Why isn’t India the tourism capital of the world?

 

Image generated by Gemini

There is no reason on the face of the earth (pun intended) for India not to be the tourism capital of the world. From the lofty Himalayas and the Thar Desert to one of the longest coastlines in the world and from historical monuments and a cultural heritage that goes back several millennia, India offers more in spades than any other nation in the world. It has ski resorts and beach resorts, jungle safaris and desert safaris, alpine forests and mangrove forests, mighty rivers and serene lagoons and everything else you can imagine, like exotic tropical islands and even an active volcano! Medieval palaces, forts, ancient temples, a millennia-old classical music tradition, a cuisine more varied than any other, and a unique way of life that has evolved over thousands of years.

There is nothing that any nation in the world has that can hold a candle to what India has to offer. It compares favorably with Rome and Egypt when it comes to ancient architecture, and its cuisines from across its various regions rival those of France and Italy. India's ski resorts are no less than what Switzerland offers, and its thriving wildlife offers more than what Africa does. From the frozen deserts and icy rivers of Ladakh, to the aquamarine waters of Andaman and Nicobar islands and from the rugged river-carved canyons of Gandikota and Bhedaghat, there isn't enough space to go into the details of what India offers the world. Yet, the international tourist arrival numbers for India are abysmally low.

France, a nation one-fifth the size of India, attracted 89.4 million visitors in 2024 (the highest in the world), when compared to an extremely modest 20.57 million international tourist arrivals in the same year. In fact, India did not even make it to the list of the top 10 nations attracting international tourists, being left behind by countries like Spain, Italy, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, China, Thailand and Mexico.

India earned as much as $35 billion from international tourist arrivals in 2024, a figure that would have been a whopping $151.4 billion if something like 89 million international tourists had arrived in India instead. That is not all that far from what India earns from its IT exports. Does one even begin to fathom what kind of difference that would have made to the Indian economy? With all that India offers, isn’t that a criminal waste of opportunity for a nation that has more to offer than any other in the world?

Why doesn’t India get the numbers?

If India doesn't get the international tourist arrival numbers it deserves, it has to be on account of the fact that very few of the international travellers who come here recommend it heartily to their compatriots back home or want to visit it again. This occurs because of the fact that India still has infrastructure issues. Rail, road and air connectivity have come a long way in recent years, but are still pretty inconsistent, with last-mile transportation often not being up to the mark.

India has many world-class hotels, some of which make it to several international lists of the world's greatest hotels, but it does not offer much by way of affordable accommodation comparable with other major tourism destinations. In particular, there are issues with regard to safety and hygiene, especially in areas that are not part of the well-known tourist circuits. International tourists expect things like clean public restrooms and the availability of safe drinking water, wherever they visit, no matter how remote the place may be.

Some international tourists might get put off by what they might perceive as restrictive visa rules. This is especially evident when you compare the tourism visa policies of other tourist destinations around the world. One would do well to make it possible for international visitors to come for even short-term visits, allowing them more flexibility when it comes to travel planning.

While India is a budget traveller's paradise, given the high number of expat backpackers you see in the country, the mid to high-end tourists often face quite high costs. Then, there is the question of the high taxes levied on hotels and travel services. To top it all, hotel rates and airline ticket prices are exorbitantly priced during the peak season, often making the visitors consider other destinations to visit.

Lastly, India has been rather lacklustre and inconsistent in showcasing its offerings in the world tourism market when compared to other countries like France and Italy, which have been able to develop a strong brand image in terms of what those countries offer to visitors.

How to turn the tide?

 

The critical building block with regard to putting India on the path to achieving the number one tourism destination in the world is to carry out a massive upgrade of its infrastructure.  Improvement in road connectivity, adequate accommodation of internationally acceptable standards and massive across-the-board improvement in hygiene and sanitation levels not just across the tourist destinations, but across the country. This entails a massive investment, which will pay back handsomely in the times ahead.

The safety and security of all tourists-domestic and international, have to be a matter of national pride and importance. Not only does it entail better policing, but also making the people realise that they have a stake in ensuring that the world sees India as a great place to visit, where the people are warm, friendly and well-disposed to people who visit their land. It would, in fact, be a great idea to train people throughout the length and breadth of this vast country to participate in the growth of the tourism sector. They could become a part of the very lucrative hospitality industry, helping them raise their standard of living.

India has a head start in digital connectivity thanks to its impressive mobile connectivity and the very successful rollout of its digital payments infrastructure. This can be leveraged by putting an integrated ticketing system in place. Besides, one can use apps and deploy AI to help tourists discover incredible India and make the best possible travel plans with ease and convenience.

India is a land that, at some level, beckons and fascinates the world, and this has been true since the dawn of history. In offering people everything that is good, profound and sublime in the world, it shows them the layered, intricate, diverse and nuanced aspects of its way of life. Visiting India in many ways is like finding the meaning of life itself.

