In the tech world, developers are often celebrated for their problem-solving brilliance. Yet, behind the screen, life is messy, unpredictable, and full of tiny victories and epic fails. 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is now changing that narrative with a refreshing series of promotional videos that lean into humour, empathy and everyday relatability. This series is presented as a micro drama with multiple episodes, following developers as they navigate multi-tasking, late-night deployments, and the constant challenge of explaining their jobs to curious five-year-olds, skeptical parents, and everyone in between. 

The campaign strings together everyday situations that every developer—and their loved ones—will instantly recognise. Take Nikhil, an engineer who builds a mood-analysing app to better understand his girlfriend’s emotions—a playful reminder that sometimes technology is less about business optimisation and more about personal survival. 

Another episode shows him explaining coding to his niece, highlighting how mentorship and inspiration can come from unexpected corners of family life. 

One of the standout moments comes when his in-laws, typically the toughest audience in any household, are won over by Nikhil; not by his resume or paychecks, but with his clever use of Alexa. AI becomes a household entertainer, turning invisible developer labour into tangible admiration. 

Of course, no developer’s journey is complete without the all-too-real scenario of burning the midnight oil. A footage shows Nikhil, shoulder-to-shoulder with a colleague, pushing through the night to finish app deployment—a mix of camaraderie, caffeine and cloud.

It’s a nod to the countless unsung moments where creativity and persistence fuel innovation at odd hours. 

In a charming twist, Alexa isn’t just a silent helper in these stories—she has a personality. She teases the developer about debugging struggles, makes cheeky remarks about neglected fitness routines and even pokes fun at laundry chaos piling up in the background. This quirky AI companion mirrors the highs and lows of a developer’s life, blending humor with human resilience. 

At its core, this campaign highlights something developers have always known: the line between work and life is porous. Deployments and deadlines bleed into family dinners, and late-night bug fixes run parallel to everyday chores. 

Why does this matter? Because the future of cloud and AI isn’t just about scale and security, it’s about people. Developers are the heartbeat of innovation, and they live in a world where solving one problem often creates three new ones—both on the screen and off. 

This campaign resonates because it mirrors the stories developers tell themselves and each other. Everyone wants an app to decode emotions, the unexpected family praise moment, or the late-night debugging war story. By wrapping these moments into episodic micro dramas, AWS offers a fresh lens on what it means to be a developer today—resilient, creative, slightly overwhelmed, but always moving forward.

Keep an eye on our LinkedIn handle for the mini-series.

Start building with AWS here.

The post A Day in the Life of an Indian Developer  appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

As artificial intelligence (AI) moves from innovation to large-scale implementation, the focus is shifting from what can be built to how solutions can be deployed securely, sustainably and at scale.

Talking to AIM, AS Rajgopal, MD and CEO of NxtGen Cloud Technologies, mentioned that AI solutions fundamentally depend on vast, high-quality data for effective training and fine-tuning. “They analyse patterns within this data to deliver accurate responses.”

However, he added that the primary challenge enterprises face is securing ‘AI-ready’ data, properly curated, compliant and contextually relevant.

The Standardised AI Solutions Framework (SAS-F), a novel patent-pending approach by NxtGen, offers a comprehensive blueprint for end-to-end AI service delivery. 

“Through SAS-F, we address this via techniques like synthetic data generation, ensuring data quality, privacy and governance while meeting strict regulatory standards,” he added.

Developed in-house by the leading sovereign cloud and data centre company, SAS-F covers the full spectrum: bespoke solution engineering, data curation and centralisation, AI solution development, guardrailing, evaluation and validation, deployment, management and continuous improvement. 

In essence, NxtGen understands customer pain points to provide tailored AI solutions, from GPU infrastructure to delivering use cases. SAS-F enables NxtGen to move beyond infrastructure-as-a-service to outcome-as-a-service.

For years, NxtGen has anchored India’s digital backbone through enterprise-grade cloud solutions, edge computing and nationwide high-availability data centres. Now with SAS-F, the company not only provides AI infrastructure but also delivers custom AI solutions tailored to the market’s growing workload demands.

How is NxtGen Catering to SAS-F?

AI today is both data and compute-hungry. SAS-F outlines an approach that involves real-time data ingestion, domain-adaptive training, foundation model fine-tuning and agentic workflows.

At the core of SAS-F is bespoke solution engineering, where NxtGen experts immerse deeply in customer conversations to map key objectives, pain points, stakeholders, use cases and AS-IS processes. This understanding enables the design of tailored data architectures, solution designs and infrastructure scaling strategies.

Data curation and centralisation form a vital part of SAS-F. NxtGen makes this work by building pipelines that gather structured, semi-structured and unstructured data from disparate sources across the organisation. The data is then cleaned, organised and stored in either a data warehouse or data lake. 

In AI solution development, NxtGen uses OEM partnerships to select optimal open-source models for each use case. These models are precision-tuned before undergoing rigorous guardrailing, evaluation and validation, ensuring outputs adhere to organisational policies, compliance mandates and predefined solution benchmarks.

Security, reliability and governance are built into both the SAS-F philosophy and NxtGen’s operational DNA. As AI solutions begin handling sensitive personal, financial and health-related data, ensuring privacy and transparency becomes critical. NxtGen’s infrastructure is compliant with key global standards, including GDPR and ISO certifications, and includes tools for data encryption and real-time monitoring, allowing AI deployments to be both innovative and responsible.

SAS-F’s deploy, manage and continuous improvement phase integrates MLOps/LLMOps directly into operational workflows. NxtGen’s environment enables continuous model evolution via inference engines, low-latency deployments and automated retraining pipelines. Meanwhile, built-in observability tools track live performance metrics, ensuring perpetual alignment with business outcomes.

“We have been working on a GPU OEM agnostic platform and have deployed various GPUs from NVIDIA and AMD. Our largest deployment is 512 x H200s, which the SAS-F platform leverages to run varied use-cases,” Rajgopal added.

What sets NxtGen apart is a readiness to serve as the execution partner for a future-ready AI framework. While SAS-F offers the blueprint, NxtGen offers the ground on which that blueprint becomes reality. Its ability to integrate compute, storage, networking and observability into a seamless AI delivery platform makes it ideal for executing SAS-F at scale.

As industries from healthcare to fintech, and from manufacturing to mobility begin embedding AI into their operations, the need for a dependable infrastructure partner becomes paramount. 

“We are fortunate to build use cases across multiple domains. Our strongest demand is for user-facing AI agents for IT helpdesk, customer service, finance and HR, all using text and speech,” Rajgopal mentioned.

NxtGen’s work also spans specialised applications, such as using computer vision to detect anomalies in PCB manufacturing, improving production efficiency and developing visualisation tools for home décor. Its infrastructure is using general-purpose NVIDIA H200SXM GPUs to deliver exceptional throughput and concurrency.

The company is rising to the challenge by making AI not just possible but performant, efficient and secure. More than a cloud company supporting AI, it is the engine driving the SAS-F forward.

The post NxtGen’s Standardised AI Solutions Framework Sets the Pace for AI Delivery at Scale appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

The Minsky Awards for Excellence in AI, held at Cypher 2025, commenced with the announcement of the Best Firm Certification winners. The award recognised organisations that have fostered strong workplace cultures, as voted by their own data scientists and analytics employees.

The Best Firm Certification is not just a recognition of popularity. It is based on employee perspectives and structured evaluation of benefits, identity, purpose, and value. 

The winners for 2025 were Carrier and SatSure. Each company stood out for building workplaces where employees thrive, innovation is encouraged, and culture directly contributes to results.

Carrier Recognised for Connected Hubs Model

Carrier, a century-old company, was recognised as a winner in the Best Firm category for Women in Tech, AI Professionals, and Data Science. The company initiated its digital transformation by establishing its first Digital Hub in Hyderabad. From there, Carrier expanded the initiative into what it calls a “Connected Hubs” model, linking hubs across Mexico, China, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

Today, the India Hub has become the largest digital transformation centre for the company. Nearly 40% of Carrier’s global digital talent is based in the country. The hub not only delivers solutions but also acts as a strategic partner to Carrier’s international business units. It is driving innovation and now plays a leading role in the company’s advancements in artificial intelligence and data sciences.

The recognition shows how Carrier has successfully transformed itself into a digital-first enterprise. By creating globally connected hubs, the company ensures that its talent can collaborate across geographies while directly contributing to business outcomes.

SatSure Awarded for AI-Driven Decision Intelligence

The final company to receive the Best Firm Certification was SatSure for the Data Science category. Headquartered in Bengaluru and operating in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, SatSure is a deep-tech company that combines Earth Observation, artificial intelligence, and cloud-native platforms to deliver decision intelligence.

SatSure’s solutions are used across sectors, including agriculture, banking, insurance, aviation, infrastructure, and climate. Its approach is unique because it applies cutting-edge data science not only for business growth but also for broader social impact. Whether it is supporting financial inclusion, managing climate risk, or improving infrastructure planning, SatSure demonstrates how technology can create meaningful change.

The recognition at the Minsky Awards highlights SatSure’s ability to merge innovation with purpose. By using advanced analytics and AI, the company has built credibility as both a business partner and a contributor to global sustainability goals.

Certification as Proof of Culture

The Best Firm Certification is structured around four pillars: benefits, identity, purpose, and value quotient. Companies that achieve the certification are those that meet strict thresholds across all pillars. The recognition is based on what employees report about their workplace experience, making it one of the most credible measures of organisational culture in the industry.

This year’s winners demonstrate that a strong company culture is not a separate initiative but is tied directly to business performance and innovation. Carrier has shown how digital hubs can scale transformation globally and SatSure has illustrated how deep-tech innovation can align with social good.

Together, these organisations embody what the Best Firm Certification represents. They are companies where leadership commitments align with employee experiences, where culture is structured and intentional, and where innovation is rooted in trust.

The post Carrier and SatSure Won the Best Firms Awards at Cypher 2025 appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

The Minsky Awards for Excellence in AI stand among the most esteemed recognitions in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), celebrating organisations that exemplify innovation and leadership in AI. Held annually by AIM at India’s biggest AI summit, Cypher, these awards showcase entities that have successfully harnessed data, analytics and AI to drive innovation, develop new products and enhance operational efficiency. 

A Transparent and Thorough Selection Process

What sets the Minsky Awards apart is their transparent and credible selection methodology. The awards are open to organisations of all sizes and sectors and involve no hidden fees or costs, establishing their reputation as a trusted and prestigious recognition.

In 2025, the awards attracted a wide range of nominations from both domestic and international organisations. Each submission undergoes a meticulous evaluation to determine its AI contribution and potential impact on the industry. The process includes:

• Nominations: Organisations submit entries for one or more of the 23 award categories, providing detailed descriptions of their AI projects, strategies or products.
  
• Evaluation Criteria: Each nomination is assessed across three dimensions:
  
  • Innovation: The originality and groundbreaking nature of the AI solution.
    
  • Impact: The tangible benefits or outcomes the AI initiative delivers for users, industries or society at large.
    
  • Quality of Contribution: The rigour, methodology and depth of expertise demonstrated in the AI project.
    
• Selection Panel: An expert jury from AIM, comprising AI specialists, industry leaders and data scientists, reviews all submissions to ensure a thorough and fair evaluation.
  
• Final Selection: Following this detailed assessment, the panel identifies the leading organisations in each category. These winners exemplify excellence, innovation and transformative impact in AI.
  

With a large number of submissions this year, competition was intense. However, the integrity and rigour of the process guarantee that every award truly represents excellence in AI.

Spotlight on Winners

The Minsky Awards shine a light on organisations making significant strides in AI adoption. Here’s a look at some of this year’s standout winners who are shaping the future of AI across industries.

Air India – AI-Enhanced Data Analytics Excellence

Aviation company Air India is using AI to transform revenue management. Its innovative solution equips analysts with smarter, faster and more accurate insights, driving significant business impact. Built with a vision to lead in technology, the company aims to transform itself into an AI-first airline. It has launched multiple AI-driven digital touchpoints and innovative solutions in setting new benchmarks in digital transformation by leveraging artificial intelligence throughout its operations and passenger journey.

