Mumbai, December 4 (IANS). On the rapid move towards AI in Asia, Arundhati Bhattacharya, Chief of Salesforce South Asia, warned that the next advancement in technology in the region should give priority to human-minded design.
Addressing business leaders and policymakers at the Mint All About Tech4Goods Awards, he said advances in digital finance, health care and education are happening so fast that they require new security measures.
“Technology must serve humanity,” he said, and urged companies to embed ethics, privacy and accountability at the foundation of their AI systems.
The event, now in its second year, brought together innovators from Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and India.
Bhattacharya, who was previously the chief of State Bank of India, said she has seen technology reshaping the economic system from within. He said India’s experience in financial inclusion shows how digital infrastructure can uplift entire communities. He further said that the combination of Aadhaar-based identification, large-scale mobile access and instant payments has created one of the largest financial inclusion programs in the world in just a few years.
“I have seen with my own eyes how technology can unlock potential and lift communities from the ground up,” he said.
According to him, tools like generative AI and machine learning can speed up diagnosis in healthcare, increase access to education through adaptive learning, and help governments deliver services faster. But he said the same technologies, if used without a clear framework, could increase discrimination, erode privacy or bypass regulation.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that technology serves humanity,” he said.
The focus on sovereign AI models in the region has intensified this year, driven by both national policy and concerns about the impact of global platforms.
Bhattacharya said trends at the local level will matter for systems languages, cultural nuances and long-term sustainability. He asked developers and businesses not to consider ‘guardrails’ as obstacles, but as ‘essential infrastructure’ for long-term trust.
–IANS
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