IBM reaches out to academia and start-ups to fill AI skill gap

Watson allows developers to use AI functionality without delving into the mechanics of AI coding

IBM has been partnering with academic institutions apart from over 1200 startups to give their deep learning cognitive technology maximum exposure and use cases. IBM partnered with IIT-Bombay for its first OpenPower research Facility (OPRF) that has led to innovation in eGovernance, healthcare and agriculture among others.

While IBM has a number of cognitive technologies on offer it is Power AI and Watson that have grabbed maximum limelight. Watson is a software that allows developers to use AI functionality without delving into the mechanics of AI coding. PowerAI, on the other hand, is meant for coding enthusiasts who would want to customize AI functionality to suit their needs. 

"Watson has tools that allow any application developer with no AI background to do voice analysis, sentiment analysis and so on. There are a lot of open source AI software available. If a bank wants to detect a fraud detection app, then they don't want something generic like Watson but something customized to their needs with data scientists and ML experts working on it. AI is the new electricity as it will change everything we know," said Sumit Gupta, IBM VP for Cognitive Systems.

Nine out of ten business outperformers believe cognitive technologies will play an important role in their organization in the future says an IBM Business report (2017). Almost half of these outperforming companies have already adopted cognitive technologies in some form compared to a mere 10 per cent of their lesser performing peers. IBM quizzed over 6000 executives across the world for this survey.

Talview, a startup, has been using Watson's speech to text APIs and document conversion APIs to automate hiring through video assessments. They use a variety of APIs ranging from Tone analysis to personality insights to help evaluate candidates without human intervention and best case models. 

"Financial institutions are more likely to opt for PowerAI platform which allow developers to customize APIs from scratch to suit their specific compliance requirements. If a bank wants to detect a fraud detection app, then they don't  want something generic like Watson but something customized to their needs with data scientists and ML experts working on it," said Gupta. Such institutions would use their own data and in-house AI teams to tailor their machine learning models. 

Chatbots are another area where Indian clients are absorbing cognitive technology. The eMitra is a cognitive chatbot used by the government's eKaushal platform to help guide candidates to job roles based on location and interests. 

" Deep machine learning data scientist, is, however, a skill set is missing in India. We really need to nurture and harness partners and startups with the skill sets to implement these AI offerings. Even our DevConnect events help external developers understand these AI technologies through hands on experience," said Gupta. Hundreds of software companies have made IBM's online cognitive training compulsory for freshers. The focus, says Sumit, is on transferring maximum benefits and skill sets to clients. Presently, AI is being heavily used in banking and ecommerce to facilitate customer interaction in India.