Axtria – Leading AI Service Provider

Axtria is a global AI-first data analytics and software technology company transforming the life sciences industry. With deep expertise in data, AI and cloud, Axtria helps life sciences organisations bring therapies to patients faster by driving commercial excellence and patient-centric outcomes. Headquartered in the US with a strong global delivery presence in India (~80% of workforce), Axtria combines innovation, domain knowledge and scalable SaaS platforms to solve real-world healthcare challenges.

Sentient – AI Startup of the Year

Sentient is fighting the privatisation of AI by developing a fully open, community-built alternative. Backed by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital and Framework Ventures, Sentient is committed to developing an ecosystem for ‘loyal AI’—technology that is open to all, aligns with community values and provides fair incentives to builders.

Schneider Electric – AI-Driven Retail & Supply Chain Excellence by a GCC

Schneider Electric is a global leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automation. With operations in over 100 countries and a workforce of more than 1.5 lakh employees, the company is committed to making energy safe, reliable, efficient, sustainable and connected.

HDFC Bank – Best AI-Enabled Business Strategy in an Indian Firm

HDFC Bank offers a wide range of financial products, catering to both individuals through loans, credit cards and mortgages, and businesses, including MSMEs and emerging corporates, through solutions such as trade finance and cash management. With a strong focus on digital innovation, the bank uses AI, data analytics and automation to enhance customer experience and ensure 24/7 accessibility.

As of June 30, its expansive network of 9,499 branches across 4,153 cities, more than half in semi-urban and rural areas, ensures broad financial inclusion and service reach. 

Tredence – Breakthrough AI Technology

Tredence Inc is a global data science and AI solutions provider focused on solving the last-mile problem in AI—the gap between insight creation and value realisation. Tredence leverages strong domain expertise, data platforms and accelerators, and strategic partnerships to provide tailored, cutting-edge solutions to its clients. The company comprises over 3,500 employees with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, London, Toronto and Bengaluru, with the largest companies in retail, CPG, banking and insurance, telecom, healthcare and life sciences, travel and hospitality and industrials as clients.

Narayana Health – Excellence in AI Research by an Indian Firm

Narayana Health, founded by Dr Devi Prasad Shetty and headquartered in Bengaluru, is a leading presence in the global healthcare landscape. As one of the largest healthcare providers in India, Narayana Health operates a comprehensive range of primary, secondary and super-specialty tertiary care facilities across India and the Caribbean. The group’s centres of excellence in various medical domains, a team of 18,822 dedicated professionals, including 3,868 skilled doctors and specialists, and a relentless focus on patient well-being and clinical excellence underscore its position as a beacon of hope and healing in the healthcare industry.

EPAM Systems – Excellence in AI Strategy Consulting

EPAM Systems, Inc. is a leading provider of product engineering, platform engineering, and digital transformation services with a global workforce of nearly 62,000 and a team of over 11,000 in India. Through its innovative strategy and consulting, advanced engineering with AI, modern data engineering and a unique culture of engineering excellence, EPAM helps make the future real for its clients and communities around the world. EPAM, as an organisation, emphasises engineering productivity through AI-native processes and integrated AI upskilling programs.

Tiger Analytics – Excellence in AI Talent Development by an Indian Firm

Tiger Analytics is a global leader in AI and analytics, helping Fortune 1000 companies tackle their most complex business challenges. With over 5,000 experts worldwide, the company delivers full-stack AI and analytics solutions across industries, including retail, CPG, banking, insurance, manufacturing and healthcare. Recognised by Forrester, Gartner and HFS Research for its innovation and execution, the company enables enterprises to achieve measurable outcomes and scalable value.

SpeakX.ai – Fastest-Growing AI Startup

SpeakX.ai is India’s fastest-growing GenAI-powered English learning app, built entirely on advanced AI. It helps non-native speakers improve their English for better social and career opportunities. Powered by AI tutors, SpeakX delivers personalised lessons, instant AI-driven feedback and 24/7 AI coaching—making learning simple, fun and effective. The mission of SpeakX is to break language barriers and empower everyone to speak with confidence.

Straive – GCC AI Visionary Award

Straive operationalises data analytics and AI for global enterprises and works with several Fortune 500 companies. Besides building top-tier data analytics and AI solutions, the company integrates them seamlessly into clients’ core workflows. This approach drives enhanced efficiency, improves user experience and boosts client revenue.

Straive serves clients in various industries, including GCCs, banking, financial and information services, retail, media and technology, edtech, science and research, logistics and supply chain, and pharmaceutical and life sciences.

The company’s strategically positioned resource pool operates in nine countries, namely the Philippines, India, the United States, Nicaragua, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Singapore, South Africa and Canada.

MathCo – Leading AI Service Provider

MathCo is a global enterprise AI and analytics company empowering Fortune 500 and Global 2000 enterprises to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Founded in 2016, MathCo builds custom AI and advanced analytics solutions through its innovative hybrid model. With its GenAI platform and systemic AI approach, MathCo enables enterprises to embed AI seamlessly into business processes, driving adaptability, resilience and speed at scale. Today, MathCo stands tall as a leading AI provider in the industry.

Dentsu Global Services – Leading GCC/Captive for AI Innovation

Dentsu’s global capability centre, Dentsu Global Services (DGS), is shaping the future as an innovation engine. DGS has over 5,600 experts who specialise in digital platforms, performance marketing, product engineering, data science, automation and AI, with media transformation at the core. 

DGS delivers AI-first, scalable solutions through dentsu’s network, seamlessly integrating people, technology and craft. They blend human creativity and advanced technology, building a diverse, future-focused organisation that adapts quickly to client needs while ensuring reliability, collaboration and excellence in every engagement.

LatentView Analytics – Most Innovative Use of AI in Service Delivery

LatentView Analytics is a global AI-driven analytics, data engineering and consulting firm that helps businesses harness the power of data to thrive in the digital world. By providing a 360-degree view of the digital consumer, the company enables enterprises to unlock new revenue streams, anticipate product trends, improve customer retention and optimise investments. With a strong global footprint and trusted by 50 Fortune 500 companies across technology, financial services, CPG, retail and industrials sectors, LatentView continues to set benchmarks in AI and analytics worldwide.

CitiusTech – Outstanding AI Product/Solution by a Domestic Indian Firm

CitiusTech is a global technology services, consulting and business solutions enterprise focused entirely on the healthcare and life sciences industry. The company enables over 140 enterprises to build a human-first ecosystem that is efficient and equitable. Leveraging deep domain expertise and next-generation technologies, including AI, cloud, data and intelligent automation, the company assists clients in realising their vision, accelerating transformation and achieving business outcomes. CitiusTech powers digital innovation, business transformation and industry-wide convergence through next-generation technologies, solutions and products.

C5i – Most Innovative Use of AI in Service Delivery

C5i is a leading global pure-play AI and analytics provider that combines the power of human perspective with AI technology to deliver trustworthy intelligence to global corporations. C5i caters to some of the world’s largest enterprises, including many Fortune 500 companies. The company has been recognised by leading industry analyst firms like Gartner, Forrester, Everest Group and AIM for its analytics and AI capabilities and proprietary AI-based solutions.

At its core, C5i’s focus is on delivering business impact at speed and scale by driving adoption of AI-assisted decision-making.

Genpact – Best AI Implementation by a Service Provider

Genpact is an advanced technology services and solutions company that delivers lasting value for leading enterprises globally. Through its deep business knowledge, operational excellence and cutting-edge solutions, Genpact helps companies across industries stay ahead of the curve. Powered by curiosity, courage and innovation, the company’s teams implement data, technology and AI to build the future today.

DBS Tech India – Best AI Implementation in a GCC/Captive Environment

This award recognises the outstanding use of AI within a global capability centre to drive innovation and operational excellence.

DBS Tech India, which began as a technology centre, has now evolved into a world-class engineering organisation. By bringing people and technology together, it drives digital transformation that enables customers to ‘Live More, Bank Less’.

Insight Enterprises – Cypher Cool AI Company Award

Insight Enterprises is a leading solutions integrator that helps clients solve technology challenges by combining the right hardware, software and services. The company is a global Fortune 500 technology company with a network of over 6,000 partners and experts worldwide who provide access to end-to-end IT capabilities. For more than 35 years, Insight has delivered and optimised technology solutions for its clients efficiently, effectively and safely.

The company helps to modernise infrastructure, unify your data and put AI to work with practical strategies that lead to measurable outcomes.

NoBroker – Leading Domestic Indian Firm in AI Innovation

NoBroker, India’s first proptech unicorn, connects house/property owners directly with tenants/buyers by eliminating the middleman. The company removes the information asymmetry that existed in the Indian marketplace and, instead, creates an environment for free exchange of information that earlier involved brokerage.

7-Eleven Global Solution Center, India –  Outstanding AI-Powered Business Transformation in GCC/Captive

7-Eleven’s Global Solution Center (GSC) in Bengaluru serves as the company’s strategic hub for technology and innovation, powering its global operations with advanced capabilities in AI, machine learning, data analytics, cloud and digital transformation. 

The centre plays a pivotal role in building next-generation solutions for supply chain optimisation, customer experience, cashierless checkout and personalised loyalty programmes, while also driving automation across finance, HR and store operations. Positioned as a talent and innovation powerhouse, the India GCC enables 7-Eleven to scale digital initiatives faster, experiment with cutting-edge technologies and reimagine the future of convenience retail for millions of customers worldwide.

Centre for e-Governance – AI for Social Impact

Centre for e-Governance enables digital transformation using the latest technology to drive meaningful social impact, building solutions that improve access, equity and outcomes for citizens.

Shreevyas HM is the project director for AI and ML, leading initiatives that apply cutting-edge AI research to solve real-world challenges.

This year’s Minsky Awards reflect the diversity of AI adoption across sectors—from healthcare, aviation and finance to enterprise AI, edtech and energy—showcasing the innovators shaping India’s AI-driven future.

The post Minsky Awards for Excellence in AI 2025: Meet the Winners appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

As enterprises charge ahead in building GenAI and agentic platforms, a critical success factor, namely developer experience (DevEx), is being quietly underestimated. 

In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, where models, prompts, orchestration tools and frameworks are multiplying almost daily, DevEx is emerging as the invisible force that accelerates innovation, reduces friction and cognitive load for agentic developers and translates experimentation into enterprise-grade outcomes rapidly.

In a recent conversation with Rashmi Tambe, vice president of digital engineering at Tredence, the importance of DevEx in AI transformation journeys came into sharp focus. As she explained, developer experience is no longer a “nice to have,” it’s the backbone of operationalising GenAI and agentic AI initiatives at scale.

From Hype to Production

Many organisations are understandably excited by the promise of generative AI. They’re rapidly experimenting with use cases, piloting agents, fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) and showcasing flashy demos. 

However, as Tambe pointed out, this enthusiasm often leads to what she called the ‘POC graveyard,’ a stage where promising POCs stall indefinitely, unable to transition into production-grade systems due to a lack of proper underlying platform scaffolding.

“Developers also need to figure out how to deploy it, monitor it, secure it, version it and make it discoverable. And doing this over and over again is undifferentiated heavy lifting,” she added.

In other words, it’s not the creative or cognitive aspects of agent development that cause fatigue; it’s the operational scaffolding around it. This is where DevEx becomes critical.

Tambe emphasised that many companies underestimate the importance of having a repeatable, secure and sandbox as well as production-ready environment where developers can plug and play, test, experiment and measure. Without this foundation, enterprises risk burning out developers and wasting innovation cycles due to a lack of standardised governance frameworks and deployment tooling for agents.

A striking statistic from Tambe’s experience underscores this challenge: developers typically spend only 40% of their time on actual business logic, with 60% consumed by peripheral activities like finding required information, navigating non-standard tools and processes, infrastructure setup and deployment configuration. 

In the GenAI development ecosystem, this imbalance becomes even more pronounced. As per Atlassian’s 2025 State of Developer Experience report, 68% of developers report saving over 10 hours per week thanks to AI tools. Yet, AI benefits are nullified mainly by these inefficiencies.

Tambe’s insight reframes the conversation: GenAI success isn’t just about better models or smarter agents, it’s about removing the friction in bringing those agents to life, at scale.

The Agentic Starter Kit

Tredence has developed a comprehensive framework to improve the developer experience in GenAI environments. This framework addresses cognitive overload and boosts efficiency across the complete agent development lifecycle.

