Collaborations Shape Real-World AI Solutions in 2024

The past year saw significant growth in AI collaborations, with major players across industries coming together to solve complex challenges as they begin to realise that working together is the key to success. 

From cloud computing to GenAI, strategic partnerships have never been more visible. These partnerships were not limited to tech giants and emerging startups; even government-backed initiatives played a part in driving AI adoption globally.

Big Tech Partnerships

When it comes to AI, big tech companies continue to work for AI innovation with high-profile collaborations and leading investments. 

Notably, AWS became Anthropic’s primary cloud partner as part of the $4 billion partnership between the two companies. The deal highlights the growing importance of cloud infrastructure in developing AI systems and models. Cloud infrastructure provides a structure for powerful AI and ML tools.

At the same time, Accenture and NVIDIA announced their collaboration to train 30,000 professionals in agentic AI to ensure enough skilled workers help businesses fully embrace AI technology. 

Such an initiative not only addresses the current skills gap in AI but also ensures that businesses are equipped to handle the demands of increasingly complex AI deployments.

To further expand its reach, NVIDIA partnered with F5 to build a sovereign AI cloud to meet the growing problems of data sovereignty.

Moreover, NVIDIA’s partnership with Reliance to bring AI innovations to India highlighted the company’s efforts to bring its AI to emerging markets, which further solidified its hold.

Tech giant OpenAI also partnered with Broadcom and TSMC to launch its first in-house AI chip in 2026. 

In the media domain, OpenAI expanded its collaboration with Time magazine in a multi-year content partnership, providing OpenAI access to Time’s archives of journalism. This partnership stressed the growing role of AI in content generation. 

This move helps OpenAI’s models to generate more accurate, context-rich responses, with proper attribution to the original sources. This collaboration is just one example of how AI and traditional media outlets are working together to reshape the way information is consumed and created.

This field was further developed this year with the partnership between Runway and Lionsgate. This deal set a new benchmark in the entertainment industry, pushing it far ahead of OpenAI’s Sora and others. 

These partnerships show how big companies are not only advancing AI but also integrating it into different sectors, such as media, retail, and cloud services.

India is not Behind!

India has emerged as a strong player in the AI ecosystem. This year, the Telangana government and Yotta collaborated to launch India’s largest AI supercomputer, powered by 25,000 GPUs. This supercomputer will provide the computational power needed to support AI startups and enterprises in India.

Furthermore, partnerships like the one between E2E Networks and PeopleAI aim to improve access to cloud GPU infrastructure in India. This will expand cloud computing capabilities across the country, ensuring Indian businesses and startups can access the necessary resources to compete in the global market. It also highlights the need for more infrastructure that supports AI growth.

Meanwhile, the collaboration between Yubi and AI4Bharat to create India’s first automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine for financial inclusion highlights the growing emphasis on using AI to address local challenges. 

The project aims to democratise access to financial services by providing an AI-powered voice assistant that understands and processes multiple regional languages. 

This could also highly contribute to the study conducted by researchers from Digital University Kerala, where they highlight discrepancies in global automatic speech recognition (ASR) models. 

Furthermore, the joint venture between Sarvam AI and Infosys to develop small language models for banking and IT operations brings out the importance of localising AI. 

Following the partnership between the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and Meta, Sarvam AI also took the initiative to develop an AI assistant. This collaboration also discussed establishing five Centres of Excellence in VR and MR in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jodhpur, Chennai, and Kanpur.

These collaborations directly point to India’s rapidly growing role in AI, not just for domestic use but also on a global stage.

Expanding AI Across Sectors

As seen this year, AI partnerships are not just limited to tech giants and governments; they are also expanding across industries, from retail and e-commerce to financial services. 

One such example is the collaboration between Wayfair, Google, and OpenAI. Together, they are working to bring GenAI into the world of e-commerce, allowing for AI-powered design and personalised shopping experiences. 

In the finance sector, NTT Data and IBM teamed up to launch SimplizCloud. SimplizCloud will help businesses in India use AI to stay competitive and meet the growing expectations of tech-savvy customers.

This collaboration reflects the increasing need for AI solutions in highly regulated industries where security, accuracy, and speed are of utmost importance. 

Meanwhile, OpenAI partnered with T-Mobile to build AI-powered customer service agents. This collaboration represents the next generation of customer support with intelligent agents capable of understanding and responding to customer queries.

In addition, OpenAI’s collaboration with Hearst to integrate lifestyle content into ChatGPT overstates how AI is increasingly becoming a content curator and provider across sectors.

AI is also reshaping enterprise software, as shown by the partnership between Databricks and AWS, as well as Snowflake and Anthropic. By combining AWS’s cloud infrastructure with Databricks’ AI tools, this partnership will make it easier for businesses to analyse large datasets and deploy AI models quickly. 

The partnership marks a turning point in how AI is being applied to business intelligence, with firms now able to obtain data insights faster than ever before.

As we look at the partnerships that have emerged in 2024, one thing stands out: collaboration is the future of AI. These collaborations are not just about making AI smarter but also about ensuring that it’s used to tackle real-world challenges, whether it’s improving healthcare or tackling climate change.