We in India owe it to ourselves to show the world the very best of what India is. If we do that, there is no reason why India can't be the number one tourism destination in the world. In so doing, we will not only contribute massively to the enrichment of this vast and ancient land, going back millennia, but also bring the world closer to it. As the old Indian saying goes, "The World is One Family."

Startups in the world of AI

 

                                                                     

                Image generated by Gemini

Is it a great time to found a startup at a time when AI seems to be poised to impact every aspect of human endeavour and activity? Do the tremendous efficiencies that are said to accrue from deploying AI make it far easier to run a successful startup, or do the complexities arising from its adoption make things difficult?

With small businesses being the backbone of most nations’ economies, both in terms of GDP and private sector job creation, can artificial intelligence-powered startups achieve breakout growth through market-disrupting innovation? The fact that startups have access to easily available open-source tools, as well as a huge amount of high-quality data, does give them a leg up with regard to coming up with out-of-the-box solutions that are unconstrained by the hitherto high costs of research and development that something like that might have entailed in the past.

With innovation being made so much easier to achieve, even the smallest of startups can match the operational efficiency of much larger organisations. This empowers them to function in a nimble and super-efficient manner, enabling them to make lightning-fast strategic moves like rapidly coming up with new iterations and aligning very quickly to any market changes.

On the flip side, the high rate of obsolescence of the cutting-edge solutions offered by AI means that startups will need to work very hard to maintain their competitive advantage in the market. They could get trapped in a treadmill kind of race that hampers growth. Constant innovation and adaptation do not necessarily lend themselves to growth and stability, for a startup, as it would not be able to find its feet in terms of zeroing in on a niche for itself. Then there is also the fact that the regulatory landscape is evolving with regard to grappling with the cons of AI, like data privacy, algorithmic bias and ethical concerns about its use. Also, given that AI open source tools are available to everyone, the advantage evens out, and it is quite challenging to apply a given AI technology in a manner that others can't replicate.

Is AI- A Game Changer for Startups?

At the core of starting a new business lie its viability and chances of finding success. The very best of business ideas might not stand muster in a tough and cutthroat marketplace. It is important that your product or service should not only have sufficient demand, but that you should also have a fair idea of who your target audience is, as well as have your financial planning sorted. Besides, you should be aware of the kind of competition you face. On top of all of that, you need an insightful marketing strategy to achieve your sales and revenue objectives. While in the past you might have needed to hire experts to guide you with all of the above, you can now use AI to help you through all of these processes cheaply and in double quick time.

AI can help startups personalise marketing campaigns, carry out precise market segmentation enabling better targeting, leverage predictive analytics allowing for strategic decision making, and optimise the marketing & sales processes. It can also help with compliance related matters,   enhance security and protect against fraud. What’s more, it can also help a startup attract funding from investors by helping it get its financial analysis right.

Startups in the world of AI largely have a good thing going. Artificial Intelligence levels out the playing field for a lot of small-time entrepreneurs who were looking to launch their startups, but were intimidated by the challenges involved. In fact, there was never a better time for startups to launch, scale up and rule, the challenges notwithstanding.

 

 

The Age of AI: Finding Employment 5 Years From Now

 

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The world is sitting on an unemployment time bomb, the like of which it does not fully fathom at the present moment. This is because the way AI, IoT, and robotics are incrementally advancing in their capabilities, there is no field of human endeavour that will escape unscathed from the ever expanding tentacles of these technologies in the not so distant future.

While this will be immensely beneficial to the corporations that own and control these technologies, what of the people at large? Ultimately, there is also the not so unreal or unlikely doomsday prospect of AI becoming fully autonomous, going rogue, and deciding to take the destiny of humans and indeed all life forms, for better or worse, into its own hands.

This may not happen in the next 5 years, but who knows? When you might have possibly created and unleashed a Frankenstein’s monster, do you have any clue about what the consequences might be?

Moving on to more immediate matters at hand, are we prepared for the massive unemployment crisis that the world faces in the very near future? Imagine a future where there are no human teachers, engineers, doctors, accountants, cab drivers, pilots, actors, poets, painters, or farmers?

Not all of that will come to pass in 5 years, but some of it might. Are we even thinking about it? The way things are evolving with regard to the incremental adoption of cutting-edge technologies like AI, IoT, Machine Learning, and robotics, most of the jobs in 5 years from now will pertain to managing and harnessing these technologies across sectors.

It certainly makes sense to equip yourself with skills that are likely to be in demand in this new era of technology. By all means, attend all the online courses available out there that teach you about AI, IoT, Machine Learning, and all the stuff that is deemed to be important. Stay in the know about the developments that will have a bearing on your future career prospects and ensure that you have a healthy online presence that helps showcase your skills to potential employers.