The first component, Agent Starter and Deployment Kits, provides pre-built scaffolding and templates, allowing developers to move quickly from concept to deployment without starting from scratch. The Agent Discoverability feature functions as an internal marketplace, enabling developers to easily search, label and understand existing agents, thereby promoting collaboration and effective version control.

The framework helps developers quickly grasp integration requirements and agent details. 

Tambe strongly emphasised two components as non-negotiable in any modern DevEx stack: guardrails and observability. Guardrails with enterprise-specific policies are integrated into the platform to ensure a secure and compliant environment, while observability offers insights into agent performance through built-in dashboards.

“These guardrails must be part of your DevX platform, not just documented guidelines that everyone interprets differently,” Tambe stressed.

Similarly, observability in GenAI systems is exponentially more complex than traditional software. With agents interacting with LLMs, tracing faults, memory leaks, or data issues becomes far more challenging. 

“Observability should not be an afterthought. It should be embedded right into the agent lifecycle,” Tambe asserted.  When you notice memory spikes on Grafana dashboards every 30 minutes, agent observability helps you quickly pinpoint whether the issue is due to a large LLM prompt injection, a malicious SQL injection, or something entirely different happening inside your agent’s workflow. “

When asked about how Tredence measures the success of DevEx, Tambe pointed to the fourth component: metrics. This includes developer productivity, developer satisfaction score, classic DevOps KPIs such as change failure rate and cycle time, and SPACE Framework Metrics.

She also noted the emerging importance of onboarding time and reducing cognitive friction. “We’re looking at reducing developer onboarding time from months to weeks to days – that’s a very important KPI,” she explained.

Although not all KPIs are yet codified across clients, Tredence is co-developing this layer of measurement in active collaboration with customers.

DevEx Gaps: What Organisations Often Miss

Many organisations, in their haste to demonstrate use-case success, skip the groundwork.  As Tambe points out, one of the biggest blind spots is the absence of standardised engineering scaffolding.  Core enablers, such as shared, reusable deployment pipelines, LLM gateways, and ready-to-use sandbox environments, are too often left for individual teams to figure out for themselves. The result? Redundant engineering effort, inconsistent performance, and a slower path to value realisation.

LLM gateways deserve special attention as a critical infrastructure component. These gateways enable rate limiting, cost control, and intelligent model routing, for example, automatically using GPT-4o mini in development environments while reserving GPT-4o for production workloads. Without such gateways, a single load testing script can dramatically spike LLM token costs.

Moreover, ignoring the fundamentals of software engineering in GenAI projects is another common oversight. “No matter how cool the tech is, this is still software engineering. Orchestration, pipeline automation and monitoring are not optional. They’re critical for building blocks,” she said.

A natural tension exists between allowing developers to experiment freely and enforcing enterprise-grade governance. Tambe pointed to the concept of cost-aware infrastructure and LLM gateways as a solution. 

What Does the Ideal Future Look Like?

In Tambe’s vision of the ideal agentic development workflow, coding becomes conversational, but grounded in software engineering rigour. Voice-driven interfaces, co-pilots and voice-coding tools will accelerate prototyping, but standardised platforms will still underpin the path to production.

“At enterprise-scale, you can’t productionise with video coding alone. We’ll still need developers with good old software engineering discipline to debug that code and make it enterprise-ready and compliant,” she said. The future will see an interesting paradox: using GenAI tools to build GenAI agents, with LLMs helping developers understand AI-generated code and potentially recording developer-AI conversations as part of documentation.

Tambe’s final message to leaders is clear: “Focus on standardisation, automation, and developer experience before jumping into use case development. You’ll build amazing POCs, but you’ll struggle to productionize them without proper engineering foundations.”

The post Developer Experience: The Unsung Hero Behind GenAI and Agentic AI Acceleration appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

For decades, the MBA was the hallmark of ambitious leaders. It was the degree that unlocked boardroom doors and C-suite opportunities. But in today’s hyper-competitive landscape, an MBA has shifted from being a differentiator to a standard expectation. With so many professionals holding the same qualification, it no longer guarantees a unique edge.

Leadership today call for more: deeper expertise, sharper strategic vision, and the ability to influence at the highest levels. In this evolving landscape, doctoral education is emerging as a pathway that provides leaders with the intellectual depth, research capabilities and scholarly authority needed to navigate complex business challenges and drive meaningful change.

Doctorates as Catalysts for Leadership Excellence

Unlike conventional management degrees, doctoral programmes go far beyond functional business knowledge. They foster original thinking, rigorous problem-solving and the capacity to create intellectual property that can shape entire industries.

For senior leaders, earning a doctorate represents true mastery of their field. It demonstrates the capability to lead with research-backed insight, to guide organisations through disruption, and to become an enduring voice in the business ecosystem.

The Change has Already Begun in Top Universities in Silicon Valley

Leading academic institutions in the United States and Silicon Valley are recognising this shift and curating doctoral programmes that meet the evolving needs of business leaders.

A prime example of this evolution is Golden Gate University’s doctorate Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) programme in Emerging Technologies (with a concentration in Generative AI), developed in collaboration with upGrad. By integrating cutting-edge domains like artificial intelligence (AI) with advanced leadership education, these programmes empower professionals to understand disruptive technologies and leverage them for organisational advantage. 

What truly sets the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)\ programme apart, however, is are the programme architects that learners will study from and alongside. Experts such as Dakshinamurthy V Kolluru, Venkatesh Sunkad, Sridhar Pappu and Sumitra Padmanabhan, and their extended faculty team come with over 80 years of combined experience, credited with more than 15 patents and 125 publications in leading journals. 

Notably, two of the programme’s chief architects, Pappu and Kolluru, were featured in AIM’s ‘10 Most Prominent Analytics Academicians in India’ list.

With over 20 years of expertise in machine learning, AI, deep learning and mathematical algorithms, Kolluru holds an MS and a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and a BE from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli. 

Sunkad, a PhD holder from the University of Colorado and an MS from the University of Texas at Arlington, brings over 20 years of expertise in Internet of Things (IoT), systems architecture, network security, machine learning and IT strategy to co-create the programme. 

Moreover, Pappu and Padmanabhan have been instrumental in building the programme. With over 24 years of experience and a PhD from the University of Texas, Pappu brings his vast expertise in statistics and probability to data science, machine learning, data visualisation and data storytelling. Padmanabhan, on the other hand, holds a PhD from Nirma University and brings over 26 years of experience across diverse fields, including machine learning, natural language processing, mathematical modelling and business analytics.

Rather than following conventional academic pathways, this collaboration pioneers an approach that helps leaders broaden their horizons across multiple domains of influence, cultivating graduates who can operate effectively in diverse environments—whether in corporate boardrooms, academic institutions, innovation labs or startup communities. 

Together, the programme architects have developed unique partnerships and pathways that allow their doctoral graduates to develop board-level expertise. Through collaborations with leading consulting firms like PwC, these programmes help leaders develop the credentials needed for board advisory roles, positioning them as trusted advisors in executive circles.

At the same time, by fostering relationships with UGC-recognised universities, they have created pathways for their graduates to share their expertise in academic settings, allowing them to shape future leaders while continuing their professional journey.

A strong emphasis on research and publication further helps graduates transform their insights into influential books and journal articles, strengthening their presence in industry discourse and media conversations. One such example is the book The World Remade by Artificial Intelligence by Joaquin Jay Gonzalez and Shalini S Gopalkrishnan, published in collaboration with several current students and graduates of GGU’s doctoral programmes.

The programmes also encourage graduates to identify market opportunities and develop practical solutions, inspired by methodologies used by successful technology leaders and entrepreneurs.

Moreover, through partnerships with intellectual property law firms, graduates learn to secure patents for their innovations, thereby transforming their research into valuable, defensible assets.

Beyond innovation and IP, the programmes also open doors to investment networks. Through initiatives such as VC symposiums, graduates gain direct access to venture capitalists and startup founders with deep connections in Silicon Valley, allowing them to present their concepts and explore funding opportunities.

Adding to this, learners participate in three global AI immersion hubs located in Singapore, India and San Francisco. Here, they witness how AI is harnessed in practice, engage with industry leaders, adopt global best practices and build international networks that strengthen their long-term leadership journey.

The Future of Leadership Belongs to Doctorates

As industries grow more complex, the leaders who will truly stand out are those capable of advising at the board level, influencing academia, shaping public discourse and driving tangible innovation.

It is safe to say that today, doctorates are no longer just academic achievements. They’re becoming the gold standard for leadership credentials. The institutions that recognise this shift are ensuring that today’s leaders don’t just learn, but transform into pioneers, innovators, and visionaries equipped to navigate the multifaceted challenges of modern business leadership. 

Designed for ambitious professionals who aspire to shape industries and spark innovation, this programme offers the knowledge, networks and credibility needed to lead in a disruptive world. Take the next step toward future leadership—learn more here.

The post How This San Francisco University is Building a Global Leadership Pipeline in India appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

As EPAM undergoes a leadership transition, Balazs Fejes steps into the role of CEO, succeeding Arkady Dobkin, the company’s co-founder and long-time leader. Having served as EPAM’s president of global business and chief revenue officer, Fejes brings more than two decades of experience inside the company and a leadership style shaped by entrepreneurship, engineering and global expansion.

For Fejes, the defining wave ahead is AI. Bigger than the cloud, faster than the early days of the internet, and fundamental to how businesses will survive and compete, AI will be the cornerstone of EPAM’s next phase of growth.

“Eventually, we are in the process of repositioning EPAM to be able to take advantage of the wave itself,” he said, in an exclusive interaction with AIM. 

For Fejes, this move feels less like a handover and more like a natural continuation. “I’ve spent most of my adulthood building what today you call EPAM,” he said, reflecting on his 21-year journey with the company. 

With Dobkin continuing as executive chairman, Fejes emphasises that EPAM’s cultural foundation, engineering excellence, client centricity and transparency will remain intact even as the company adapts to new technological shifts.

Fejes’ story is one deeply rooted in technology. Starting out as a software engineer, he co-founded Fathom Technology, which was later acquired by EPAM. This entrepreneurial start instilled in him an instinct for risk-taking and agility—qualities he believes continue to shape EPAM’s DNA. 

“The best way to see if an idea survives is to try it out. Let’s see if you can sell it, if you can find some initial clients or customers for it. Once you are doing that, then invest more,” he explained.

In an industry where many CEOs emerge from finance or operations, Fejes believes his product and a technology-first background gives him a distinct advantage. 

“You can decipher the hype. You can actually recognise what’s hype, what’s not true in the hype, what is real and what is something which people are marketing as a message,” he said. 

Riding the AI Wave

If the last decade was defined by cloud adoption, Fejes thinks the next will be reshaped by AI. “We see the great opportunities coming that organisations are going to transform themselves. They have to transform to be able to survive. They have to transform to be able to compete,” he said.

EPAM is positioning itself to meet this moment, drawing a clear distinction between AI-assisted efficiency gains and the deeper transformation that comes with AI-native applications. The latter, Fejes argues, will be the real measure of competitiveness in the years to come.

“People are going to build new applications, new solutions, AI-native solutions, where the AI will be the core in the foundation of the application itself,” he said. 

At the same time, he urges caution against unrealistic expectations. “There’s a myth…out there that software engineers are no longer going to be important because we’re just going to put in a prompt and out of the prompt will pop out a full-blown enterprise application.”

Instead, Fejes anticipates rising demand for custom software, modernising legacy systems while enabling businesses to differentiate through technology.

AI cannot stand alone; Fejes insists that it requires the right foundations. “AI runs on data, and if you have garbage in, you will get garbage out,” he said. 

For EPAM’s clients, this means prioritising cloud migration, modernising application stacks and building robust data platforms.

He also highlighted the growing role of ‘agentic flows’, where applications act with more autonomy. To tap into this, enterprises need modern APIs and re-architected systems, initiatives EPAM is already helping clients pursue. At the same time, the company is preparing its own workforce through AI upskilling programs and the creation of a new ‘AI engineer’ role.

