Future of AI in Indian and global ecosystems is promising: Kunal Kislay, Integration Wizards

Integration Wizards Solutions is at the forefront of innovation. It believes in the transformation and keeping up with the latest technological developments. The company provides the IRIS enterprise computer vision solution, Silverline, a one-stop enterprise mobility platform, and Silverline MDM that helps experience the future of device management.

Here, Kunal Kislay, CEO, Integration Wizards Solutions Pvt Ltd, tells us more.

DQ: How can AI tech be used for the greater good?

Kunal Kislay: Covid-19 has accelerated the adaptation to technology in several fields across the world. We are now coming to understand the exponential powers of Artificial Intelligence, blockchain, IoT and other emerging digital technologies in the enterprise and their potential to address society’s most complex and vexing problems.

According to a recent report by Accenture Labs, it is believed that ‘only the “collective intelligence” of a synergistic ecosystem can steer the combined forces of tech for good toward the desired outcome.’ This arrangement reduces manual labour hours, which hampers the productivity, and gives resources the flexibility with time and the mind space to be proactively involved in creative endeavours.

The need of the hour is to think and act differently and create niche markets which are more robust and resilient to unforeseen natural or health calamities. A landmark report launched by the Business & Sustainable Development Commission (BSDC) reveals that pursuing sustainable and inclusive business models could unlock economic opportunities worth at least US$12 trillion a year by 2030 and generate up to 380 million jobs, mostly in developing countries.

Enterprises are embracing a data-driven culture, which leaves minimal margin for bias and human error, while analysing large data sets. Deep learning computer vision algorithms can also become a tool for social upliftment, by ensuring better surveillance and safety of the public, especially during this ongoing pandemic.

Now, let’s look at the current scenario for mitigating risk of infection in a post-Covid-19 world. The manual monitoring and compliance enforcement is ineffective in big corporates or large geographical areas. While people can be screened for face masks at entry level, it is not possible to ensure they follow the guidelines all the time while at work.

Social distancing is complex and is not possible to manually calculate the distances effectively. A technological intervention is required to streamline the processes. Constant monitoring and contact tracing using computer vision can reduce the risk of exposure many fold, especially in crowded places.

DQ: How can technology help revive the economy with manufacturing, services, retail etc coming back to business with the right set of precautions and infrastructure in place?

Kunal Kislay: The lockdown has begun phase 5.0, where it is important to practice precaution when aiming for economic revival.

The government removed colour-coded zones across the country, creating containment zones for areas where multiple Covid-19 cases have been identified. It is essential that we integrate technology in our daily errands to ensure safety for ourselves and our dear ones. This is where contact tracing apps like Aarogya Setu and computer vision comes in.

Large parts of public areas, workplaces are covered by CCTV cameras. While it is not possible to manually monitor each one of them, an effective AI algorithm can ensure 100% compliance reducing the risk. ‘Detect to protect’ is the belief we work with in such unprecedented circumstances. Early detection can protect the country from loss of human life and economic losses.

An entry-level scrutiny through the live camera feed to detect whether people are wearing masks and identify areas where minimum social distance index is not maintained can help mitigate a crisis like situation for a factory, school, hospital, office space or retail chain.

The only way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to identify rule-breakers and take swift action. Post-lockdown, the government rules mandate wearing masks and maintaining social distancing along with a compulsory thermal screening of all employees. A computer vision platform like ours can certainly help restart businesses safely and revive the economy reeling under the lockdown for fear of a health crisis at the workplace.

Enabling transparency: Enterprises need to ensure that their workforce is safe when it comes back to join offices. People will be going back to a dystopian workplace devoid of smiles, handshakes or congratulatory pats on back coupled with a lingering fear that their co-worker might be a Covid-19 carrier.

Using a computer vision platform brings in transparency that builds trust between co-workers. It eradicates the need to raise manual complaints. An employee feels safer at work when he knows 95% people wore masks and maintained social distancing during their shift.

IRIS is an AI-based computer vision platform for enterprises that gives the employer a dashboard with details of cameras, current percentage of people wearing masks etc. It raises alarms when a non-compliance is detected, sending a notification to the right authority. Actionable insights can be accessed on a dashboard on the web or through a mobile app as well.

DQ: What are the data privacy concerns and how are they being addressed?

Kunal Kislay: Privacy concerns are related to both prevailing data privacy role as well as union laws that can be regional or national. Some key data privacy laws include GDPR for EU and the ones being considered in PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act) in India. A lot of these concerns are mitigated by ensuring the personal data does not leave premises by running the inferences on premise.

We have additional safeguards that allow organizations to redact/blur the faces to ensure the identity of the person is not revealed. The platform also allows organizations to turn on/off features our monitoring of personnel efficiency to suit the existing labor laws.

The General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas.

DQ: Are you building in facial recognition as well?

Kunal Kislay: Yes, we are! IRIS features a full-fledged enterprise-ready facial recognition and classification system. The solution is deployed in some of the largest organizations world-wide. What differentiates our solution is the fact that it is built for facial recognition at high throughput. One of our solutions is deployed at a site that witnesses 2,500 people coming in between 7:45 AM and 8 AM. The fact that they do not have to stop and look at the camera for the face to be recognised saves a lot of time for the organization.

DQ: What is the future of AI in India?

Kunal Kislay: According to a recent Accenture study, AI can add US$957 billion (15% of current gross value added) to India's economy by 2035. It's no surprise then, that the government has introduced bold, multi-pronged initiatives to augment labour productivity and innovation with an eye on driving growth.

AI can be used to optimise business. Machine learning uses A to B mapping to train a small/large neural net to help it identify and label different objects. This is usually done by undertaking binary sets. The automation of tasks, such as data entry, keyword clustering, and others, help companies save time and optimize operations. Big Data garnered for this purpose is used to extract actionable tactics and insights to make more data-driven and better-informed decisions.

Artificial intelligence is also used in cybersecurity to remove noise or unwanted data. This allows security experts to understand the cyber environment to detect unusual activity. AI techniques like automation can be deployed in cybersecurity space for early threat detection.

Another field where AI can be used is fintech, where, with the power of data on their side, finance professionals are able to make more informed decisions. Automated customer support, fraud detection, automated virtual financial assistants, wealth management and predictive analytics for financial services are some other perks that AI offers.

Besides the above-mentioned fields, AI is also used in healthcare for identifying life threatening diseases such as cancer. Recently, technology skills based on AI, IoT, machine learning, etc., along with a couple of other subjects, are made mandatory topics inside the curriculum of B Tech applications, giving it the much-required push in the field of education as well.

The future of AI in the Indian, as well as global ecosystem, looks promising. There is a scope for computer vision, game development, speech recognition, robotics, and language detection from a R&D standpoint, as well to innovate further in this field and make our lives easier and better.