But the nagging question is, will there be any real need for what you and millions of others like you bring to the table in this new technology (not human) shaped world order? The answer is that one does not know. While it is true that the advent of any new seminal technology always comes with its own share of challenges, but ultimately becomes mainstream and always opens up new pathways of employment after the dust settles, we are dealing with a whole new phenomenon here.

The sheer scale and frequency of change ushered in by the fascinating as well as scary bouquet of  AI technologies (including Generative AI) have seemingly made it impossible for humans to keep pace and pivot to newer ways of performing a job. For whatever you might think you can do better than an artificial entity, it will be proven false faster than you thought was possible. For instance, the impending arrival of Agentive AI, with the ability to make autonomous decisions  without human oversight and thereby achieve predetermined objectives, promises to be a total game changer in terms of what it will be able to achieve and accomplish. That is because Agentive AI will be able to think critically like human beings and be able to display initiative in dealing with complex environments all on its own. What on Earth would you need humans for?

The high priests of technology are, in fact, quite upfront and honest about the likely detrimental impact of advanced technology on people’s job prospects in the very near future. For instance,Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, the AI company that came up with Generative AI assistant Claude, believes that Artificial Intelligence might replace 50% of all white-collar jobs in the next 5 years. 

Elder statesman and politician Bernie Sanders has expressed his fear that the benefits of AI will accrue only to billionaires, shining a light on an expected struggle against corporate greed as well inequity brought on by the AI revolution.

Nothing highlights this more vividly than the New York Times article about the  catastrophic state of employment amongst recent fresh college graduates, with more and more companies looking to deploy AI in preference to recently graduated college students.

The world needs to wake up and smell the coffee now. A strategy has to be put in place to ensure that AI and all the other wonderful technologies that it incorporates are harnessed to serve the interests of everybody and not just the all powerful tech giant or those in a position of authority over the common man. Using it to fight disease, illiteracy, and climate change, for example, is something to look forward to, but not deploying it to serve the economic interests of a few.

Like democracy, we have to ensure that technologies like AI are for, by, and of the people and used for their common good. The necessary rules and regulations have to be framed and implemented so that their use is property codified and works within a system. Above all, people’s right to work and a livelihood must be strengthened by technology and not decimated. The time to act is now.

The World of AI is Here and There is No Escaping It

 

Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-bright-lights-373543/

In the good old days, when AI was something that nobody had really heard of or cared about, you would come across stories of alien invasions in the shape of literature or scary sci-fi movies. These would more often than not paint bleak dystopian scenarios of hostile alien takeover, which would in most cases be thwarted either by nature causing the aliens to die off or involve the humans getting their act together and ridding themselves of the extraterrestrial menace that threatened their existence. Sometimes, as in the movie Avatar, the human race were the aggressors in far, far away galaxies.

 So much were people taken in by the whole business of the possibility of hostile aliens lurking amongst us that people routinely started reporting alien and UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects). Why, the US Air Force even launched an official investigation, which went under the name of Project Blue Book, to probe purported UFO sightings. 

 While the world still obsesses with alien life and UFOs, with conspiracy theories being a dime a dozen, people are now assailed with the prospects of a life altering event that is no less scary than a full blown alien explosion- the advent and rise of AI. Technological advancements in the realms of AI, Internet of Things, and Machine Learning threaten to make mankind redundant in the sense that every economic and social function that it performs can be carried out artificially in a much more efficient manner by such technologies. 

 From teaching, reading, and writing to healthcare, art, entertainment, factory production, banking, and military functions everything can be performed by artificial entities, increasingly without much human oversight. The way that technologies pertaining to these are advancing, the day is not far when there will be no human involvement in the decisions such entities will make. Who is to say how these autonomous entities empowered by artificial intelligence might evolve with regard to their thought process? Could they decide that the human race itself, with its proclivity to exploit and damage the very resources that nurture it, should be put to sleep and a brave new world order comprising indestructible machines or robots who exist in perfect harmony with its environment? 

 The fact of the matter is that the world of AI is here, and there is no escaping it. The question is, what are we going to do to prevent its complete takeover of our lives and ultimately our very existence? Do we have it in us to ensure that AI is leveraged as nothing more than a very useful tool that can help us do the various things we do efficiently? If you hire a househelp, you do so to make your life easier and not let your househelp become your overlord who will decide your fate. 

 Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a cohesive worldwide strategy to regulate the use of AI. It has been left entirely to the captains of the ever-expanding and growing technology behemoths for whom profit trumps every principle known to lead to the betterment of humankind. That cannot augur well for the world. Look at the way that the unregulated access to social media has wreaked havoc with the development of the impressionable minds of children and teenagers around the world.