Scaling Culture, Globally

While technology dominates the conversation, Fejes is quick to acknowledge that culture is equally important. Over the past decade, EPAM has expanded beyond its Central and Eastern European roots into India, Latin America and beyond. This growth, he noted, required adapting leadership styles to different geographies, age groups and expectations.

“Engineering-first remains at the core of our culture,” Fejes said, adding that EPAM’s emphasis on delivery quality and client trust has long been its differentiator in a crowded market.

Fejes readily recognises Dobkin’s legacy. “Arkady is not leaving the company. He continues to be an employee as an executive chairman,” he pointed out. Yet, as a Hungarian following a Belarusian founder, he jokes that while some shifts may be cultural—“from borscht to goulash with paprika”—the fundamentals won’t change.

He also admitted the weight of leading through this shift, but frames it as a continuation of the company’s journey rather than a reinvention. The years ahead, he suggests, will test not just EPAM’s strategy but the industry’s ability to separate hype from lasting impact.

The post EPAM’s New CEO Bets on an AI-Native Future appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

AI is no longer simply automating tasks. It is reshaping the landscape of the workforce. The key divide is not between humans and machines, but between workers skilled in using AI and those who are not. 

The exponential growth of AI has created a sharp mismatch between demand and supply of talent. With only a limited pool of AI experts, this is a period of collective learning — enterprises are still evaluating ROI from GenAI investments, tech-native companies are showcasing use cases to other industries, and existing resources using AI to become more productive. 

In such a landscape, it becomes critical that enterprises allocate a significant investment towards building AI literacy within the organization. LatentView Analytics, a leading analytics and AI service provider, believes that the need of the hour is to take a proactive role in building a collaborative workforce where human ingenuity and AI capabilities reinforce each other.

“In the future, you’re not going to be replaced by AI, but by someone who knows how to use AI,” said LatentView Analytics CEO, Rajan Sethuraman.

The Skills Gap

For the company’s CHRO, Remadevi Thottathil, the shift is already visible in hiring. As routine tasks are getting automated, companies are now valuing skills like critical thinking, problem solving, and AI literacy more than ever. “As much as we discuss technology, what is more needed is creative thinking,” she said. 

In her view, the future employee will need to cut through data with analytical skills while also using imagination to prompt AI effectively. Humanities, psychology, and behavioural sciences are regaining importance. Thottathil explained that to train a black-and-white system to think like a human, people must coach it toward more human-like behaviour.

The market is already rewarding the combination of technical and human skills needed to succeed in the AI-powered workforce, shows data from Lightcast, a labour market analytics firm. 

Roles requiring high-end AI skills pay nearly $18,000 more than similar jobs without them, and demand has spread far beyond IT. Since 2022, non-tech sectors have seen an 800% rise in generative AI roles, according to Lightcast. 

India’s Advantage

Despite global pressure on services firms to move beyond headcount-driven growth, Thottathil sees India holding an edge. “We are still the most adaptive workforce ever,” she said, comparing it to the typist-to-computer shift. “Typists who refused to learn computers went extinct. That’s how it will play out again.”

But adaptability alone isn’t enough. Hiring and learning systems are changing  to keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution. Screening resumes, for instance, now risks errors if candidates don’t frame their applications in AI-readable ways. 

“If your resume is not AI-readable, you may miss out,” Thottathil warned. Recruiters, too, need prompt engineering skills to prevent AI screening tools from making costly mistakes.

Rethinking Learning and Development

The bigger challenge is training existing employees. Traditional annual training calendars are obsolete. Learning has to be hyper-personalised and embedded into workflows, with AI prompting employees in real time to take advanced courses as they work.

LatentView Analytics has already redesigned its learning strategy around this. Its Analytics Bootcamp’s AI-powered onboarding module first conducts a diagnostic test in SQL, Python, Excel, and statistics. AI adapts questions based on responses, maps proficiency levels, and builds personalised curricula. 

Specialised roles get even deeper pre-assessments to evaluate readiness for targeted training programs—only those who clear advanced SQL, for example, move forward, while others are given tailored recommendations to close gaps, ensuring they are prepared for future opportunities.

Beyond onboarding, LatentView Analytics uses AI-driven platforms to design individualised learning paths based on skill levels, interests, and career goals. Employees learn at their own pace, focusing only on what matters to them.

AI-Powered Simulations

For first-time managers, LatentView Analytics runs a blended program called Rise. It combines virtual and in-person training with AI-powered simulations, enabling managers to practice real-world scenarios such as giving feedback or handling conflicts. AI provides instant feedback, letting them build confidence before applying the skills on the job.

The company also uses AI simulations to train employees in leadership and communication. These gamified environments let them experiment and fail safely while receiving real-time feedback. 

In technical areas, LatentView Analytics reached Databricks Elite Status by upskilling over 200 employees in just three months, with nearly a third of them leading major projects that boosted client acquisition by 15%.

Building GCCs with AI Sensitivity

The company also helps Fortune 500 firms set up global capability centres (GCCs), where the challenge extends beyond technical skills to cultural nuance. “Different countries, different cultural backgrounds, different sensitivities. These are more than technology. They are human nuances,” Thottathil said, underscoring how AI literacy now cuts across HR, finance, IT, and even admin. “Without AI literacy, it’s going to be tough for any department to function.”

Sethuraman frames this as LatentView’s edge. “If a Fortune 500 company needs to build a complete AI-literate team, it has to start from scratch. We are a few steps ahead,” he said.

Sethuraman observes clear productivity improvements already. “If it took 100 units of effort three years ago, today it’s happening with only 60 or 70,” he said. Coding, in particular, has experienced a significant impact. 

But the CEO also warns against overreliance on probabilistic models. “Not all real-world problems are probabilistic. Enterprises are often worried that you are bringing a probabilistic approach to a deterministic problem.” 

To address this, companies are adding contextual layers like RAG models and smaller reasoning systems to reduce hallucinations.

The Three Layers of Training

LatentView Analytics structures its AI upskilling into three buckets. 

First, boosting personal productivity with tools like LLMs. Second, training on client-facing problem-solving and AI architecture. Third, navigating the flood of AI options across data layers, models, and agents. 

Much of this experimentation and R&D feeds into its AI Centre of Excellence, which the company set up to consolidate learnings. Both leaders are wary of certifications that don’t match real-world work. 

Thottathil calls most of them “acknowledgements” rather than proof of capability, while Sethuraman points out that certifications are often tied to specific platforms. LatentView instead focuses on curated, relevant programmes that empower its own teams to help clients optimise returns on their AI investments
The message is blunt. Companies that don’t invest in AI literacy risk being left behind. The workforce divide will not be between humans and machines, but between those who adapt and those who don’t.      

The post AI Literacy is the New Workforce Mantra appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) are no longer buzzwords. They are transforming the very core of engineering. From reshaping traditional roles to unlocking new pathways for growth, these technologies are redefining how engineering talent will contribute to the industries of tomorrow.

Join us for an insightful Webinar, titled ‘Engineering the Future: How AI/GenAI is Redefining Careers’, where industry leaders from HCLTech will explore the future of engineering, the critical role of responsible innovation and the skills required to thrive in an AI-first world.

The webinar will be hosted live on Zoom on September 15, 2025, bringing together global audiences across time zones. It will run from 6.30 pm to 7.30 pm IST for viewers in India and from 9.00 am to 10.00 am EST for participants joining from North America.

Register Here

Why You Should Attend

• Explore the evolving career landscape: Learn how AI and GenAI are disrupting traditional engineering roles and creating new opportunities.
  
• Understand Responsible AI: Discover why ethics, transparency and trust are now essential skillsets for every AI engineer.
  
• Hear from leaders shaping the future: Find out how HCLTech is delivering responsible, results-driven AI solutions for global enterprises—including Fortune 500 companies.
  
• Get inspired for your career: Learn how HCLTech is investing in upskilling and empowering engineers to work on cutting-edge innovations across industries.

Meet the Speakers

The webinar brings together three senior leaders from HCLTech who will share insights on technology, talent, and responsible innovation.

Ananth Subramanya, executive vice president of digital business, leads Digital Business Services GTM for North America and Europe. A founding member of HCLTech’s Digital Platforms practice with a background in Computer Science and product engineering at Cisco and TIBCO, he will discuss how digital platforms and emerging technologies are reshaping industries and creating new opportunities for engineers.

Prince Jayakumar, executive vice president and global head of talent acquisition, has over 20 years of experience in global HR and workforce management, with leadership roles at Cognizant, EMC, and CGI, along with entrepreneurial ventures. He will share how AI and GenAI are redefining the skills in demand and what engineers can do to thrive in this evolving landscape.

Dr. Heather Domin, vice president and head of responsible AI, drives HCLTech’s initiatives to ensure AI is built with ethics, fairness, and trust at the core. She will highlight why responsible AI is becoming critical as organizations embed it into essential systems and how this focus will shape engineering careers.

Together, their perspectives will help participants understand the future of engineering talent and how to prepare for it.

AI and GenAI are changing engineering faster than ever, opening new paths for those ready to learn and grow. The future will reward engineers who stay curious, adapt to change, and build responsibly for the world ahead.

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear directly from leaders driving the future of engineering at HCLTech and learn how you can be part of the transformation.Save the Date: [Register on Zoom– September 15, 2025 | 6.30 pm IST / 9.00 am EST]

The post AIM Webinar with HCLTech: Redefining Engineering Careers in the Age of AI & GenAI appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

MachineCon GCC Summit, India’s most powerful residential and invite-only conference for Global Capability Center (GCC) leaders, is back in Goa this winter. After the success of the June 2025 edition, which marked India’s first residential gathering of GCC executives, the seventh edition will once again bring together pioneers, visionaries, and decision-makers to chart the future of GCCs in India.

Why MachineCon GCC Summit Matters

Global Capability Centers have become central to the enterprise transformation journey. From cost arbitrage to driving innovation at scale, GCCs are no longer support functions—they are hubs for global growth, digital acceleration, and strategic decision-making.

The Goa summit provides a unique environment for high-level exchange, combining three days of learning, networking, and strategy with the intimacy of a residential setting. It is the only forum in India where over 100 GCC leaders from across industries gather to discuss real challenges, discover opportunities, and forge collaborations that influence global operations.

The Legacy of Past Editions

The June 2025 edition featured a line-up that reflected the summit’s blend of business leadership, cultural perspective, and thought leadership. Notable speakers included actor Boman Irani, former cricketer Jonty Rhodes, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik, former Infosys MD & CEO S. D. Shibulal, and Sunil Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of Yotta Data Services.

Government and industry perspectives were also prominent, with speakers like Seeram Sambasiva Rao (IAS) from Kerala’s Department of Electronics & IT and senior executives from Genpact, NTT Global Data Centers, and Virtusa. This mix of voices set the tone for a truly holistic dialogue—one that will continue in December.

Check Past Speaker >

A Program Designed for Action

The theme of the 2025 summit is “Accelerating GCC Growth in India”, reflecting the sector’s rapid evolution. Over three days, participants will engage in sessions that balance strategy with execution, including:

• Navigating Through Uncertainty: How GCCs adapt to economic shifts, regulatory complexities, and global disruptions while sustaining growth.
• The Future of Work and Talent: Building resilient talent ecosystems, addressing workforce diversity, and reimagining hybrid and remote models.
• Strategic Technology Investments: Exploring cloud evolution, cybersecurity priorities, AI adoption, and superapp development for enterprise ecosystems.
• Design Thinking and Agile at Scale: Lessons from GCCs implementing innovation frameworks to accelerate decision-making and execution.
• Boardroom Engagement and Stakeholder Management: Strengthening the role of GCC leaders in global corporate decision-making.
• Community-Driven Development: How GCCs can align business growth with responsible practices that benefit employees, regions, and society.

Every session is designed to deliver practical insights, real-world case studies, and actionable frameworks GCC leaders can take back to their organizations.

Check Past Agenda >

Networking Beyond the Agenda

One of the distinguishing features of MachineCon GCC Summit is the residential format. By hosting participants at Alila Diwa Goa for the full duration, the summit goes beyond transactional meetings. Leaders engage in over 500 minutes of structured and informal networking, creating opportunities to build authentic relationships with peers across industries.

The setting in Goa further enhances this experience, enabling conversations that extend beyond boardroom discussions to collaborative problem-solving, personal connection, and long-term partnerships.

