise.

Privacy concerns will hold center stage

With GDPR becoming a reality and hosts of other countries passing similar privacy laws, data usage will be closely monitored. Data will be tagged so that its origin will be known at the point of usage. Tools related to data tagging and master data management will become crucial. Privacy concerns and related legal ramifications could slow down decision making in enterprises. In response, new generation messaging, audio/video web conferencing tools will be used by enterprises to achieve the twin objectives of privacy compliance and rapid decision making.

Data locality will increase diversity

Lots of countries mandate that data needs to reside within geographical boundaries. Enterprises using SAAS or PAAs will end up using country-specific public clouds or even private clouds. As a result, critical data and applications that need to be monitored will be spread across geographies. Monitoring tools and technologies that help consolidate the view of these applications and data will see larger enterprise adoption.

This increase in data locality will also require federated Identity and Access Management [IAM] with Zero Trust security considerations. Single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and enterprise mobility management will also become common place in the enterprises.

New kinds of hardware in the data center

Data workloads in the data center are increasing, and the demise of Moore’s law is not helping the CPU to keep pace. Newer hardware like GPU, FPGA, ASICs will become commonplace in the data center.  Enterprise IT teams will have to be knowledgable about these technologies and use the right applications and tools to ensure that money is wisely spent on the newer hardware.

About the Author

Shailesh Dave is the Vice President, ManageEngine, a division of Zoho Corp. You can know more about him here.