Latest news with #GenAI
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Upskilling, reskilling to help Indian workforce win in tomorrow's market: Coursera CEO Greg Hart
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills India could house the largest user base for Coursera by 2026, the $1.3 billion online learning platform's president and chief executive Greg Hart told ET on 30 million registered learners and a 20% annual growth rate, India currently accounts for the second largest number of users on Coursera, after the US. In terms of the user base for generative artificial intelligence, India is already the largest, said Hart, who is on his first visit to India after being appointed the company's CEO in February this Hart said, if India has to keep its edge as the world's talent hub and seize the economic benefits of the unfolding AI revolution, it must scale up its skilling efforts, considering a major gap persists in the country's readiness on Gen AI."Different stats show the Indian workforce isn't necessarily delivering all the skills that employers need here. This points to the need for upskilling and reskilling and giving people the right tools to be able to be successful in not just today's economy, but tomorrow's economy, as well as Gen AI," Hart said during an which has a valuation of about $1.3 billion was founded in 2012 by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Early investors included Kleiner Perkins, NEA (New Enterprise Associates), GSV Ventures and the Seek global AI Maturity Index places India at 46th, lagging behind most of Europe, New Zealand, Israel, Japan and Malaysia. The index lends data from Coursera alongside those from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank and World Economic Forum. Hart added that however to India's advantage, it already has a large population of IT and engineering skills. "That, to me, is a fantastic platform to then just add AI as the next skill," he is $ 4.1 trillion economy right now and its GDP number makes it the fourth largest in the world. There are forecasts that India can add $1.5 trillion to the economy and so more than a third to that $4.1 trillion will come through Gen AI by 2030, he said. "That's not far away to come true. So obviously, people need to be upskilled and need to learn AI and so on," he counts Reliance Industries Axis Bank , Larsen & Toubro, Flipkart and Infosys as major clients in India currently, Hart said. Making up 30% of Coursera's business, the enterprise segment, however, has seen customers facing challenges due to the ongoing global macro-economic uncertainty."The uncertainty creates challenges for them (corporates) in figuring out what to do."Global enrolment rates into Gen AI courses have risen faster for women, as compared to men, despite major gender disparity, Hart pointed out. For all courses, Coursera's enrolment numbers are broadly equally divided between the sexes, he said."Historically, there has been a gender disparity in STEM professions and technology, and that can sometimes be a self-perpetuating thing. Online learning is a fantastic leveller of that playing field," Hart 20% of Coursera's R&D base is in India, with a large centre that handles all the work for its enterprise and degrees businesses. Courses in engineering, cybersecurity, big data and analytics continue to be favourites among Indian users, alongside business and finance, Coursera data shows."There is a huge interest, both from enterprise and from individual learners, in learning more about Gen AI. That's by far the largest single trend that continues to accelerate," he National Credit Framework under the 2020 National Education Policy is driving user enrolments on the platform. Coursera has also rolled out skill development programmes in partnership with Odisha and Kerala, the latter of which plans to train up to 60,000 residents this year through 40 virtual academies under the Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission.
The Hindu
7 hours ago
- Business
- The Hindu
Govt. to explore GenAI to simplify administration
The State government will explore the possibilities of using artificial intelligence (AI), including GenAI, to simplify the State administration's day-to-day operations for the benefit of the people, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said here on Tuesday (July 15). Kerala, he said, has a progressive social climate that encourages free thinking and scientific consciousness. So, there is great potential for innovation, he observed after inaugurating IBM's Ecosystem Incubation Center (EIC) at Infopark Kochi. The EIC has been conceived as a strategic space designed to accelerate innovation, entrepreneurship, and collaboration across start-ups, enterprises, and academia, while serving as a hub for early-stage ventures, skill-building, and co-innovation. Emphasising the need for a 'clear understanding and consultation' ahead of introducing AI in the government's daily operations, Mr. Rajeeve said its implementation would not compromise on privacy and data security. 'This kind of a change will be very beneficial to the people,' he pointed out. The Minister recalled that the government had prepared a draft proposal called 'Industry 4.0' for the introduction of AI in the industrial sector. 'We will take a decision on this after receiving feedback from the industry,' he added. Kerala has 16 colleges that have made it to the top 100 colleges in the country. Three universities are in the top 20, the Minister pointed out. Mr. Rajeeve also inaugurated a symposium 'GenAI and Agentic AI for start-ups, academia, and enterprises'. IBM Software senior vice president Dinesh Nirmal said Kerala enjoyed an advantage in the availability of skills and operational excellence. The State's transport connectivity is 'excellent' compared to other places, he said, noting that the incubation centre was started to 'fully utilise the excellent IT ecosystem' in Kerala. 'By collaborating with organisations such as the Kerala Startup Mission, Infopark, Technopark, and the academia, we aim to scale the development of impactful software solutions to solve our clients' hybrid cloud and AI needs,' he added. Principal Secretary (Industries) A.P.M. Mohammed Hanish, KSIDC Managing Director Mir Mohammed Ali, IBM India vice president Vishal Chahal, Infopark CEO Susanth Kurunthil, and representatives of industry associations attended the event.