 We cannot even begin to visualise the kind of capabilities AI will possess in five to ten years from now. It will be able to bend our notion of reality as we now know it and replace it with another one, which could possibly be more bizarre than we can possibly imagine. Is “progress” worth that kind of price? This is something that the greatest scientific minds of our times have been repeatedly pointing out to us, and we better pay attention. AI has to be regulated, controlled, and tamed. It is a matter of our very survival

A Concrete Cage: How Big City Living Can Squeeze the Life Out of You

 

Photo by Fabio Souto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/sao-paulo-urban-cityscape-with-modern-architecture-33263986/

Living in a big city is soul sapping, especially if you have grown up in a small town. You invariably move to a big metropolitan area for reasons of growth and ambition, attracted no doubt by tales you have heard of wealth and fortunes made by others when they similarly left their small town homes for the big city. But when you arrive there you are immediately intimidated by the scale of everything you encounter.

 Yet your ambition drives you on and you throw yourself into getting to know your new home and learning the big-bad city’s ways until you are fully incorporated into its pulsating rhythm.

 Slowly, but surely you achieve everything you ever dreamt of and often more than that. But the big city extracts a price in terms of changing the essence of you. It strips you of your simplicity and your sense of justice and fair play and feeds your ego in a manner that nothing comes in the way of your goals. Some hold on to some semblance of who they were once and find that comes in the way of getting ahead of others. Many take leave of their moral compass and make their life all about achievements, conquests and acquisition.

 A bigger house, a second and third house, a fatter bank balance, a trophy spouse, a luxury car, expensive holidays abroad and all that. You forget that your life is finite and with each passing day you have one day less to live. Living like there is no tomorrow wrecks your mental peace and your physical well-being.

 

It has to. Even machines break down. You are but a human being and cannot forever be in high gear in pursuit of more and more. Living in a big city puts you on a hamster wheel, where the purpose of your existence is satiating your never ending greed.

 

A big city is like an empire- it feeds on growth driven by pure unadulterated greed and ambition, which is accomplished by the exploration of others. Just like an empire had its heyday and a decline and a fall, one’s life and time in a big city gives you the highs and then lays you low. You suffer physical, mental and spiritual fatigue. A distance develops not only from your family and friends, but you yourself.

 

You feel the need to reconnect with who you were and rediscover the sense of peace and balance you once had. Going to live in a small town that is still connected with nature can help you do that. Live a simpler life with simple everyday goals like buying milk from a neighbourhood vendor or walking in the nearby woods inhaling air that is pure and not spiked with hydrocarbon fumes heals you physically and mentally and restores peace to your soul. The slower rhythm of life brings deep peace in your life allowing you to sleep like a baby. Every day you wake up to a morning that makes you feel that you are happy to be alive.

 

Keeping things simple and opting out of the race to acquire more makes your life worth living again. You value the time that is left for you to live much more, counting every second that you get to live a blessing. You finally do things that are truly important to you like spending time with the family and not staring at a computer screen. You read those literary masterpiece that you always wanted to instead of immersing yourself in inane and endless social media interactions. When you travel, it is with the intention of discovering a new place that you haven't visited before, but always had on your bucket list of destinations that fascinated you. You go there not to advance your career, but to please your inner self- your soul.

 

The big city will always be there, beckoning you with its beguiling charms, but you may no longer care for those. You have moved on.

 

 

 

 

 

A Mad World Made Madder by AI

Photo by Jan Kopřiva: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-wearing-red-hoodie-3281130/

 

The world looked like it had finally become a better one, at the end of the 20^th century. The Cold War was already a relic of history and a globalised world that preferred trade to war promised a future which was unmistakably bright. Countries around the world were growing richer and travel between nations by the peoples of the world was ushering in an almost utopian era of peace and prosperity. Russia the successor state of the erstwhile Soviet Union was no longer an enemy of the West and had in fact adopted a free market economy where all the major Western brands had a prominent place.

 

Western movies were freely shot in Russia often starring Russian actors and Russian airlines flew Boeing and Airbus aircraft. China became the flavour of the world, manufacturing every conceivable product for nations across the globe. India on the other hand excelled at technology services and became a force to be reckoned with in the world of software.

 

At long last, the world seemed to be getting its act together and choosing economic growth, peace and prosperity over strife and violence. There were conflicts, of course, in the Middle East, parts of Africa and elsewhere, but the general trajectory was in the right direction.

The world was gearing up to fight the greatest challenge to its very existence in the shape of climate change and it seemed that everyone was on the same page about what really mattered.

 

Until it all unraveled. Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and shattered the illusory era of peace and bonhomie that the world has begun to believe was normal. When its revisionist leader invaded Ukraine the world was dragged back decades to not just the Cold War era, but the times of Hitler and the Second World War.

 

And then Trump happened to the world. He took a hammer and dismantled the carefully constructed global order largely put in place by his own country, the United States. The phenomenal rise of China as an economic and military power, which America itself helped create now threatened the latter’s global hegemony and had to be checked. The way to do it was to destroy the rules based global order of trade which led to the emergence of other powers in the world that challenged the predominant nature of American power.

