India needs to lead in AI while prioritising empathy in tech adoption, says Mukesh Ambani

Mumbai: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Saturday said India must become a world leader in artificial intelligence, but stressed the need for greater empathy in adopting new-age tech.

The Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries said the largest Indian corporate is at the "doorstep" of solving India's energy challenge with solar energy and storage solutions.

Speaking at an event here on the occasion of the International Human Solidarity Day, Ambani said RIL's telecom arm Jio has catapulted India into the digital mainstream of the world by laying the foundation with its services.

"... of course we need AI. We (India) must become world leaders in AI. But above all, we need empathy and compassion even more," Ambani said.

"By combining intelligence with empathy, prosperity with purpose, India can present a new model of development to the rest of the world," the richest Indian said.

He said there were many "disbelievers" about the telecom business even within RIL.

In an apparent reference to RIL's battery and energy storage ambitions, he said the company is at the cusp of solving long-standing challenges on the energy front for India, which imports 80 per cent of its energy requirements and faces limitations around energy storage despite having abundant solar potential.

"I can say that with great confidence, with the people and the work that we have done, that we are at the doorstep of solving the local energy challenge of not using solar only as a 4-hour fuel. We can use solar to really solve some of the problems that India has to solve for a long time," Ambani said.

Crediting RIL board member R A Mashelkar for laying the foundations for these efforts, Ambani said that through this business, RIL will "show the way" on how to make green and clean energy available in abundance and affordable way with green fuels to not only India, but most of the world.

In the last few years, RIL has focused on becoming an innovation-led company, Ambani said, recalling how noted chemistry professor M M Sharma of his alma mater ICT had appreciated the company's execution ability but challenged it to focus on being innovative.

Over the last two decades, Mashelkar has worked from the trenches to deliver on this idea, helping RIL become a deep-tech, deep-research and deep innovation entity, Ambani said.

Over 1 lakh of the 5.5 lakh employees at RIL are "technical professionals" now, he added.

The company has established a Reliance Innovation Council and also a new energy council over the last few years to sharpen the focus on its ambitions of transforming into a deep tech company, Ambani said.

In a departure from the model followed in advanced countries, RIL's efforts are centred around "Gandhian Engineering" of producing more from less using breakthroughs in science, Ambani said, promising to help improve the quality of life for Indians.

Pointing to Mashelkar's contributions, Ambani recalled how the technocrat used the low-cost space mission to Mars as a case in point to illustrate the country's capabilities.

"This is what Indian corporates should do with self-reliant efforts to offer products and services of the highest quality to improve the lives of common Indians," he said.

Ambani thanked Mashelkar, who has 54 honorary doctorates, and Sharma, a Padma Vibhushan awardee, for their contributions to RIL's journey, adding that they have influenced his thinking and are responsible for some of the outcomes that Reliance has achieved.