Forbes
8 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
It's Time To Put AI Agents To Work
AI agents offer big productivity boosts for nimble organizations seeking a competitive advantage. This playbook can help you get started. Few emerging technologies will afford organizations more opportunities to accelerate productivity and transform business operations than agentic AI, whose promise is surpassing even that of its generative AI (GenAI) cousin. Whereas GenAI tools are bound by their programming logic, agents will be given goals and entrusted to complete them, using contextual understanding and available data. Agents will perceive and learn from their environment and reason or 'think' their way through to accomplish the objectives assigned to them. In service of these goals, agents will also work with fellow agents, as well as other applications, and learn from each digital interaction to improve the way they operate. Excitement around agents' ability to autonomously execute business operations is growing. Eighty percent of organizations cite AI agents as the top or a high priority compared to other AI initiatives, with 51% already actively deploying agents, according to research from Enterprise Strategy Group.1 When strategically deployed, agentic AI will amplify your workforce's productivity and pave the way for better business outcomes. As with many new technologies, agentic AI will bring change management challenges and you may need help navigating this new frontier. That's why Dell and NVIDIA have created this eBook, which helps leaders both imagine the art of the possible and approach agentic AI use cases intentionally. How Agents Work For You Common use cases are emerging to illustrate agents' potential to augment, or even transform, organizations' operations. Customer Service. Organizations have long leaned on chatbots to field customer inquiries. While chatbots answered inquiries based on pre-programmed logic, agents have far more agency in addressing concerns, including wider latitude to solve problems in accordance with best-in-class service goals. For example, agents can use available data to personalize interactions in natural ways or deftly escalate interactions to a human if needed. Also, by integrating with modern CRM systems, agents can resolve inquiries, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction. Supply chain. Organizations have long paired predictive AI with human estimation to forecast demand for their products with middling success. Agents can markedly improve upon this process, monitoring and managing inventory systems 24-7. In case of inventory shortfalls, they can reroute shipments, adjust schedules and improve from every transaction over time. Software Development. A lot of code generation can be tedious and repetitive; agents can remedy that problem. A software programming agent might create new application features, check-in code, merge changes, review code on the fly and eliminate bugs. Digital twins. As great as their potential is, digital twins tend to be static representations of physical environments, such as machines. Analyzing data from sensors and edge devices, agents can simulate operations within digital twins, monitor performance, and anticipate failures. Most importantly: teams of agents can triage problems and help remediate them. These represent just a smattering of agentic AI use cases. View more in this Dell-NVIDIA eBook. Start Cautiously, But Start Now Now for some caveats. Watch a video of an AI agent in action and it feels like you're witnessing digital wizardry. As exciting as these early offerings may be, additional steps are required to facilitate broad agentic AI adoption. A lack of interoperability and standards persists, which hinders agents' ability to work together across organizations or collaborate across software platforms. When these hurdles are cleared there will be few limits to what agents can do. Now is the time to explore agentic AI and its impact on your IT architecture and platforms. Follow best practices and prioritize specific use cases that will most benefit your organization and drive meaningful return-on-investment. Then carefully plan how to integrate agents into organizational workflows across enterprise software systems and other IT operations, as well as physical environments such as operations systems and edge devices. Codify an agentic operating model and a strong governance plan. Lean on existing agentic AI success stories and begin building and piloting so that your agents can get their digital hands–on keys. Only by exploring the art of the possible can you steer your organization through the learning curves and move the needle from aspiration to accomplishment. Agentic AI requires powerful systems comprising modern and flexible infrastructure. The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA, a framework that incorporates services, AI software and infrastructure, provides the foundation to power agentic AI systems at scale. NVIDIA NeMO and NIM microservices provides developers the tools they need to build and fuel agents. Partnering with Dell and NVIDIA, you can confidently implement agentic AI to unlock new levels of efficiency, automation and productivity. When it comes to agents, you're only limited by your organization's imagination—and appetite for innovation. What will your organization build? Learn more about the Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA.