 

So that needed to be destroyed and an era of uncertainty unleashed upon the world where nations couldn't tell between friend and foe, as they could in the past. We now live in a dog eat dog world where things like climate change, fighting disease and chronic poverty are the least of any nation’s priorities anymore.

 

If things couldn't get any worse, we now have the spectre of AI or Artificial Intelligence and Robotics destroying every known profession. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, can drivers, factory workers, actors, artists, musicians and everybody else is on the verge of redundancy. This is going to inevitably happen and not in the very distant future.

 

As to who will benefit from this seminal translation is not clear. Will it be the governments of the world, the corporates or the people be in charge? Are we going to see the dawn of a brave new world where AI will take care of everything and mankind will be free to pursue higher interests or are we to replicate the scenario so well depicted in the Hollywood blockbuster Matrix?

AI Transforming Hiring and Recruitment

Photo by Alex Knight: https://www.pexels.com/photo/high-angle-photo-of-robot-2599244/

 

AI is being increasingly leveraged in the hiring and recruitment process by companies seeking to hire the best talent, as well as recruitment agencies and platforms that aim to provide the best possible candidates to their clients. Generative AI, in particular, has been found to be particularly effective in helping acquire talent.

From writing job descriptions and scheduling interviews to matching credentials with job requirements, AI has made the HR process smoother and much more efficient than before. Besides, AI frees up time that HR personnel would spend on mundane repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on forging relationships with potential employees who come closest in terms of their attributes to what a company expects from them (again determined by AI).

Among the things that drive efficiency in hiring and recruitment, thanks to AI, is the ability to adopt automated resume selection and engagement with the optimal candidate profile.  Apart from substantially bringing down the cost of hiring, the use of AI has made recruitment fair, transparent and entirely bias-free.

Digitisation of businesses across industries has resulted in a push towards AI adoption in hiring processes, helping usher in seamless hiring, a substantial reduction in the time taken to hire the most qualified-for-the-job personnel and an across-the-board improvement in the hiring process. As a matter of fact, businesses are moving from the use of stand-alone HR apps to integrated staffing platforms that come replete with a slew of hiring and recruitment-related services.

Interestingly, nontraditional players like major consulting firms are entering the hiring and recruitment scene by taking advantage of their technological assets to facilitate direct connections between employers and potential employees.[1] It is not surprising, therefore, that according to Gartner, 76% of companies have predicted that their organisations will adopt AI technologies within the next year to a year and a half.[2]

Given that AI, particularly GenAI, is going to play an increasingly important role in the hiring and recruitment processes, it makes eminent sense for companies everywhere to prepare themselves for it. They need to have a clear strategy in place with regard to what they aim to achieve by implementing AI in HR. It makes eminent sense to bring the HR departments in question up to speed with the capabilities and abilities of AI when it comes to streamlining the HR function. Of particular importance is the use of AI-powered chatbots for employee-facing tasks, the automation of administrative tasks, as well as the optimisation of the actual recruitment process by way of improving job descriptions and skills data management.[3]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] https://www.tcs.com/what-we-do/industries/high-tech/white-paper/ai-transforming-future-staffing-recruitment

[2] https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/topics/artificial-intelligence-in-hr

[3] https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/topics/artificial-intelligence-in-hr

Data Analytics for You and Me

 

Photo by Lukas: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-chart-and-bar-graph-669612/

Data they said was the oil of the 21^st century. Having access to the right kind of data and the ability to process it gave individuals, businesses, organisations and indeed nations power. That is why the demand for data experts or data scientists as the more qualified ones are called grew exponentially. In a scenario where strength and power were derived from being able to source and leverage high-quality data, the common people felt a loss of control and a feeling of being left in the dark with regard to where the world had reached and their ability to cope with it.

This lack of democratisation on the part of the data revolution caused widespread anxiety among the generations that were born and raised before the digital revolution. There was no attempt to demystify data analytics and explain to whoever wanted to know, how they too could use it to make the way that they worked or took the important decisions in life much more informed and efficient.

Understanding Data Analytics

Data analytics essentially involves going through raw data to arrive at certain conclusions, based on the information available to you. This is done with the help of varied techniques and processes that eventually help you enhance productivity.

To do this, you need to first obtain the data required and then segment it in a manner that you are able to zero in on identifiable patterns and trends, empowering you to make more informed decisions leading to better outcomes.  Much like in mining where you process the raw ore to obtain nuggets of the substance you need, data analytics helps you obtain valuable and useful information from within a very large amount of data comprising raw information as well as glimpses of potentially game-changing insights.

Data Analytics Made Accessible

 

Till very recently you needed highly trained data professionals to do the data processing as well as the extraction of relevant information that could be put to use by businesses and large organisations to enhance their efficiency and productivity. This meant that small businesses and organisations as well as individuals, who could not afford to hire the services of such professionals were deprived of the advantages of leveraging data analytics to achieve higher levels of efficiency and output at work.

