Vertical AI: The Rise of Industry-Specific Intelligence Rather than the traditional view of India as a consumer of global AI solutions, there is a growing opportunity today to take the lead in creating AI that is Indian-centric for Indian issues, says Ankur Mittal, Co-Founder, IPV
By Ankur Mittal
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Artificial Intelligence is advancing at a very rapid pace, and among the most exciting frontiers is the arrival of Vertical AI industry ~ vertical intelligence for areas like healthcare, law, agriculture, manufacturing, and finance. As compared to generic AI, which attempts to address a broad spectrum of issues with general knowledge, Vertical AI is developed on deep, industry-level data sets, thereby much more precise, effective, and relevant in real-life application.
Generic AI usually cannot comprehend the contextual depth that regulated or complex industries demand. From understanding precedents of law to decoding medical diagnostics or agri-climatic patterns, generic models fail. Vertical AI is engineered to cut through such complexities. For example, legal AI such as Harvey, supported by OpenAI automates legal research by incorporating jurisdictional knowledge. In the healthcare sector, Tempus and PathAI apply medical history and pathology information to enhance diagnosis and treatment. In agriculture, platforms such as PEAT's Plantix utilize AI to assist farmers with diagnosing plant diseases from smartphone images.
And in India, the promise is even greater. With its linguistic variety, regional uniqueness, the need for curated healthcare and agri challenges, the nation requires very localized AI interventions. Vertical AI is already having an impact, from aiding physicians in quicker and more precise diagnosis to assisting farmers in improving crop quality and yield. By solving India-specific issues with focused, data-driven insights, Vertical AI is opening doors to influencing at scale across both rural and urban domains.
These commercial applications span across industries, from processing insurance claims and streamlining logistics, to predicting disease outbreaks and improving factory safety. The market for AI is open everywhere from multinational companies and hospitals to neighborhood farmers and government departments. And as more industries get digitized, new use cases for vertical AI will keep oncoming.
Rather than the traditional view of India as a consumer of global AI solutions, there is a growing opportunity today to take the lead in creating AI that is Indian-centric for Indian issues. With both - the amount of human capital and a maturing startup ecosystem, India is ready to create and export Vertical AI solutions globally.
While dangers such as bias and overfitting exist, the benefits far outweigh the challenge. The future of AI is not so much horizontal and general—it is vertical, specific, and widely embedded in industry processes. Vertical AI is not just a smarter approach but a certain evolution—and India can be at its leading edge.