Celebrating Excellence: GCC Awards

The GCC Excellence Awards return in 2025 to recognize organizations and leaders who exemplify innovation, operational excellence, and leadership in shaping the GCC ecosystem. These awards are not just ceremonial—they spotlight the transformative role GCCs play in global business, highlighting best practices that inspire the industry.

Partnering with MachineCon

The summit has been supported by a range of respected partners in its past editions, including Snowflake, Prodapt, Guidance Tamil Nadu, RMZ, Peoplefy, and GIFT City.

In 2025, MachineCon invites organizations that share the vision of advancing GCCs in India to become partners. Partnership provides an opportunity to engage directly with GCC leaders, showcase technology and services, and co-create conversations that define the industry’s future.

For partnerships, visit here >

Who Should Attend

The summit is curated for leaders and organizations that directly influence or enable GCC growth:

• CIOs, CTOs, and Technology Leaders driving enterprise innovation through GCCs
• GCC Center Heads responsible for strategy, operations, and growth
• Senior Executives and Decision-Makers investing in digital transformation and scaling operations
• Entrepreneurs and Startups offering products or services for GCCs
• Technology Service Providers and Platform Vendors supporting GCC ecosystems

If you are part of the GCC landscape, this is where you need to be.

The Goa Advantage

The venue, Alila Diwa Goa, offers an environment that blends focus with relaxation. Its residential format ensures uninterrupted engagement, while Goa’s setting makes it an inspiring destination for meaningful dialogue and collaboration. This unique combination is part of why MachineCon GCC Summit has become the most anticipated gathering of its kind.

Looking Ahead

As GCCs evolve from back-office operations to innovation powerhouses, the conversations at MachineCon GCC Summit 2025 will be pivotal in shaping the trajectory of India’s role in the global economy. This three-day gathering offers more than just insights—it is about building a community of leaders committed to driving sustainable, responsible, and impactful GCC growth.

Event Details

• Dates: 29th November – 1st December 2025
• Location: Alila Diwa, Goa
• Format: Residential, Invite-Only

Key Highlights

• 100+ GCC Leaders
• 500+ Minutes of Networking
• Focused Agenda on GCC Growth and Innovation
• GCC Excellence Awards

For partnerships, speaking opportunities, or participation, write to us at info@aimmediahouse.com

The post MachineCon GCC Summit 2025 Returns to Goa this November appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Snowflake is bringing its global World Tour to Hyderabad on September 10, creating a one-day gathering for data and AI professionals. With stops across 23 major cities worldwide, the tour is designed to showcase how businesses can unlock new opportunities through Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud.

The event promises a mix of insights, customer success stories, and networking opportunities tailored for the Indian ecosystem.

What to Expect?

The Snowflake World Tour is a global series spanning 23 cities across multiple continents. In Hyderabad, participants will have the opportunity to experience:

• Keynote sessions showcasing the latest innovations in Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud
• Breakout tracks focused on building data foundations, scaling AI and apps
• development
• Real-world success stories from customers and partners leveraging
• Snowflake
• Networking opportunities with industry leaders, Snowflake experts, and
• peers
• Expo hall featuring demos and partner solutions
• Closing happy hour for relaxed networking over food and drinks

Who Should Attend?

The event is designed for a diverse group of professionals seeking to harness the potential of data and AI. It brings together data engineers and analysts, enterprise architects and developers, along with technical and business leaders. AI and machine learning practitioners are also part of the audience, making it a platform for collaboration across disciplines.

Featured Speakers

Get insights directly from leading voices across the data and AI ecosystem:

• Neha Agarwal, head of data enablement and operations, Novartis
• Hari Atmakuri, group vice president of products, data, and AI, Providence
• Prasanna Krishnan, senior director of product management, Snowflake
• Vijayant Rai, managing director, Snowflake
• Kamesh Sampath, lead developer advocate, Snowflake

Why Attend?

This event goes beyond theory and delivers actionable strategies:

• Learn how to activate AI responsibly with trusted governance and
• scalable architecture
• Gain insights from real-world case studies across industries
• Discover new Snowflake features and capabilities that accelerate
• Transformation
• Build connections with peers, partners, and experts who are shaping the
• future of data

Final Word

This September 10, Hyderabad will host one of the most impactful gatherings for data-driven professionals. Whether you are building modern data workflows, scaling AI or developing enterprise apps, the Snowflake World Tour is your opportunity to see what’s next. Register today and secure your place in the future of data and AI.

The post Step into the future of AI and apps at Snowflake World Tour Hyderabad appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Veltris, an AI-first digital product engineering company, approaches AI not as a technology add-on but as an orchestrator for long-term industry transformation. In a conversation with AIM, CEO Hiral Chandrana explained how the company applies its ‘Build, Modernize, Monetize’ strategy to help clients navigate AI across micro industries and extract measurable business value.

Extracting Value from AI

The AI focus has shifted. Enterprises are no longer asking why they should use AI. The real challenge is how to scale it in ways that create tangible business value. Too many generic pilots have stalled because they don’t address industry-specific workflows or deliver measurable ROI. 

“True value will come from applying AI to industry-specific use cases,” Chandrana explained. “That’s why I’m bullish about vertical AI. The business impact comes when applications and processes are integrated with domain expertise to solve specific challenges in  industries or micro industries.”

He added that this shift is already visible in the market. The traditional Vertical SaaS companies will have to incorporate AI into their solutions as the next wave.

Vertical AI is addressing challenges such as AI powered workflows in dental clinics or hospitals, AI driven fraud detection, AI based preventative maintenance in Manufacturing settings. 

Veltris applies this principle as an integrator across micro-industries such as HealthTech, Dental Care, PBM platforms, Engineering & Construction, Logistics, Secure Networking in Communications, and Smart factories, embedding AI directly into workflows where outcomes can be measured in innovation cycle time, revenue lift, and customer experience

Building and Modernizing Intelligent Systems

The first two elements of the framework, Build and Modernize, reflect the dual reality companies face. Chandrana said that some can create AI-native systems from scratch while others need to re-architect existing platforms.

“Just like companies that were born cloud-native had an edge 20 years ago, today companies that are AI-native have the advantage,” he added. 

He further clarified that at the same time, many firms cannot abandon their existing systems. “Not every company is going to build a new system. Modernization means taking what exists and moving it into AI-first architectures,” Chandrana said. Veltris works with clients whose software already serves tens of thousands of clinics, where the challenge is not replacement but modernization with AI integrated industry specific workflows.

Monetizing AI Through Industry Workflows

The final piece of the framework, Monetize, focuses not just on cost savings but on unlocking new revenue streams from data and Vertical AI-powered workflows.

“Exclusive datasets integrated with industry workflows combined with IIoT and LLM’s create differentiated offerings that become barriers to competition,” Chandrana said. 

Veltris is driving this shift across industries. In Healthcare, the company is helping Healthtech platforms (including PBM platforms) to launch alternative value models that disrupt the large payers. In Telecom, Veltris assists clients build AI-native infrastructure where anomaly detection and predictive intelligence power differentiated service tiers. In wealth management, firms are monetizing proprietary data through advisor copilots and insights that generate new client offerings.

Chandrana articulated that Veltris works with private equity firms that own health tech platforms and dental companies, enabling them to be part of the journey in creating new revenue streams through build, modernize and monetize strategies.

For Chandrana, this is the ultimate promise of AI: to move from efficiency to monetization — where AI doesn’t just streamline workflows, it creates entirely new business models in specific industries.

A Framework for the Future

Veltris believes its framework is scalable across industries. “There is nothing earth-shattering about the framework. It is simple but scalable,” Chandrana said. “What matters is execution, making it more nuanced and industry-specific.”

He added that private equity is becoming a significant force in shaping technology investments, especially in mid-market and micro-industry segments. Veltris, as part of the private equity ecosystem, sees this as an important dimension of future growth.

As organizations move from pilots to production-level AI, Veltris expects winners to emerge from those that can apply AI at scale or apply it to industry specific pain points. “Build, Modernize, Monetize” remains the company’s way of aligning digital technology execution with business outcomes to deliver the promise of Vertical AI.

The post Veltris CEO Shares Vertical AI Strategy with ‘Build, Modernize, Monetize’ Framework appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Groq, one of the world’s fastest AI inference providers, has partnered with AIM’s MachineHack to launch a hackathon centred on real-time multi-agent systems. 

This hackathon will challenge participants to build multi-agent AI systems that solve real-world problems with Groq’s inference API with real-time response times. 

What You Will Be Building

Participants will have to take on the challenge of building at least two specialised agents working in coordination with each other to solve the problems, with at least two modalities implemented in the solution—be it text, voice or vision.

These multi-agent systems are required to solve real-world problems across six key domains, each addressing critical applications in healthcare, financial analysis, supply chain optimisation, customer service automation and environmental sustainability. 

Registration for the hackathon starts on August 25, with project submissions due 45 days later on October 9. Afterwards, a judging period will follow, with results slated to be announced on October 24. 

Start Date: Aug 25, 2025

Submissions starting: Sep 1, 2025

Duration: 45 days

Register Now

To build these systems, participants can access a comprehensive suite of models across different modalities from model makers like Meta, Google, Alibaba-Qwen, OpenAI and others, via Groq API for instant inference 

Upon successful completion, participants are required to share the following: 

• A public GitHub repository, along with a three-minute demonstration video. 

• A working demo and detailed documentation that outlines the architecture, implementation details and an executive summary covering the project overview and key results. 

• A detailed list of requirements can be found on the hackathon website. 

Win Exciting Prices

The winner gains instant entry into the Groq Startup Program with $10,000 in API credits to expand their product, exclusive Groq merchandise, digital recognition and ongoing mentorship. 

The second runner-up receives $5,000 in API credits, Groq merchandise and digital recognition, while the third runner-up is awarded $3,000 in API credits, Groq merchandise and digital recognition.

Start Date: Aug 25, 2025

Submissions starting: Sep 1, 2025

Duration: 45 days

Register Now

The evaluation criteria cover three aspects: the technical excellence of the multi-agent system, its real-world impact and the innovation involved, with near equal weightage. 

• Technical excellence, which makes up for 35%, emphasises sophisticated agent coordination, implementation of frameworks, real-time performance and clean code architecture. 

• Real-world impact, also 35%, measures problem significance, user experience quality, system scalability and business value. 

• Meanwhile, innovation accounts for the remaining 30% and rewards creative multi-modal combinations, novel agent interactions and unique protocol applications that enhance system capabilities.

And to build such impactful solutions, participants have six strategic tracks to choose from. 

• The healthcare and diagnostics track involves building AI agents for medical diagnosis, patient monitoring and healthcare automation, including patient data analysis, diagnostic assistance and medical record processing. 

• The financial analysis track projects focus on real-time financial data processing, risk assessment and trading automation through market analysis, risk evaluation and portfolio optimisation systems. 

• Supply chain optimisation challenges participants to create intelligent logistics solutions encompassing inventory tracking, demand forecasting and route optimisation. 

• Customer service automation requires multi-modal support systems capable of voice interactions, issue resolution and multi-language communication. 

• Sustainability monitoring involves environmental data analysis and sustainability impact assessment through environmental monitoring, impact evaluation and resource optimisation.

• Alternatively, the cross-domain innovation track encourages novel solutions that span multiple use cases and create entirely new applications.

Start Date: Aug 25, 2025

Submissions starting: Sep 1, 2025

Duration: 45 days

Register Now

Why Groq?

Over the past few years, Groq has dedicated itself to tackling a key challenge in generative AI: enabling state-of-the-art models to achieve extremely fast inference speeds. The company has succeeded with its language processing units (LPU) by hosting top models on GroqCloud, where inference speeds surpass 1,000 tokens per second. 

In an interview earlier this year, CEO Jonathan Ross said, “We [Groq] need to be one of the most important compute providers in the world. Our goal by the end of 2027 is to provide at least half of the world’s AI inference compute.”

This hackathon offers you the opportunity to build multi-agent systems that not only work but also bring business impact. 

Multi-agent AI systems represent the next frontier in artificial intelligence. As these systems become more sophisticated, the ability to build coordinated, real-time solutions will define the next generation of AI applications. This hackathon presents a unique opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology while solving meaningful, real-world problems. 