But that was in the past and advances in technology have made it possible for anybody to reap he tremendous benefits of basic data analytics, thanks to the emergence of many user-friendly tools. This means that there are no longer any entry barriers to making data analytics available to whoever wants to use it.

Besides, there are a whole host of educational resources available online which can help you apprise yourself with the basic data analytics skills required to enhance the productivity and efficiency of what you are doing.  Among the uses that you can put data analytics to is to get a better handle on your customers' preferences, tracking your personal finances or even improving your health. Data analytics can help you make better informed and more -likely- to succeed decisions in a highly complex and competitive world. It can help you make smart decisions in a world where being able to leverage data defines how successful you will be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Digital Entertainment Attracts the Biggest Ad-Spends

Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash

 

In a country where the median age group is 28.8 years[1], it is not surprising that most people turn to digital entertainment rather than traditional forms like television and movies. The widespread availability of mobile devices makes it easy, convenient, and inexpensive to access a myriad of OTT channels, social media networks, online gaming platforms, and music streaming services.

Businesses, marketers and brand managers know that digital ad spending gets them the biggest bang for the buck and, therefore, have begun to spend more on that segment than traditional ones. This is especially true of digital entertainment that corners more than half of India’s ad spend. In fact, according to estimates made by industry, digital advertising could exceed a figure of Rs.70,000 crores ($8.4 billion) by 2026.[2]

 

The Rise and Rise of Digital Entertainment

There are several compelling reasons for this to have happened. The humongous smartphone penetration and the massive internet connectivity available in terms of sheer number of people with that kind of access make digital advertising the obvious first choice for brand managers across industries. With 85.5% of Indian households possessing at least one smartphone and 86.3% households boasting on-premise internet access, it is a no-brainer that most people have extensive access to digital entertainment.[3]

India’s youth-driven demographics comprising millennials, Gen Zers and digital natives are highly engaged with the large number of digital entertainment platforms and channels they have round-the-clock access to. That is in a sense a captive audience or almost low-hanging fruit for most marketers and brand managers.

Social Media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, YouTube[4] and so on are an integral part of people’s daily lives in India making them very amenable as platforms for digital advertising. With the average Indian spending more than two and a half hours a day on accessing social media channels, advertisers know that they have a good thing going by placing their ads there.

Besides digital advertising achieves greater penetration in smaller cities and towns across India, what with the growing popularity of vernacular entertainment content. This helps marketers and advertisers create very successful localised digital ad campaigns.

 

Add to that the fact that digital advertising not only returns better ROI on every rupee spent, but can also be monitored closely allowing modification and course correction based on performance and you can see why it is going to grow exponentially in the coming year and beyond.

Going forward one can look forward to a bonanza for both Indian entertainment content creators and the digital advertising industry, given the sheer size of the expected ad spend. Good times are certainly here for these two industries and will only get better as the digitisation bandwagon continues to roll on.

 

 

 

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[1] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/india-population/

[2] https://www.cnbctv18.com/entertainment/digital-entertainment-now-drives-over-half-of-indias-ad-spend-ib-secretary-19628370.htm

[3] https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2132330

[4] https://www.google.com/search?q=average+time+spent+by+indians+on+social+media&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN1066IN1066&oq=Average+amount+of+time+spent+by+Indians+on+&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgBEAAYFhgeMgYIABBFGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMg0IAhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBRAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgcIBhAAGO8FMgcIBxAAGO8FMgcICBAAGO8FMgoICRAAGIAEGKIE0gEJMjM3ODRqMGo0qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Why Advertisers Ride Piggy Back on Television Entertainment Channels

 

Photo by Huỳnh Đạt: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-crt-tv-2251206/

For all the growth seen by the online media, television continues to hold sway among the masses, especially when it comes to providing them with pure and unbridled entertainment. From sitcoms and family dramas to reality TV, music and, of course, movies, the television entertainment channels offer advertisers a captive audience of millions who watch their favourite content to unwind and relax their minds. This makes them much more conducive to engaging with the advertising in question than they normally would.

This is not lost on advertisers who happily leverage the daily viewing experience of their target audience to strategically woo them with advertisements that cleverly plug their products and services to a highly receptive group of people. With as many as 210 million households watching TV in India amounting to 892 million viewers television advertising in India packs quite a punch.[1] Though the overall share of television advertising has seen quite a fall against the backdrop of rapidly rising digital advertising, General Entertainment Channels led the television ad spend, cornering 41% of the total. This was followed by sports and movie channels, indicating that entertainment was the king of ad spending on television in India.[2]

The reasons behind the popularity of entertainment channels are many ranging from great audience reach¸ superior credibility, more focused targeting and better brand recall. Given that one of the major reasons behind the soaring popularity of digital platforms with regard to advertising is their ability to provide instant gratification and round-the-clock sensory stimulation to their target audience, one can view the popularity of television entertainment channels in a similar light.