Finextra
9 hours ago
- Business
- Finextra
Lloyds trumpets GenAI knowledge hub's impact
Lloyds Banking Group has built an AI knowledge hub that slashes the time it takes customer-facing employees to answer queries. 0 The UK banking giant's first major GenAI product, the Athena hub acts as a one-stop knowledge shop of information for customer-facing staffers. It can scan the 13,000 internal articles that make up Lloyds' internal knowledge hub for supporting queries on every possible topic a customer could need help with. The tool has reduced the average search time from 59 seconds 20 seconds - a 66% change. Lloyds says that for its telephone banking teams alone, this will lead to 4000 hours of time spent searching - and customers waiting - saved. Since the start of 2025, 21,000 employees have used Athena to search 2.1 million times. By the end of the year, the Group aims to introduce Athena to more users in relevant customer support roles, hitting an estimated 40 million searches. Ranil Boteju, group chief data and analytics officer, Lloyds, says: 'Athena is a monumental leap in our digital and strategic evolution, as we harness the power of generative AI to supercharge efficiency and elevate the customer experience. This technology isn't just an upgrade—it's a revolution. "We are freeing up thousands of hours as Athena puts critical information at our colleagues' fingertips, leaving them free to help our customers with more complex, bespoke needs. The future of work is here, and we're leading the charge!" Earlier this year, Lloyds revealed that it was building a new machine learning and GenAI platform using Google Cloud's Vertex AI. The bank says it expects the technology to bring in at least £50 million in revenue growth and productivity improvements in 2025.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pegasystems Bets on GenAI Momentum: Will AWS Partnership Pay Off?
Pegasystems PEGA is capitalizing on the momentum of its generative AI (Gen AI) strategy, with its AI-powered, low-code tool 'Pega Blueprint' emerging as a core driver of enterprise modernization. Generating over 1,000 new Blueprints weekly, the platform is helping clients modernize faster and close deals more efficiently, underscoring the company's growing influence in the rapidly evolving automation latest five-year strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), aimed at legacy system modernization, is expected to help PEGA sustain this momentum. Central to this alliance is the integration of Amazon Bedrock into the Pega Blueprint and Pega Platform, enabling clients to securely leverage top-tier large language models like those from Anthropic, Cohere and Meta Platforms. These Gen AI models improve the entire application lifecycle from design to refinement while preserving enterprise-grade security and compliance.A recent survey by Pegasystems and Savanta revealed that 68% of IT decision-makers cite outdated legacy systems as a major roadblock to AI and automation adoption. The AWS tie-up directly addresses this challenge, integrating AWS Transform's agentic AI workflows with PEGA's cloud-native applications. The collaboration aims to significantly reduce modernization timelines, lower costs and simplify cloud introduction of Pega-as-a-Service on AWS Marketplace streamlines procurement and implementation, providing clients with financial flexibility and faster time to value. For Pegasystems, this move not only expands its recurring revenue model but also signals a firm commitment to helping enterprises modernize at scale through intelligent, AI-driven transformation. Microsoft MSFT challenges Pegasystems with its Power Platform and Azure, offering low-code tools and deep ecosystem integration. Microsoft's dominance in cloud services, AI innovation and diverse revenue streams ensures strong cash flow. While PEGA targets complex legacy transformations with GenAI Blueprint, Microsoft stands out for its accessibility, scalability and seamless enterprise cohesion, making it a broader and more user-friendly automation solution for modern digital NOW competes directly with Pegasystems in workflow and process automation, particularly within ITSM enterprise-wide operations. ServiceNow's AI-powered Core Business Suite, launched in May 2025, streamlines workflows across HR, finance and legal. A strong partner ecosystem, including Amazon, Microsoft and NVIDIA, further enhances scalability and integration. ServiceNow's growing GenAI tools and client base are boosting its revenues through smart automation and efficient enterprise solutions. Pegasystems' shares have gained 8.2% year to date, while the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector has returned 7.4% and the Computer-Software industry has risen 16.8%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research PEGA has a Value Score of F. It is currently trading at a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 25.93X compared to the industry's 34.25X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PEGA's earnings is pegged at $1.88 per share for 2025, indicating year-over-year growth of 24.5%. The 2025 earnings estimate has been revised upward by 13.9% over the past 60 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research PEGA stock currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report ServiceNow, Inc. (NOW) : Free Stock Analysis Report Pegasystems Inc. (PEGA) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research