Moreover, considering the trends in today’s AI industry and the sentiment expressed by veterans, it’s clear that multi-agent AI will reshape our world. 

So, will you be among those who define how it happens? Register for the hackathon today, compete with developers and enthusiasts across the world, and your idea might just be the next breakthrough in multi-agent AI systems! 

Register for the hackathon soon! 

The post Build Multi-Agent Systems with Groq in MachineHack’s Latest Hackathon appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

On November 14, 2025, the city of Dallas will host the 4th edition of MachineCon, the premier by-invitation gathering for 100+ Chief Data Officers, AI visionaries, and senior enterprise leaders shaping the future of business through data and artificial intelligence.

Organized by AIM Media House, the world’s leading media and analyst firm dedicated to AI, MachineCon Dallas goes beyond buzzwords—it’s where real-world AI deployments, hard questions on data ownership, and unscripted conversations about governance, ROI, and regulation come alive.

Why Dallas, Why Now

As enterprises across industries—from healthcare to aviation to financial services—grapple with scaling AI beyond prototypes, MachineCon Dallas offers a platform to cut through noise and surface clarity.

• GenAI Meets the Enterprise: Beyond the MVP Trap
  Why flashy demos aren’t enough, and how enterprises are scaling generative AI with measurable ROI.
• The CDO Dilemma: Ownership, Outcomes, and Org Design
  Who really owns data in a modern enterprise—and how the role of the CDO is evolving.
• AI Regulation & Reality: Walking the Tightrope
  From U.S. executive orders to global frameworks, how leaders balance compliance with innovation.

Partner with Us and position your brand at the heart of enterprise AI transformation.

Data100 Awards: Honoring AI’s Boldest Leaders

MachineCon Dallas will also feature the Data100 Awards, recognizing the 100 most impactful Data & AI leaders in the United States.

This is a merit-based, editorially curated program—no fees, no pay-to-play. From visionary CDOs and CIOs to governance champions, Data100 celebrates the leaders turning AI into competitive advantage.

Submit Your Data100 Nominations and celebrate the pioneers reshaping industries with data and AI.

Why You Should Be There

• For CDOs & Data Leaders: Network with peers facing the same ownership, compliance, and scaling dilemmas.
• For Enterprises: Discover how industry leaders are moving past prototypes and delivering real AI transformation.
• For Partners & Sponsors: Put your brand in the room where AI investment and adoption decisions are made.

MachineCon is not about slides—it’s about strategic conversations, intimate networking, and practical takeaways that directly impact business transformation.

For speaking, partnership, or nomination inquiries, write to us at info@aimmediahouse.com.

November 14, 2025 — Dallas, Texas.
Be in the room where enterprise AI decisions are made.

The post Over 100 CDOs to Gather at MachineCon Dallas 2025 for AI Strategy Dialogue appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

The enterprise AI landscape has a dirty secret: most projects never make it to production. Despite the billions invested and countless pilot programs launched, 90% of enterprise AI initiatives fail to reach actual business users. They get stuck in data preparation phases, derailed by integration challenges or abandoned when user adoption falls flat.

Vikrant Labde, co-founder and CTO at Turinton, has witnessed this cycle countless times. “Most platforms focus solely on model or agent building, but organisations need governance, cost control, explainability and seamless user distribution. Without solving this ‘last mile’ problem, AI remains an expensive science experiment rather than a business transformation tool,” he said.

The gap between AI potential and AI reality has become a significant challenge that’s costing organisations both time and money, while competitors who get it right are pulling ahead.

The Team Has Solved This Before

Turinton, a next-generation AI enablement firm, aims to bridge this gap. The company accelerates enterprise AI transformation, founded by executives who’ve already built and scaled successful technology businesses.

Co-founders Labde and Nikhil Ambekar previously built Cuelogic, a digital product engineering firm that was successfully acquired by LTIMindtree. Their experience gave them front-row seats to watch enterprises struggle with the same AI deployment challenges repeatedly.

“We saw companies investing heavily in AI but struggling to productise it. The experience at Cuelogic revealed a crucial challenge that companies experimented with AI but struggled to productise it,” Ambekar explained. 

The founders recognised that moving beyond model development was necessary for secure, governable AI to be delivered to business users. They realised that custom consulting did not scale and that the industry required a platform to provide consistent, repeatable results. 

What was built hereon was an AI business infrastructure, rather than just another AI platform. This insight shaped Turinton’s focus on building AI business infrastructure, not just AI models, a fundamental shift that’s proving to make all the difference.

The 3 Barriers Killing Enterprise AI

Enterprise AI adoption faces three persistent bottlenecks, according to Turinton. First, enterprise data lives in silos across ERP, CRM and operational systems and typically requires extensive extract, transform, load (ETL) work to make it AI-ready. That is a time-consuming process and creates security risks.

Second, developing and deploying AI tools quickly enough is a challenge. By the time solutions are production-ready, business requirements have often changed, making the original solution less relevant.

Third, access to every stakeholder remains limited. Often, AI remains accessible only to technical teams, leaving business users unable to benefit from the investment.

These roadblocks lead to costly, isolated and delayed AI initiatives. Vikas Singh, the company’s chief growth officer, noted that “data accessibility” is the number one complaint they hear. 

CTOs report valuable data locked in various systems, such as ERP and CRM, which makes creating a unified view time-consuming and risky due to the extensive ETL work required. 

Moreover, speed presents a critical challenge. By the time an AI solution is ready, business requirements often change. The most urgent pain point is user adoption. Businesses frequently express frustration that they can only utilise the advanced AI systems available to data scientists. 

“That’s why we built Turinton around zero-ETL architecture, rapid deployment and built-in user distribution. By having this approach, we’re solving technical challenges as well as business problems,” Singh expressed.

Turinton’s Approach: Faster, Safer, More Accessible

Turinton’s Insights AI platform tackles enterprise AI challenges by cutting implementation timelines from eight to 12 months to just eight to 12 weeks, while maintaining high accuracy and scalability. Its zero-movement architecture connects structured, unstructured and operational data in real time without relocating sensitive information, reducing security and compliance risks.

Powered by knowledge graphs and ontology-based intelligence, the platform creates a dynamic, unified knowledge graph. The Discover AI agent scans data, uncovers silos, and enriches metadata, while the Correlate agent maps relationships across systems to build enterprise-specific ontologies.

“Traditional ETL takes months just to prepare data; we eliminate that entirely,” Labde said. “Our approach turns months of engineering into minutes of configuration while keeping data under your control. No quality issues, no privacy concerns, no synchronisation problems.” He added that this not only reduces risk but also significantly lowers costs, since ETL is both slow and expensive.

From Months of Preparation to Weeks of Results

Traditional AI projects 1follow a predictable, lengthy timeline and are costly, ranging from $2 million to $5 million. Turinton Insights AI compresses this entire cycle to weeks, cutting traditional timelines by 80%. 

Proven Results Across Industries

Ambekar recalled a heavy-industry client monitoring Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Within two weeks, Turinton’s AI flagged hidden downtime patterns in machine logs and operator notes, insights their ERP had missed for years. “We moved beyond dashboards, we gave frontline managers a 24/7 digital co-pilot,” he said.

Another manufacturing client implemented predictive maintenance across production lines in three weeks. “A traditional approach would have required eight to 10 months just for ETL pipelines. We eliminate that entirely,” Labde noted. 

These implementations moved beyond pilot programs to deliver immediate, measurable business value.

Enterprise-Ready from Day One

Turinton built their platform with enterprise requirements as core features, instead of add-ons.

The platform is built on an open-source and API-first foundation, and is ISO 27001 and SOC 2 ready, ensuring robust security and compliance. This open-source and API-first architecture prevents vendor lock-in.

It also offers multi-cloud and on-premise flexibility, adapting to diverse IT environments across AWS, Azure and GCP. Built and certified by Red Hat, the platform runs securely on OpenShift and RHEL AI.

Its advanced capabilities include multi-agentic orchestration for complex workflows, GraphRAG and AutoML for intelligent automation, and integrated FinOps for cost management and ROI tracking. It also has full support for LLMs, SLMs, RAG and GraphRAG. 

Making AI Operational, Not Just Accessible

Labde explained why making AI “operational” and not just “accessible” represents the end of fundamental transformation. He elaborated that building AI that works in a lab is hard, but building one that works in production is exponentially harder. 

The difference between ‘accessible’ and ‘operational’ is everything that makes AI ‘enterprise-ready’, he asserted. Key operational requirements include real-time cost and ROI tracking for financial teams, complete audit trails for compliance teams, explainable recommendations for business users and administrative controls for managing AI processes.

“Most platforms treat governance, cost control and explainability as afterthoughts. We built them into the foundation. That is the difference between a demo and a business transformation,” Labde said.

The Next Phase of Enterprise AI

Ambekar predicts significant changes in the coming two to three years that will determine which companies become AI leaders versus AI followers. “Success won’t go to organisations with the most advanced models or biggest AI budgets, it will go to those that can operationalise AI at scale and put AI capabilities directly into decision-makers’ hands,” he said.

The companies winning with AI aren’t just implementing the technology; they’re implementing it right the first time, with platforms that deliver consistent results and measurable business value.

With AI adoption reaching a tipping point, Turinton represents this shift from experimental AI to operational AI, providing enterprises with a proven path from concept to production that works.

The post 90% of Enterprise AI Projects Fail, Turinton is Rewriting Those Odds appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Tredence, a data analytics and AI services company, has introduced the Agentic AI Playbook, a strategic guide designed specifically for chief data and analytics officers (CDAOs) and AI leaders who are tasked with evolving their organisations from running isolated AI pilots to achieving enterprise-scale AI modernisation. 

The playbook provides a comprehensive approach to redefining organisational workflows, decision-making processes and leadership structures to enable the seamless integration of AI agents into core business functions.

Moving Beyond Pilots: A New Approach to AI Adoption

Many enterprises today suffer from what Tredence identifies as the “underuse” of AI, where investments in artificial intelligence largely remain confined to experimentation or limited-scale initiatives. 

The Agentic AI Playbook challenges this status quo. It contends that the main challenge for organisations is not about AI misuse or the shortcomings of the technology itself, but instead the mismatch between AI’s potential and existing organisational designs and operational models.

Tredence highlights that simply acquiring new AI tools or scaling data science teams is not sufficient. To unlock AI’s full business value, enterprises need to rethink how work gets done, clarify decision rights and define how humans and AI systems collaborate in decision-making. 

The playbook frames AI agents as active participants—peers rather than assistants—that can autonomously execute tasks and augment human capabilities when integrated thoughtfully into workflows.

“Agents-as-a-service will soon prevail. Agentic AI systems are domain-focused, intelligent tools that understand the contexts and rationales behind tasks, can execute all necessary steps autonomously and incorporate feedback,” Sumit Mehra, co-founder and CTO of Tredence, said. 

A Structured Framework for AI Maturation and Value Realisation

The Agentic AI Vision Playbook frames transformation through five strategic lenses, each guiding organisations across three maturity phases—Now, New, and Next. The first lens, Business Value Realisation, focuses on structuring AI efforts to deliver tangible ROI, maintain stakeholder confidence and build sustained value. 

Human + AI Agents = Co-Intelligence redefines human roles in an increasingly automated environment, emphasising strategic alignment between people and intelligent systems. 

Business Process Reengineering highlights how decision intelligence and agentic AI can streamline and optimise workflows across the enterprise. Technology Evolution prepares leaders for emerging innovations such as quantum computing, brain-computer interfaces and compact, domain-specific AI models. 

Lastly, Governance & Compliance calls for agile, scalable frameworks that uphold responsible AI practices while adapting to shifting regulations. Together, these lenses help leaders act in the short term, transform operating models in the medium term and build resilient, AI-native organisations for the future.

The Agentic AI Playbook outlines a practical, multi-phase framework that helps enterprises progress from the current state of AI maturity to a future where AI is deeply embedded in everyday business processes across functions and geographies. The roadmap is organised into three overarching stages:

• Now – What leaders must act on in the next 12 months
• New – How operating models and systems evolve in two to three years
• Next – What long-term leadership looks like in AI-native organisations

This staged approach assists leaders in maintaining stakeholder alignment, justifying investments, and navigating the shift in culture and skills required to operate alongside autonomous AI.