Marketers and brand managers know this and are, therefore, quite happy to make entertainment channels a part of their advertising budgets. It is no coincidence that they often use the services of new age stars from the worlds of sports and cinema boasting a huge online following in the TV commercials they make to plug their wares.  For all the advantages of new age digital advertising, television still retains its relevance in the Indian market as an advertising medium of consequence.

For those writing the obituary of television as a viable communication medium in the digital age have been premature to do so. The medium is adapting and finding newer ways to stay relevant. With AI making rapid strides and already possessing the capability of creating world-class television commercials at a fraction of the current costs, who knows how that will impact the performance of television advertising in the times ahead? Television is far from a spent force and may soon see a resurrection yet.

 

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[1] https://www.barcindia.co.in/whitepaper/barc-india-tv-universe-estimates-2020.pdf

[2] https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/research/digital-dominates-e-commerce-ad-spend-in-2024-with-63-per-cent-share-report/120201062#:~:text=Amazon%20Online%20India%20was%20the%20top%20advertiser,radio%2C%20and%2023%20per%20cent%20in%20digital.&text=General%20Entertainment%20Channels%20(GECs)%20attracted%20the%20largest,cent%2C%20followed%20by%20Sports%20and%20Movie%20channels.

Artificial General Intelligence- Is it the way forward?

 

Graphic created by Google's Gemini AI

For all its capabilities, AI in its traditional form has a restricting sense about it. It can be very fairly accomplished in terms of its abilities but is far from able to replicate the full spectrum of what human ability can achieve. Whatever you achieve using the current AI model in terms of efficiency and output, it willy-nilly requires some form or level of human oversight at some level. All of this may change with the advancements made by what is known as Artificial General Intelligence.

Traditional AI vs. Artificial General Intelligence

While traditional AI is known to be super-efficient when carrying out well-defined tasks like translating languages, Artificial General Intelligence or AGI can comprehend, master and apply knowledge spanning a wide spectrum of tasks like what human beings do. This takes AI much closer to replicating human behaviour in all its dimensions, including the emotional one. It is not, therefore, surprising that all the tech majors of consequence including Google, OpenAI and Meta are very gung ho about AGI. As a matter of fact, there seems to be a race on amongst them about who will be able to announce the successful launch of this "paradigm redefining" technology.

Is AGI around the corner?

For Artificial General Intelligence to have truly arrived, it should have passed the Turing Test, which denotes that one cannot tell the difference between AI’s abilities and those of a human being. As far as researchers and academics are concerned, this Rubicon will not be crossed in a hurry taking anything from a few decades to even a few centuries.[1] For many, the prospect of a delayed advent is a welcome development given the potential of a technology that performs in a manner that is in every way equal to what a human performs, potentially devastating the prospects of gainful employment. They point out the fact that AI with its presently limited abilities is already leading to significant loss of employment and how much more destabilizing would a much more evolved form of AI be for human employment.

Why is AGI so impressive?

 

AGI is expected to cause a seminal change in virtually every aspect of human existence. The fact that this technology possesses human-like cognitive abilities makes its applicable in a universal manner, which is far from the case as of now. With capabilities like these, it can be expected that AGI would be able to provide solutions to intractable human problems like climate change and economic inequalities apart from finding cures for serious human illnesses.

Furthermore, AGI could carry out cutting-edge research and come up with new discoveries and technologies in the realms of medicine, space exploration, energy and so on. These would be breathtaking in the scope of their application, forever altering the human condition for the better.

AGI would lead to humongous gains in efficiency and productivity across industries requiring both repetitive and cognitive work freeing up humans to focus entirely on creative and strategic work. From perfectly managed factories to impeccable public services people would have it very good indeed in their day to day lives.

Viewing AGI as a collaborator

 

Ultimately technology has to be in the service of humans and not the other way round. To that extent, AGI has a future as a collaborator that works for human betterment and does not seek to supplant them. It can help augment human endeavour by enhancing the latter's intelligence and ability to be creative. With its unique ability to offer real-time insights and out-of-the-box ideas, as well as helping humans to process and comprehend complex information in a very efficient manner AGI can help humans make stupendous achievements. This outstanding synergy between humans and machines can usher in a brave new world that we cannot even begin to visualise in the present times.

 

 

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[1] https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/ https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agimckinsey-explainers/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-agi

Is AI overhyped?

Photo by Tara Winstead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/robot-pointing-on-a-wall-8386440/

 

There are those who love AI for its potential to transform the way work gets done efficiently and those who fear it on account of people losing their jobs because of its adoption across businesses and organizations. While the former set of people can't wait for the world to make unimagined progress owing to the magic that large-scale adoption of AI will create, the latter set of people see the rapid adoption of AI as an unmitigated disaster and calamity that will make human beings unemployable and largely redundant.

So, what is the truth? Is AI like any other revolutionary technology that initially threatens mankind and ultimately proves its immense usefulness and gets integrated into everyone's daily lives? Or is it likely to see mankind's takeover by intelligent machines that think autonomously and increasingly independently of human control?

