Bullish on AI, Need to use it Ethically – Nadir Godrej, Godrej Industries Group

Chandigarh, February 11, 2025: Nadir Godrej, Chairperson of the Godrej Industries Group, visited the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos recently, where he offered his insights on a range of topics from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and agriculture to climate change.

Mr. Godrej sounded an optimistic note on AI technology, highlighting its potential to be used as a force for good.

AI can be used in agriculture, he said, to catch disease and pest outbreaks early or analyse soil and crop conditions so farmers can better calibrate nutrient and fertiliser use.

In this way, it can help boost farmland productivity so that farmers can grow enough food to feed the world’s surging population. This is especially crucial at a time when climate change has made it harder than ever for them to grow that food.

Satellites can be used to photograph large tracts of land, he said. AI can then be deployed to study those photographs to determine early on whether there is an outbreak and what sort of outbreak it is, empowering farmers to take action before any disease or pest attack has had a chance to spread.

AI can similarly help analyse soil and crop health helping farmers gauge the timing and quantity of inputs like nutrients and fertilisers, avoiding overuse which can be damaging.

Mr. Godrej also addressed the thorny question of whether AI is going to take away human jobs. He compared the advent of artificial intelligence to other game-changing technological breakthroughs of the past, which resulted in productivity increases and ultimately created more jobs and opportunities.

While bullish on AI’s potential, Mr. Godrej sounded a note of caution saying AI needed to be used ethically. He advocated for a system of checks and balances to guard against any misuse.

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