India should take lead in adopting AI: Ola founder

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a massive technology tool for increasing productivity and India should take a lead in adopting such technologies, Bhavish Aggarwal, the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ola Cabs, said on Saturday.

Speaking at the ABP Network's Idea of India Summit, Aggarwal also discounted the notion that embracing such technology would result in job losses.

Technology trends like AI are so disruptive. While one can think that it (the adoption of AI) threatens jobs, "I see it as a massive technology tool for increasing productivity", he said.

"And we in India, as an economy and as stakeholders of the economy, should all adopt AI with open arms," Aggarwal said.

He emphasised that the use of this technology could enhance productivity by 10 times, he said, "We should be the first adopter of AI and become the most productive in the world.".

It will have a significant impact on economic growth, he asserted.

Noting that software development will be the first sector to be impacted positively by the use of Artificial Intelligence, Aggarwal said that with 10 times higher productivity, a developer can write code in a day for which he would otherwise take a month.

According to him, the application of AI would result in the creation of new jobs as it did happen at the time when computer technology was introduced in India.