The truth as is usually the case lies somewhere in between and is much more nuanced than simply being a question of whether AI is good or bad for mankind. Look around you and you will notice that in practical terms AI has had little or no impact on their daily lives, even in terms of their daily lives. You hear about AI taking over people's jobs all the time, but have you personally been threatened in that way, or do you know of someone who has?

Even those using AI productivity tools for work, do not really save all that much time, as one would imagine, given the hoopla surrounding AI. One of the most conspicuous AI tools that we are all familiar with is the Chatbot. Does anyone like interacting with one or feel that one's issues are being effectively redressed by them? What about the companies that use them? Do they really see superior service or an enhanced ROI on account of their deployment?

Undoubtedly, there has been massive investment in AI on the part of the leading tech companies of the world who are betting big on its future success. This also compels them to sell the tremendous virtues of AI to their clients and customers, even though it is far from clear how things will pan out in the time ahead. Businesses, organizations and indeed governments around the world have been caught up in this frenzy, promoting AI like there's no tomorrow. This does not seem to be a well-thought-out and calibrated strategy at all.

For all the investments that businesses around the world have made in AI, hoping to benefit from its enormous potential, there is little to show for it in terms of economic success.

According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Daron Acemoglu, a lot of companies simply overinvest in Generative AI, only to regret it later, which is hardly the hallmark of a great economic impact going forward.[1] Given the hype surrounding AI, one would imagine that its transformative powers would stun all. But does it really? I find the invention of motorized transportation, aeroplanes and mobile phones far more revolutionary and transformative in a very apparent manner than all the song and dance they make about AI. What does it really achieve in practical terms? AI is fantastic at receiving inputs and eagerly coming out with results leveraging language models but you need more than that in the real world whose need for nuance and context might forever be beyond the pale of AI.

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/planet-money/2024/08/06/g-s1-15245/10-reasons-why-ai-may-be-overrated-artificial-intelligence

The Coming Together of IoT and AI

Photo by MART PRODUCTION: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-person-using-a-smartwatch-8032913/

 

IoT or the Internet of Things has been in the news for quite some time now, even as AI or Artificial Intelligence has, of late taken the world by storm. The coming together or convergence of these two technologies promises to usher in a new technological era dominated by what is known as AIoT or Artificial Intelligence of Things. The two technologies can act in synergistic ways to usher in never-before efficiencies to industries, businesses and individuals.

While IoT comprises a wide array of connected devices obtaining real time data from the world around us via home sensors or even industrial machinery and equipment, AI on the other hand functions as the brain, making sense of the vast amounts of data collected to come up with definite patterns and insights that help one make much more informed decisions.

This symbiotic relationship between the two technologies helps transform data into a means of actionable intelligence. Not only can devices sense their environment, but they can also learn and adapt in a manner that gives them the power to operate autonomously- a paradigm redefining development for both industries and individuals.

How does it help?

The coming together of IoT and AI promises to transform how industries,  and organisations as well as individuals conduct their daily affairs. Take the manufacturing industry, as an example. AIoT can greatly enhance predictive maintenance, minimising downtime by unerringly zeroing in on potential failures, well in advance of their occurrence.

Likewise, this combined technology can help the healthcare industry in several ways. For instance, wearable IoT devices can be a great help in the 24x7 monitoring of a patient's viral parameters owing to their enhanced ability to use algorithms to analyse the data collected, facilitating timely detection of any health issues. This helps healthcare organisations provide proactive as well as personalised care that hugely improves healthcare outcomes

There are several other ways in which the convergence of IoT and AI benefits everybody. Smart cities can, for example, implement intelligent traffic management, allowing for optimal energy consumption and an improvement in public safety by way of real-time data analysis and automated responses.

In essence, the convergence of IoT and AI results in four principal benefits:

·         Enhanced Efficiency

·     Lower Costs

·     Predictive Analysts

·     Personalisation

The Way Ahead

 

The coming together of IoT and AI has opened the doors to a large number of possibilities for businesses, organisations and individuals to incrementally enhance efficiencies in everyday life and achieve outcomes that were earlier thought impossible. The use of Edge AI empowers edge devices like sensors, cameras and other embedded systems allowing for data processing as well as decision-making to happen in proximity to the source, thereby helping reduce latency as well as bandwidth consumption.

AIoT can help implement biometric authentication by analysing biometric data in the shape of fingerprints, voice patterns as well as facial recognition.  This greatly enhances authentication methods and procedures, thereby considerably improving conventional forms of authentication that are quite prone to security breaches and lapses.

From smart car parking and super efficiently performing machinery and equipment to cutting-edge healthcare tools that help us stay healthy, AIoT can help us benefit from a whole slew of innovative and out-of-the-box applications that will reshape how we leverage technology in our daily lives.

 

 

 

 

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