Aligning Human Strategy with Autonomous AI

Central to the playbook’s vision is the idea that AI adoption involves more than technical deployment, as it requires fundamental changes in how decisions are made and who makes them. 

The playbook encourages C-suite executives to review and redefine decision rights, risk management approaches, and accountability structures to integrate AI agents as reliable execution partners.

In practice, this means that responsibilities traditionally held by humans may be redistributed to AI systems under defined guardrails, while humans focus on oversight, strategy and complex judgment calls. By doing so, enterprises can eliminate inefficiencies, enhance responsiveness, and scale AI-driven benefits consistently across business units.

Preparing for a Dynamic AI Future

The rapid pace of AI innovation means companies must develop strategies that are resilient and adaptable. The Agentic AI Playbook recognises that AI agents will evolve in capabilities, necessitating continuous updates not only in technology but also in organisational dynamics and leadership philosophies.

By applying the playbook’s guidance, enterprises can better anticipate emerging risks and opportunities, ensuring that their AI initiatives remain relevant and impactful as the market landscape transforms.

The post Unlocking Enterprise AI Impact with Tredence’s Agentic AI Playbook appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

This report marks the seventh annual edition of AIM’s “50 Best Firms for Data Scientists to Work For”.

The study evaluates companies through an employee-centric lens. Following last year’s expanded scope, AIM conducted a large-scale survey across India to map how employers enable data scientists to do their best work.

For previous year’s rankings: 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024

Top Trends:

1. Certification as a Career Milestone: 89% of top firms provides certification opportunities. They fund preparation and exam fees, align credentials to the core tech stack and engineering practices, and schedule certification alongside live projects so new skills are applied immediately.

2. Strong Analytics Output and Engagement: Top firms boast a 50% growth in analytics capabilities, reflecting strong employee engagement and productivity. Continued investment in talent is expected to enhance these metrics further.

3. Progressing Toward Healthy Attrition: Across organization, average attrition stands at 12%, reflecting active retention efforts and progress toward a healthy level.

4. Rising Average Tenure: 4-year average tenure signals a mature core with renewal via onboarding, playbooks, rotating ownership, clear progression, and alumni returns.

5. 360⁰ Feedback: Around 80% of top companies run 360⁰ feedback as a standard practice to drive development and improve manager effectiveness. 

6. Recognition Momentum: Most top organizations recognize employees about eight times a year, sustaining engagement and reinforcing performance.

7. Physical and Mental Wellness: 90% of top companies prioritize employee physical and mental wellness with structured programs and support.

Rankings 2025

AIM Research’s Best Firm Certification is the gold standard for recognising tech and AI workplaces that lead on culture, talent development, and employee experience—backed by structured employee feedback and industry benchmarking.

Earning the badge helps you attract and retain top Data Scientists, AI Engineers, and Data Engineers, signal workplace excellence, and get actionable insights to strengthen retention, inclusion, and governance. Choose from tracks like Best Firms for Data Scientists, Best Firms for Data Engineers, Best Firms for AI Professionals, and Best Firms for Women in Tech, then use the results to sharpen your employer brand and hiring outcomes. Know more and get certified here >

The post 50 Best Firms for Data Scientists to Work for 2025 appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Tredence hosted ‘The AI Foundry’, a first-of-its-kind developer-focused event, that brought together machine learning architects and data scientists for a practical exploration of agentic GenAI systems. The event, in collaboration with AIM, shifted the focus from theoretical discussions and product demos to a hands-on approach where attendees worked in teams to design autonomous systems for real-world business problems.

The event’s core theme was that GenAI is moving beyond simple question-and-answer functionality. The event began with visionary insights from CEO Shub Bhowmick, CRO Shashank Dubey and CSO Soumendra Mohanty. Together, they set the tone: GenAI is entering an era where AI agents don’t just answer questions; they take action. This shift demands deep engineering and domain understanding to make AI reliable and scalable.

Designing with Purpose

The centrepiece of the event was a design thinking workshop led by Soumendra Mohanty, where participants formed cross-functional groups to create agentic workflows for enterprise challenges, including retail replenishment, pricing optimisation, and supply chain routing.

Each design sprint focused on key aspects of system functionality, including agent orchestration, defining roles, timings and methods. One team designed an autonomous retail replenishment agent, while another focused on GenAI copilots for frontline worker scheduling. These projects were not just hypothetical; they were created as blueprints for future pilots.

An immersive AI Experience Centre at Tredence, led by Pavan Nanjundaiah from Tredence Studio, provided attendees with a look at advanced AI systems in action. Among the standout demos were a specialised agent designed to tackle retail merchandising decisions and an innovative auto-orchestration layer that seamlessly assigned tasks based on context and priority, optimising workflow efficiency.

Real-time observability dashboards offered insights into critical metrics, such as large language model (LLM) drift and task success rates, reinforcing the event’s emphasis on practical application and reliability.

Insights and Collaboration

AI Foundry stood in stark contrast to the typical barrage of PowerPoint presentations. It encouraged a hands-on innovation which allowed participants to touch, test and tweak cutting-edge generative AI tools. This interactive experience ignited an immediate sense of inspiration and a collaborative mindset, prompting a wave of enthusiasm to dive into building innovative solutions.

Team projects were recognised for their detailed and practical approaches. While one team used visual props to illustrate the user journey and architecture, another showcased a live-streamed user experience design. One focused on the software lifecycle, another was recognised for its attention to data ingestion architecture, and yet another team excelled in the data science aspects of its solution. One more team was highlighted for its user interface and observability.

The format of AI Foundry was effective because it directly engaged developers, allowing leaders to share their vision while engineers focused on practical execution. Attendees left with tangible design artefacts and architectural patterns they could implement within their teams.

A Blueprint for Agentic AI Delivery

The AI Foundry introduced a new operating model that empowers companies to deploy advanced AI solutions. It facilitates the creation of autonomous agents that can operate with contextual awareness, using modular frameworks to reduce build time. The model includes pre-tuned accelerators for specific industries such as retail, consumer packaged goods and manufacturing, as well as observability toolkits to monitor GenAI behaviour and manage task handoffs.

Going forward, for Tredence, AI Foundry is merely the starting point and plans to expand the AI Foundry series into new cities and industries. Tredence isn’t just building AI. It’s building builders of AI and equipping them with the patterns, platforms and principles to lead in the agentic age. 

The AI Foundry workshop moved beyond a typical gathering; it served as a platform where engineers were empowered, and generative AI evolved from a buzzword into a practical, repeatable capability for businesses. It was a “show-and-build” experience that encouraged hands-on engagement and collaboration. This approach may very well set the future trajectory for enterprise AI.

The post Inside Tredence’s AI Foundry: A Hands-On Approach to Enterprise AI appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

As enterprises navigate the transformative wave of generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI, global capability centres (GCCs) are emerging as pivotal players in turning vision into action. Industry insights show that GCCs have expanded their scope beyond traditional functions to build capabilities in areas such as marketing, legal, ESG, advanced analytics, and data science. Most are actively experimenting with next generation technologies like machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI, and advanced data analytics.  

This shift reflects a broader ambition. “The services landscape is shifting,”  Harpreet Duggal, Senior Advisor at Genpact, said at MachineCon GCC 2025 in Goa. “GCCs are moving beyond being cost arbitrage centres to becoming value creators through the integration of tech, domain and process.”

Duggal explained that while traditionally, business process services focus on FTE metrics, the industry is moving towards outcomes and solutions, with the next stage involving agentic, platform-led services. 

“With our heritage as a GCC pioneer that brings together decades of deep domain expertise and advanced technology capabilities, Genpact strives to be at the forefront of AI and agentic-AI-led change,” Duggal said.

Bridging the Gap Between Vision and Execution

In his talk, Duggal highlighted that despite these ambitions, many GCCs face a gap between vision and reality. The long-term goal is to transform these centres into service innovation hubs and engines of transformation, but several challenges persist.

These barriers include outdated organisational structures, unsustainable investment models, lack of scale, limited access to high-quality AI and data talent, and weak enterprise orchestration. These challenges often prevent GCCs from delivering on their full strategic potential.

To overcome these headwinds, Duggal explained that Genpact offers four key support areas. 

The first is innovation enablement, which helps GCCs adopt emerging technologies and redesign workflows. 

The second is governance and risk management, which includes compliance consulting and talent acquisition support. 

The third is value realisation, which drives cost savings while unlocking enterprise value. 

Lastly, digital transformation support is essential for developing technology roadmaps and managing change.

As GCCs expand, they increasingly look to external partners to accelerate growth. Duggal outlined eight factors that GCCs consider when evaluating service providers, including global presence, deep domain expertise, cost-effectiveness, scalability, pricing flexibility, robust compliance, technological innovation, and cultural alignment.

Talent, Tech, and the Right Partners

Duggal emphasised the growing importance of investing in highly skilled professionals who can solve real-world business problems as the demand for core AI talent rises.

“Core talent is tough to find. They are limited in number. And they’re expensive. Once you get the talent, can you retain it? Can you make it exciting for them?” he asked.

To support this shift, Genpact has built platforms like the AI Gigafactory, which brings together AI value mapping, rapid experimentation, and proprietary frameworks into a single environment. This allows teams to move quickly from concept to execution while maintaining scalability. 

Duggal also emphasised the critical role of partnerships with technology leaders, such as Snowflake and ServiceNow, in accelerating time-to-value and scaling innovation. Genpact is also developing a Service-as-Agentic-Solutions portfolio that aims to assist enterprises in pairing goal-oriented AI agents with human expertise to facilitate autonomous delivery. 

Duggal explained that their Genpact AP Suite has facilitated as much as 80% touchless processing and has automatically addressed up to 90% of supplier queries, thereby enabling enterprises to accelerate and expand their accounts payable functions.

Emerging Engagement Models

As the future of work becomes increasingly agile, traditional outsourcing models are being replaced by more flexible approaches. Duggal highlighted several emerging models shaping this transformation.

The BOTT (Build, Operate, Transform, Transfer) model enables service providers to build capabilities for an enterprise and eventually transfer ownership back to the organisation. Virtual or assisted captive models involve shared operational responsibility, allowing for greater flexibility and control.

A more advanced approach is agentic inter-sourcing, which leverages ready-made solutions—such as Genpact’s Agentic AP Suite and AI Gigafactory—to provide scalable, on-demand technology and capacity. Overall, Genpact’s vision for GCCs indicates a clear shift from cost-centric back-office functions to innovation-led value creation.

The post How Genpact is Shaping the Future of GCCs as Innovation Engines appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

The AWS GenAI Loft Bengaluru, held from July 7 to 16 at 2Moons inside 1MG Lido Mall, brought together startup founders and developers, AWS experts and community members in a vibrant, collaborative space.

Set up as a pop-up innovation hub, the GenAI Loft offered over a week of hands‑on workshops, technical deep dives and peer networking, all dedicated to strengthening developer fluency in AWS’s generative AI offerings.

Startups shared how the company’s cloud services have become central to their operations, citing scalability, reliability and breadth of offerings as key factors enabling them to build, innovate and bring products to market faster. For many, the GenAI Loft was not just an opportunity to learn but a chance to strengthen their relationship with AWS. 

They described AWS teams as active partners in their growth, providing both the technology stack and the expertise to navigate rapidly evolving AI landscapes.

From the outset, attendees described the vibe as warm and energised, with a mix of cloud-native engineering, AI creativity and informal conversations over coffee. The space felt open, organised and focused. Attendees could drop into sessions or have one-on-one time with AWS solutions architects. The overall feeling was encouraging, inclusive and highly satisfying.

Hands‑On Sessions That Transformed Knowledge into Practice

One standout workshop, titled Beyond APIs: Standardising GenAI Communication with MCP, guided developers in implementing the Model Context Protocol (MCP). 

Hosted by AWS solutions architects Ayush Agrawal and Swapnil Tiwari, the session involved hands‑on exercises in converting existing application APIs to MCP, deploying a personal MCP server and integrating GenAI applications with a unified protocol. 

Participants appreciated how the abstract concept of a protocol became tangible through live coding and deployable infrastructure, a practical skill they could apply immediately.

