Satya Nadela Foretells the future NeedsMicrosoft's Satya Nadella stresses the need of harnessing AI, ML and next-gen disruptive technology.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who addressed the Global Digital Summit titled #Future in Kerala through video conferencing, expressed optimism about the technological progress made within India. He stressed on the importance of using next-gen disruptive technology viz Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and more towards solving societal issues.

Indian technological innovations leading the way in making a difference

Nadella also iterated that it is important to understand the application of next-gen technology across varied sectors both in the public as well as private domains. This would obviously lead to solutions for a lot of issues society.

He cited the importance of using data-driven models in sectors like agriculture where farmers would be in a position to take smart decisions in aspects such as yield prediction, information about weather conditions, and soil feasibility for crops.

Nadella's observations are in total synchronization with the current startup trend in India which is continuing to witness a phenomenal rise in the number of agritech ventures possessing mature data-driven models to help farmers resort to agriculture for the long term.

"Availability of macro and micro level information and its application is what will revolutionize agriculture in India," stated Saurabh Kumar; Co-Founder of Maharashtra-based Agritech startup Agricx; separately to Entrepreneur India.

"Farmers of tomorrow will know in advance what to sow, when to irrigate, what nutrient and where it is needed, when to harvest, where to sell and at what price," added Kumar.

In summary, Satya and Kumar are in towing identical lines with respect to developing technology-driven models to help Indian agriculture.

Data-driven models in healthcare

During his video-conference session Nadella invited technologists and organizations, to take active part in developing data-driven models, by citing the usage of AI in detecting early health risks such as lifestyle and cardiovascular disorders.

Nadella also expressed optimism about the proactive interest of organizations to achieve the above.

As far as technologists developing data-driven models for bettering healthcare in India is concerned, Entrepreneur India also interacted with folks having an active interest in just this.

"With the creation of robust models, aspects such as prediction of deviations in personal healthcare become possible. This would also lead to effective management of lifestyle disorders," stated Anoop Pollavaram who is Operating Partner at Bengaluru-based Aspada Investments which is an early-stage venture capital firm.

Anoop has made investments in Tamil Nadu-based Be Well hospitals which is focussed on offering quality healthcare in regions having limited or no speciality healtchare accessibility.

Here, it is also worth noting that a Bengaluru-based startup Fedo works by harnessing AI to assign healtchare scores to determine the likelihood of people falling prey to lifestyle disorders. Fedo works with health insurance providers in the B2B sector, along with having plans of working with state governments in India to develop predictive healthcare models.

AI in "other sectors'

Along with the above, Nadella also stressed that predictive technology could also be used in aspects such as predicting the risk level of students in dropping out from school. Technology could help avoid this by issuing smart alerts to teachers to influence them to make suitable decisions to prevent such occurrences.

"WE do not celebrate technology for technology's sake," stated Nadella during #Future.

He reiterated the fact that it is the differentiating factor which is the most important part for Microsoft to build smart solutions for society.

About #Future

The Global Digital Summit held in Kerala brought together technologists, entrepreneurs, academicians, and key influencers from across the globe such as Nandan Nilekani (Infosys), Byju Raveendran (Byjus), R Chandrashekhar (Nasscom), Arun M Kumar (KPMG India), Raghuram Rajan (Economist), and more.

The event focussed on the connected world, new-gen technology, and on conversations with respect to the digital future of individuals and enterprises. Another key aspect was how new technologies can be leveraged for a better tomorrow.