AI is moving beyond IT into physical operations, says Anant Maheshwari
While factory floors often have systems to “see,” “think,” and “act,” Maheshwari said at the summit, the advent of artificial intelligence has added the element of “learning” to the loop.
“In the past, these systems worked with the rules determined by engineers. These rules operated the control systems. From now on, I think the systems will learn and create new rules as we work,” he said. This is now applied not only to factory floors, but also to all types of buildings and complex infrastructure around the world.
However, while underlining the huge opportunity, Maheswari drew attention to allay fears of job loss due to artificial intelligence by explaining how artificial intelligence will accelerate the maturation of talent in industries.
“There’s a talent gap in most parts of the world. In industries (like semiconductor or aerospace), you can’t put someone with just one or two years of experience directly into some of the most critical assets,” he said. “Today, AI can help accelerate talent to start operating assets very quickly,” Maheswari said, emphasizing that enablement is “the name of the game.”
He described the Indian economy as a benchmark for the planet and emphasized that Honeywell, a global industrial automation and aerospace technologies specialist, is well positioned to continue innovating and manufacturing in the country by leveraging its existing capabilities.
“Manufacturing has laid a great foundation,” Maheswari said. “We continue to bring a lot of innovation from India to the world, and I think that’s where India is transitioning, not just as a market, but also becoming a source of innovation globally.” He emphasized that more countries should adopt the local innovation model implemented by China and India, especially after the restriction of supply chains.
“The world is changing,” Maheswari said. “It’s no longer the interconnected global world it used to be, especially around supply chains and trade, and it’s moving towards much more individual country-specific strategies. There were two countries in that world where there was still a huge focus on the strategies of individual countries through the eyes of multinationals: China and India.”
He said that if we go back about 20 years, these are two countries where almost every multinational has a very specific strategy. Apart from this, it was around large regions such as Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Western Asia.
He said that the ‘India model’ is very meaningful in terms of operating in other geographies today. “And so how we can learn from the model that has been implemented for multinationals in India is a playbook that many multinationals use globally.”
Maheshwari emphasized the need for local innovation and leadership to balance local involvement with companies’ global growth strategy.
“There needs to be a strong focus on local leadership with the right empathy and cultural nuance in each country. Also, in the pandemic, global supply chains have changed and many more local supply chains have been created. So these two are critical,” he said.
