Impact on Sri Lankan Industries

 

The global implementation of AI is accelerating the transition from the traditional to the digital economy. It is not apart from a developing country like Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s ability to use AI is depending on ICT (Information and Communication Technology) maturity. ICT layers such as sufficient broadband, cloud, big data, and IoT (Internet of Things) are overlapping each other (Pulasthi, 2021). If any layer/ aspect is missed its value, the overall AI system will collapse. So, Sri Lanka has to be advanced in technology to the adoption of AI in its industries.

For a start, Sri Lanka can look to commercial AI systems or apps offered by corporate partners. With enough investment in AI, Sri Lanka will be able to absorb new technologies and advance more quickly than other nations since it is not burdened by the baggage of massive legacy systems like more developed nations are. (Pulasthi, 2021).

By 2022, Sri Lanka’s IT sector has the potential to generate US$ 5 billion in revenue, 200,00 direct employment openings, and up to 1,000 start-up companies. Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) claims that the potential economic impact of data science and AI outweighs that of more conventional information and technology services and hardware. Data science and artificial intelligence will be given top priority in Sri Lanka’s IT sector in order to boost skilled worker exports and raise GDP (EDB, Ceylon today 2019)

The Sri Lankan government’s institution ICTA (Information and Communication Technology Agency) takes a significant role in the digital industry of the nation. The specific features are highlighted as follows, (ICTA, 2016)

Digital Infrastructure

The purpose is to improve the effectiveness, convenience, and friendliness of government services, more than 850 government organizations are connected through the Lanka Government Network (LGN), which was already put into place by ICTA. The Lanka Government Cloud (LGC) was put into place to offer secure, dependable, and affordable infrastructural facilities in order to realize the goal of a country that is digitally inclusive.

Digital Government

Reduce bureaucracy, increase efficiency, accountability, and transparency, and enhance the quality of government service delivery through an integrated and effective process. LGN and LGC make use of secure and dependable infrastructure facilities for the government in order to host any kind of application or system and guarantee that government offices, buildings, and organizations are connected with sufficient bandwidth to support the use of e-Government services by both public servants and visitors to these locations.

Human Resource Capacity building

Building a strong relationship between educational institutions and industry is the obvious next step. Through clusters in technology and education, ICTA hopes to achieve this difficult balance.

Covid 19 Response of ICTA

During the Covid 19 outbreak in the country, ICTA introduced the following digital solutions to facilitate the government to operate effectively. They are as follows: (ICTA, 2020)

1.      MyHealth Sri Lanka app: provide information related to covid 19 infected individuals.

2.      Pre-Arrival Clearance Application for arrivals at the airport: to identify passengers with high risk before they land

3.      Contact Tracing (DHIS2): able to visually depict the graph of people whom they have associated with during an investigation

4.      Contact Sri Lanka: to connect Sri Lankans overseas with stakeholders in Sri Lanka and the network of Sri Lanka Missions abroad

5.      Web portal to support communication with foreign nationals in Sri Lanka

6.      Meet.gov.lk: an open standard for Web communication

7.      Introduce collaboration tools and instant messaging across the government: provide a fast, reliable, and secure platform for Working from Home

8.      Work related to Government Circular on Delivering Government Services via Work From Home (WFH) arrangements during the Global coronavirus pandemic

9.      Stayhomestory: given an opportunity to tell people’s experience during the lock-down period

10.  Facilitate Digital Education: introduced distance learning modes

11.  www.covid19.gov.lk: an information hub to find all the information and activities related to Covid 19 outbreak

12.  ICT-BPM Startup Industry Support amidst Covid19: to support the industry and let the economy function as normally as possible during the Covid19 situation

In the Asian region, Sri Lanka is quickly overtaking India as a major software outsourcing nation. there are many various sizes of businesses in the Sri Lankan software sector, ranging from large to small. The popularity of the information technology sector has led to the strengthening and advancement of IT education in Sri Lanka. (Dinesh, Harindra,Tharindu, Vithana and Asoka 2014, p.9)

Research indicates that ICTA is falling behind in its efforts to apply AI principles to its software solutions. In contrast, the government will focus on the transportation, tourism, and apparel industries in the future years. Out of these sectors, the Textile & Garment industry will have the capacity to gain AI technologies. (Dinesh, Harindra,Tharindu, Vithana and Asoka 2014, p.12)

The survey of AI in the Sri Lankan software industry has found the following reasons and barriers to introducing AI (Dinesh, Harindra,Tharindu, Vithana and Asoka 2014, p.12):

·         According to the responders more than 90% had average or poor knowledge of AI

·         The companies which are sponsoring AI are mainly small-scale companies

·         35% of AI usage is in data warehouse and data mining

·     Many IT experts do not aware of SLAAI (Sri Lanka Association for Artificial Intelligence) activities such as AI publicity, offering short courses in areas of AI, promoting research in AI, and AI conferences and publishing proceedings.

·         85% of the responders were of the view that Sri Lanka does not have adequate training for professionals to learn new AI technologies.

·         Over 70% of AI professionals do not have academic knowledge in AI.

·         60% of responders are in the fear that how people will use the AI technologies

According to a 2006 study on software implementation failures in Sri Lanka, transition problems during software implementations are to blame for 60% of software failures. Since AI is a new technology, AI software implementers may have greater challenges throughout the project’s transition period (Dinesh, Harindra,Tharindu, Vithana and Asoka 2014, p.12).

Apparrajitha (2019) argues that this AI new development has created opportunities, as well as the challenges everywhere in the global society, have not been sufficiently investigated in Sri Lanka.

The stated hurdles and economic uncertainties are influencing factors for Sri Lankan enterprises to embrace AI to complete the total tasks and maintain equilibrium with the global economy.

 

 

References:

Aparrajitha Ariyadasa (2019), ‘A Challenge from Humanoid Bots: An Analysis of Legal Regime in Sri Lanka on Artificial Intelligence’, International Conference On Business Innovation (ICOBI) 22 November, p.164, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Dinesh Asanka, Harindra Fernando, Tharindu Adhikari, Vithana Pathirage and Asoka Karunananda 2014, “State of Artificial Intelligence in Sri Lankan Software Industry”, International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology, Vol.1 Issue 8, pp.9-12, Researchgate, Sri Lanka

EDB and Ceylon today 2019, “Artificial Intelligence: Making SL future-read”, Sri Lanka Export Development Board, Sri Lanka, viewed on 6 December 2022

<http://www.srilankabusiness.com/news/artificial-intelligence-making-sl-future-read.html>

ICTA 2020, “Covid 19 -Responses”, ICTA, Sri Lanka, viewed on 7 December 2022

<https://www.icta.lk/covid19-response/>

ICTA 2016, “Digital Sri Lanka”, ICTA, Sri Lanka, viewed on 6 December 2022

<https://www.icta.lk/digital-srilanka/>

Pulasthi Gunawardhana 2021, “AI will lead Sri Lanka to the next level of economic development”, Daily FT (www.ft.lk), Sri Lanka, viewed on 6 December 2022

<http://www.ft.lk/it-telecome-tech/AI-will-lead-Sri-Lanka-to-the-next-level-of-economic-development/50-719867>