in september apple quietly acquired tuplejump a littleknown hyderabadbased startup tuplejump is an artificial intelligence ai company that helps clients store process and visualise data in simple terms it helps say an ecommerce player to use all the data it collects to improve conversion ratesthe number of people who end up buying something out of the total number of visitors this was apples first acquisition in india and the third one this year of an ai company indiabased ai startups are hardly visible and dont command eyepopping valuations that ecommerce companies do yet in recent months these startups have emerged as the hidden jewels which companies like apple facebook google intel microsoft ibm and other tech powerhouses are panting after about halfadozen india based ai startups have been acquired by global companies in the last 18 months more could follow according to management consulting firm zinnov there are around 170 ai startups in india these enterprises have received a total funding of 36 million bengaluru leads the list with 64 startups based there in the last five years computing capability and capacity has improved significantly aiding in the growth of ai startups says hardik tiwari engagement lead zinnov also read ai technologies are all set to creep further into our daily lives according to him there are three parts to ai infrastructure platform and applications the startups in india focus on the third that is building ai applications ai the science of making computers think and act like humans is behind the buzz about automation often discussed with trepidation given that ai is essentially machine learning that drives driverless cars and other machines that are steadily taking over human tasks there is a gnawing fear that jobs will be usurped the backers of ai say no doubt it will take away the mundane repetitive jobs but it will end up creating new ones the goal of ai startups is not to replace jobs but improve the way humans do their jobs says tathagato rai dastidar founder sigtuple a bengalurubased ai startup sigtuple was launched in july 2015 and received seed funding from flipkart founders sachin bansal and binny bansal the 17people startup has an ambitious goal to have all aspects of healthcare diagnostics such as blood tests and xray scans interpreted by ai tools in india several indian startups are at the leading edge of ai applications mumbaibased aryaai was the first ai startup from india to be selected by parisco a french innovation agency as one of the 21 global companies that do standout innovations founded by two iit bombay researchers aryas goal to create systems that will automate task execution ai is a technology mega trend says ashootosh chand partner pricewaterhousecoopers india a consultancy he points to a recent world bank report that suggested that of all the jobs being done in india 69 could be done by machines thats ai systems the market will be huge selfdriving cars are powered by ai systems anything that is