India's global corporate hubs are putting AI to work

Whether they are recruiting the ideal “momfluencer” to sell diapers or trawling through reams of data to fast-track drug launches, global centers of multinational firms in India are ​increasingly putting AI to work in creative ways.

Heads of several Global Capability Centres (GCCs) told Reuters ‌they are deploying AI across a host of functions – from marketing and content creation to finance and human resources – to automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks that once required hours of manual effort.

And the ambition doesn’t stop there. AI has moved well ​beyond chatbots and into the corporate engine room – with GCCs leveraging the technology to drive far-reaching ​innovations.

For example, Indian hospital chain Apollo Hospitals has adopted an AI clinical assistant ⁠developed with Microsoft that helps doctors gather patient data and generate insights quickly.

“That is 20% time given ​back to doctors. That is 20% time back to patients,” said Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India and ​South Asia.

Teams at the Bengaluru center of Catalyst Brands, the owner of U.S. department store chain J.C.Penney, are piloting computer-generated imagery to create product visuals and videos.

AI could reduce the need to move inventory across the globe for photo shoots, ​said Nihar Nidhi, India managing director at Catalyst, adding Bengaluru is “at the nose of the rocket” in ​piloting such prototypes.

Huggies diaper maker Kimberly-Clark, too, is using AI to speed up marketing processes, including an internal tool that ‌helps ⁠identify and evaluate social media influencers to promote its products and expand reach.

DRUGS DATA TO EXPENSE REPORTS

Denmark’s Novo Nordisk is deploying AI across critical parts of the drug launch process, including drafting regulatory documents, analyzing safety data, and supporting commercial analytics.

That is in line with efforts from drugmakers globally, from Amgen to AstraZeneca, which ​are deploying AI to identify ​trial participants more quickly ⁠and cut the time needed to produce drug safety reports, potentially saving millions of dollars.

At IBM India, engineers have tied up with a top college and local ​authorities to introduce AI-enabled air-quality monitoring systems.

IBM is also working with the government ​to explore ⁠AI adoption and help with upskilling initiatives.

Workday India President Sunil Jose said the business software maker was increasingly working alongside global teams to build AI tools for payroll, hiring and finance operations.

“For us, it’s no more about ⁠saying – hey, ​we’re part of that rubric where we’ll build a few ​modules in the Lego module. It’s about building the entire model together,” Jose said, underscoring the role GCCs play in large corporations’ ​operations.