Deterioration of traditional profit pools, changing competition landscapes, technological innovations and changing customer expectations are all calling for new perspectives in business. Operationalizing data science, machine learning and AI is critical to achieve business value. In a recently held ETCIO Data Strategy Summit, Enterprise technology leaders shared, among other aspects, talked about how this mix has changed things for businesses. Part of this panel discussion focusing on data science and AI were Sanjay Mahar, Data and AI Leader, Decathlon Sports India; Sachin Garg, Head - Data Science, PayU; Anand Tuli, Head of Analytics and Decision Sciences, Vedantu; Ashish Pandey, Chief Information Officer, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare; Abhay Johorey, Digital & Analog Architecture & Design, ICICI Bank. Open the discussion, Abhay Johorey, Digital & Analog Architecture & Design, ICICI Bank, said, "Thanks to the modern tech, we can recognize the patterns extremely well, have a foresight about the things that are about to happen, customize things and can take informed decisions because we have a lot of data and insights available. The ability for our computers to see, interacte and orchestrate with humans has improved with AI and ML. But we need to remember that with AI or data, we are not doing anything new. We are just doing things better."

Of all the technology buzzwords, Artificial intelligence has been the one to catch the imagination of both CEOs and policymakers. We believe financial services companies can pursue breakthrough business growth using AI while using the technology in a way that is ethical and human-centric. But we never said the task would be easy. The opportunities for FS businesses from AI are enormous. Accenture's calculations indicate that the North American insurance sector alone could reap a 10 to 20 percent improvement in annual profitability by investing in the broader suite of intelligent solutions including analytics, machine learning and AI.