New Delhi, April 9 Veteran banker K V Kamath emphasized the need for reskilling and education reforms to harness the potential of artificial intelligence (AI), which will be the defining theme of the next decade.
During a fireside chat with Sunil Kant Munjal, chairman of Hero Enterprises, at an AIMA event, Kamath suggested that India should focus on practical applications rather than on expensive foundational models.
"Building an LLM (large language model) is not necessarily the end of it... We should now look for where the application lies," he said.
He pointed to several immediate use-cases, particularly in financial services.
"Almost all call centres can be made agent-driven... very, very low hanging fruit," he said, adding that AI can help improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance customer outcomes.
He identified AI as the defining theme for the next decade.
"The underlying theme for the next decade is going to be AI... my night reading is AI," he said.
Kamath, who is the chairman of Jio Financial Services and a former chairman of ICICI Bank, also stressed the need for reskilling and education reforms to fully leverage AI-led transformation.
"I think we also need to make sure that the people coming out of schools and colleges are trained appropriately... (we need a) mass revamp of the curriculum," he added.
On the macroeconomic front, Kamath said India is in a relatively stable position with inflation and interest rates under control.
"This is the first time in my life as a banker... that I see the policy maker probably being comfortable to hold interest rates or drop them," he noted.
Highlighting India's response to crises, Kamath said the Covid-19 period demonstrated strong resilience in corporate India.
"Every major crisis has been a catapult for improvement, for higher productivity, higher efficiency," he said, expressing confidence that the industry would respond similarly to current global uncertainties.
Kamath said businesses must balance speed with control, drawing parallels with Formula One racing.
"You have to drive at speed, but you can't drive over... you're going to crash. So in business, you have to drive at speed. If you have to be the leader... if you cross the line, you're going to crash," he said.