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Contributed on August 5, 2020

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3 Reasons for Opening the Doors of Automation in a Geopolitical World

Blog: NASSCOM Official Blog

“Knock! Knock!

“Who’s there?”

“Pen!”

“Pen who?”

“..’pen the doors of automation before it’s too late.”

Apologies, if I cracked a poor ‘knock knock’ joke, but hey, that seems to be the buzzword nowadays, isn’t it?

It amazes me to learn that while I was taught subjects like Geography, Computer Science etcetera in school, the youth today will be exposed to skills like Data Science and AI.

The Indian Government launched the Responsible AI for Youth Program making the AI revolution real easily accessible to government school students between classes 8 and 12. This move suggests that the doors for automation are wide open and will largely impact both the present and the future.

(Opening the door of opportunities for the Indian Market? Image by Matthew T Radar)

According to a report by Cairn, automation and AI are likely to determine the international order for decades to come, accelerating the dynamics of an old cycle in which technology and power influence one another.³

Elon Musk, founder of Space X and Tesla mentioned how the competition for AI “at a national level will likely cause the third World War”. The rapid progress in automation clearly then makes it a powerful tool from the economic, political and military standpoints

Here are three ways in which automation will play a key role in a geopolitical world.

1.Floodgates of opportunity for entrepreneurs-
The monthly user base of TikTok, the short-form video app in India grew to 79 million by the end of 2019. A collective ban on interactive apps like TikTok or WeChat for a country with 1 billion people is bound to open opportunities for developers to replicate their success with Indian counterparts of these apps. The call for ‘aatmanirbhar bharat’ further elevates the point and brings forward a question of data and AI powered apps built locally.

2.Diversifying Manufacturing-
Organizations (especially in USA) were keeping a close eye on implications of heightened US-China trade war even before COVID.¹ A key consequence of the heated political scenario with China (for India and many other countries) will be a global diversification of supply chains instead of relying on China. Manufacturing hubs like Vietnam, Mexico and India are likely to adopt decentralization of manufacturing especially by embracing automation and adopting small batch production. Therefore, the supply chains are likely to either move back home locally or countries might start looking for alternatives other than China.⁴

Finding alternatives (Image by Ravi Sharma)

3.The need for cost-effective labour and products-
Many countries including India depended on China for cheap raw materials and labour thus switching to alternatives may have their share of bottlenecks. With technologies like AI or IoT, organizations can find alternatives at home thereby reducing dependability while also building a sturdy supply-chain.

While banning applications may not be a starting point to speculate around politics, it has clearly stirred up conversation and to an extent also action in adopting automation at scale.

In case you’re still stuck at the door, I suggest you check out the detailed report on adopting Automation in the Post COVID era right here.

References:

1. COVID-19 – Tipping point for automation. (2020, April 15). NASSCOM Community |The Official Community of Indian IT Industry. https://community.nasscom.in/communities/covid-19/automation-impact-on-jobs-assessing-possibilities-of-greater-automation-and-more-jobs.html
2. Where does India’s ban on Chinese apps fit into the global trade debate?(n.d.). The Wire. https://thewire.in/tech/india-china-apps-global-trade-debate
3. You have been blocked. (n.d.). You have been blocked. https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_PE_183_0105–the-geopolitics-of-artificial.html
4. Here’s how global supply chains will change after COVID-19. (n.d.). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/this-is-what-global-supply-chains-will-look-like-after-covid-19/

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