Indian Railways is poised to utilize Artificial Intelligence in multiple ways

The Minister said Artificial Intelligence is nothing to be feared or to feel threatened by but to use for our benefit.

"Artificial Intelligence (AI) can transform Indian Railways in terms of safety; passenger amenities; better revenues, growth & efficiency," said Shri Piyush Goyal while addressing the AI Conference in New Delhi today. The Union Minister for Railways and Coal Shri Piyush Goyal was speaking at the valedictory session of the Conference organized by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), an Information Technology arm of Ministry of Railways on March 24.

The Minister said Artificial Intelligence is nothing to be feared or to feel threatened by but to use for our benefit. Harnessing AI for organizational and social good can yield far-reaching benefits to our country and Indian Railways, the Minister emphasized. "Artificial Intelligence has to be harnessed to find digital innovations for better customer interface and better service delivery. Artificial Intelligence is about creating trains with brains", Shri Goyal added. The Minister hoped that Indian Railways will get benefitted with the experiences shared by the experts who participated today in the conference.

CRIS organized a day-long conference with invigorating technical sessions on the theme of Ártificial Intelligence for innovations in Customer Experience and Service Delivery'. Indian Railways plays a key role in the Indian growth story. The challenge is to improve revenues and enhance the customer experience while improving efficiency and reliability of operations. The speakers deliberated on how Artificial Intelligence can help in enhancing the customer experience as well as improve revenues.

We should think, how with help of Artificial Intelligence, we can make passengers feel safe, how can we improve the safety of women travellers, can we go on a war against human & child trafficking: @PiyushGoyal

— Piyush Goyal Office (@PiyushGoyalOffc) March 24, 2018

It was noted that use of AI can help in route optimization; real-time train movement monitoring; crew fostering; improving the price advantage of rail freight; improving logistics chain integration. Speakers also pointed out advantages of using Artificial Intelligence in predictive maintenance to improve asset management, Crowd management; chatbots for consumer interaction in different regional languages; IoT of sensors to detect concerns on tracks and locomotives.

The conference was inaugurated by Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman, Railway Board & Shri Mohd Jamshed, Member Traffic, Railway Board along with senior board members and Railway officials. The conference had distinguished speakers from IT Industry.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ashwani Lohani, Chairman Railway Board said, "Artificial intelligence has the potential to create an ecosystem that makes the lives of humans more comfortable. It is in this context, that we need to explore how these technological developments can be garnered to create a more pleasurable rail travel experience. Future has unlimited possibilities and Railways being a mass transporter any effort in this direction will yield big benefits." CRB added that despite technology, empathy in finding solutions for passenger comfort has to be the driving spirit.

Minister @PiyushGoyal spoke about how emerging artificial intelligence technologies can open up new opportunities in Indian Railways, at 'Artificial Intelligence Conference', in New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/ztaRbAQzGl

— Piyush Goyal Office (@PiyushGoyalOffc) March 24, 2018

Indian Railways is poised to utilize Artificial Intelligence in multiple ways. Customer experience, process optimization, and asset maintenance can greatly benefit from the application of Artificial Intelligence tools and techniques.

Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the simulation of a human brain function by machines. AI machine can perform human mind activities, such as logical reasoning, learning, and self-correction.

(This is a reproduced press release from the government of India as it is. Devdiscourse bears no responsibility towards grammatical or factual errors that may have been presented in the report.)