Moreover, an AWS GenAI Hackathon Challenge, held from July 10 to 11, brought together developers, data scientists and solutions architects for a 24-hour in-person build sprint.  

The event offered hands-on access to Amazon Bedrock’s foundation models and mentorship from AWS AI/ML experts. Participants worked in teams to solve real-world problems across domains like smart user interfaces, developer tooling and operational productivity using agentic AI. 

On July 14, AWS solutions architects Kalaivanan Sandamurthy and Keerthi Sangadala introduced participants to the transformative capabilities of Amazon Q Apps, the no-code generative AI tool within Amazon Q Business. 

The session focused on how business and technical teams can harness the power of AI to streamline workflows, automate tasks and extract actionable insights, without writing a single line of code. Attendees learned how natural language prompts could be effortlessly turned into functional, enterprise-ready applications.

In one of the more hands-on sessions, AWS solutions architects Muthu Annamalai Chidambaram and Natasha S walked participants through a session titled ‘Supercharge Employee Productivity with Vibe Coding using Amazon Q Developer’. 

They broke down how vibe coding fits into daily workflows and how it helps teams code faster, collaborate better and get more done. Real examples and clear takeaways made this one a crowd favourite.

One of the most talked-about sessions at the AWS GenAI Loft was ‘Driving Open Source AI Innovation using Llama’, hosted by Meta’s Ojasvi Bhatia and Nilesh Pandey. The room was packed as they walked the crowd through everything from Llama’s model architecture to real-world use cases that are already reshaping how companies build with AI.

Community Mixer & Hackathon: Building Together

Between the deep technical sessions, AWS also hosted the Bengaluru Launch Mixer for Startups on July 7, which brought together developers, startup leaders, investors and AWS experts in a relaxed networking format at the venue. 

Moreover, there was a fireside chat featuring Chandan Raj, CTO of Bheem, Vivek Sharma, VP of engineering at ANSR Global and Goutam Kurumella, head solution architect at AWS.

“AWS has been instrumental over the past four or five years since our inception. It is our choice to use AWS, and it has always been because of the ease across the services and the scalability, reliability, and robustness which AWS brings in all its services,” said Sharma. He added that the company’s entire dev platform is entirely on AWS. 

Raj said that Bheem has relied on AWS since its inception, building its solution using a serverless stack. “We’ve been with AWS right from the beginning,” he said, adding that both he and his CTO come from strong tech backgrounds and understand how crucial technology choices can be, especially in areas like scaling and scouting.

He emphasised that technology strategy and implementation policies can make or break a company, and AWS has played a key role in theirs. “The serverless framework and now services like Bedrock for our AI-based solutions have been tremendous partners in our journey,” he said.

The mix of people and opinions sparked thematic collaborations, informal mentorship and genuine connections. Attendees remarked that the sessions were technically rich, the atmosphere was inclusive, and they were leaving with meaningful contacts.

Final Reflections

The AWS GenAI Loft Bengaluru offered an exceptional mix of technical depth, hands-on workshops and community engagement. More than just an event, it became a space to learn, build and connect with the AWS GenAI ecosystem.The atmosphere was engaging and supportive, the venue was well-organised, and the sessions gave attendees a real sense of accomplishment and clarity. Whether someone attended a single workshop or participated in the full itinerary, the feedback was consistent—participants left not only more technically skilled but genuinely inspired.

The post AWS GenAI Loft Bengaluru Brings Startups and Developers Together to Learn and Build appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

The next wave of enterprise AI isn’t just generative, it’s agentic. What was once a curiosity is now a top priority for business and technology leaders. Agentic AI is redefining workflows through intelligent, autonomous systems that handle complex tasks, adapt in real-time, and keep humans in the loop for oversight.

Breaking free from automation’s limits, AI now drives enterprise growth and transformation. Despite strong interest, most initiatives are still in the early or pilot stage. 

Realising the full potential of agentic AI demands a shift from use cases to business processes, siloed AI teams to cross-functional transformation squads, and changes to the AI architecture for interoperability. Sigmoid is one of the companies helping drive this change.

Founded in 2013, Sigmoid was built on two core beliefs: better data leads to better decisions, and most organisations lack the systems to use data effectively. 

Since then, it has helped large enterprises become data-driven by aligning data and AI with business goals, and continues to build custom AI solutions that deliver tangible business outcomes.

From Automation to Autonomy

Agentic AI holds immense potential to streamline operations, elevate decision-making, and drive innovation across industries. By 2027, half of all business decisions will either be automated or supported by intelligent agents. This represents a fundamental shift in how decisions are made and executed across functions.

“As businesses move beyond efficiency and prioritise growth and value-chain reinvention, Agentic AI is leading this shift by enabling intelligent, autonomous systems that accelerate innovation. Sigmoid empowers enterprises to gain a competitive advantage by transforming business processes, leveraging AI agents powered by strong data foundations and contextual knowledge,” said Lokesh Anand, CEO and Co-Founder of Sigmoid.

To enable this transformation, Sigmoid provides comprehensive agentic AI services spanning consulting, redesigning business processes, developing and deploying custom agents, and efficiently managing them in production.

For instance, Sigmoid built an Agentic AI tool for a global consumer goods company to automate audit and compliance checks of marketing content across channels. Trained on inputs from legal and regulatory teams, the tool reduced approval times by 50%, delivering real-time checks on text and visuals to uphold brand standards and regulatory compliance.

Building the Foundation for an Agentic Era

AI agents are only as effective as the data and infrastructure that support them. According to Nasscom, 68% of enterprises are focused on improving data governance, while 62% are investing in integrating structured and unstructured data. 

These efforts signal a broader shift as organisations adopt Agentic AI for scalable data engineering to meet growing demands for speed, flexibility, and reliability.

As enterprises transition, they confront long-standing challenges such as fragmented architectures, inconsistent data, and rigid automation tools that cannot adapt to changing inputs. Agentic AI provides a more flexible alternative. 

Built on large language models (LLMs) and multi-agent frameworks, these systems can reason, learn from feedback, and operate independently across data ingestion, transformation, quality, and governance.

Sigmoid deploys these systems across enterprise data workflows to reduce manual effort and accelerate the path to insight. A global MedTech leader faced slow R&D cycles due to fragmented data across SAP systems and unstructured Design History Files. Sigmoid’s Agentic AI solution enabled intelligent search and summarization, resulting in a 20% improvement in R&D process efficiency.

Effective Agentic AI requires governance, observability, and traceability from the start. Along with lifecycle management and responsible AI practices, these elements establish a foundation for long-term reliability. Use of AI-ready data to support AI initiatives requires evolutionary changes to data management and upgrades to data architecture, skills, and processes.A leading infant nutrition brand partnered with Sigmoid to modernise data operations using Agentic AI. Agents monitored system health, classified issues, and triggered automated fixes- helping maintain uptime, reduce operational noise, and enhance observability across complex data environments. The solution enabled 70% faster issue detection, improved reliability, and cut manual effort and overhead costs by 30%.

The Five Pillars

To thrive in the agentic era, enterprises must reinforce five core pillars. First, talent readiness requires upskilling teams and defining new roles aligned with AI‑enabled workflows. 

Second, robust architectures demand building scalable, modular systems that seamlessly integrate AI.

Third, responsible governance involves creating clear frameworks to manage autonomous behavior and ensure ethical, accountable deployment of intelligent agents.

Fourth, AI‑ready data calls for improving data quality, governance, accessibility, and real-time usability to enable reliable, scalable AI operations.

Finally, enterprise integration means shifting from isolated pilots to organization‑wide programs by embedding AI into core processes and driving outcome‑oriented delivery models.

Sigmoid is leveraging agents to unlock the full potential of vertical use cases by automating complex business workflows. When a global chocolate manufacturer experienced delays in responding to detailed customer requests, it chose a smarter approach rather than conventionally expanding its sales team. Sigmoid deployed an agentic AI solution leveraging R&D data to recommend tailored products. AI agents managed each step of the sales inquiry process, reducing response time from 10 days to 10 minutes, doubling portfolio utilization, and increasing sales by 5%.

The enterprises driving this shift are not pursuing novelty. They are fundamentally rethinking decision-making, system integration, and AI’s role in everyday operations. Sigmoid is helping build an agentic ecosystem that is transforming enterprise workflows.

The post Enterprise AI hits an inflection point, the agentic era is here! appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

AIM presents its annual compilation of the most influential leaders in AI in India for 2025, a carefully curated list of individuals who are helping shape the future of artificial intelligence in India. This year’s selection brings together a wide mix of voices: scientists and researchers, startup founders, tech veterans, policymakers, public sector leaders and storytellers who’ve played a key role in how India thinks about and uses AI.

From diving into sovereign LLMs, IndiaAI Mission and digital transactions to quantum and chip research, agentic AI, film and music, these leaders have stood out not just for what they’ve built or led, but for how they’ve put AI on the national agenda.

While some have pushed the boundaries of deeptech innovation, others have worked to bring AI into critical areas like healthcare, education, governance or agriculture. Many have had to wrestle with tough questions about fairness, accountability, privacy and the role of automation in everyday life. Their responses have helped move the conversation forward.

India’s AI journey is still unfolding, but it’s being shaped every day by people like the ones on this list. These individuals are asking the right questions, building with purpose and leading in ways that matter.

(In alphabetic order within the category)

Policy Makers

Aakrit Vaish

Co-Founder of Peercheque; Former Advisor at IndiaAI Mission

Expertise: Conversational AI, AI Policy

Aakrit Vaish has been a key figure in India’s AI ecosystem for over a decade. He co-founded Haptik, the country’s first conversational AI company, which was acquired by Reliance Jio in 2019, marking the country’s largest AI exit valued at $100 million. As a former advisor to the IndiaAI Mission led by the Indian government, he played a central role in shaping the nation’s sovereign large language model initiative.

In 2022, Vaish launched Peercheque, a venture syndicate that now includes 65 co-investors and has made over 100 early-stage investments. His shift from founder to investor reflects a broader vision for nurturing the next wave of AI startups in India.

Recognised in 2023 as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Vaish continues to influence India’s AI landscape through a mix of policy engagement, entrepreneurial insight, and capital deployment. His focus remains on building scalable, locally rooted AI solutions with global relevance.

Abhishek Singh

CEO at IndiaAI Mission, DG at Government of India’s National Informatics Centre

Expertise: Sovereign LLMs

Abhishek Singh, a 1995‑batch IAS officer and alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Harvard Kennedy School, currently serves as additional secretary at MeitY and CEO of the IndiaAI Mission as well as the director general of the Indian government’s National Informatics Centre.

He heads India’s ambitious five‑year, $1.2 billion AI strategy, securing over 10,000 GPUs, overseeing 67 foundational model proposals, and building open-access platforms like AIKosh for data sharing and voice‑based LLMs tailored to India’s diverse needs.

Singh is deeply committed to responsible and inclusive AI. He insists government-backed models should address real-world problems, be trained on local datasets, and adhere to ethical standards. He likens building trust in AI to early aviation, stressing accountability, explainability, and public confidence.

Beyond funding and infrastructure, Singh drives adoption through public-sector deployments, such as voice-enabled citizen services like UPI, and AI-powered tools in governance, including trademark search and IP-Saarthi chatbots.

His strategy strikes a balance between innovation and oversight, urging frequent upskilling to meet the AI moment and warning against job loss due to automation.

Amitabh Kant

Former CEO of NITI Aayog; India’s G20 Sherpa, Government of India

Expertise: Public Governance, Economic Strategy, Digital Infrastructure

Amitabh Kant is a senior Indian bureaucrat and policymaker, former CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) and India’s G20 Sherpa. As a member of the Indian Administrative Service (Kerala Cadre, 1980 batch), Kant has been instrumental in shaping several flagship initiatives that have defined India’s development narrative, including Make in India, Startup India, Incredible India and God’s Own Country.

Kant has also played a pioneering role in India’s artificial intelligence strategy. Under his stewardship, NITI Aayog released the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence in 2018, making India one of the first countries to outline AI for inclusive development. He oversaw the creation of the AI Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform (AIRAWAT) to provide scalable, cloud-based AI infrastructure and helped establish over 3,500 Atal Tinkering Labs in schools to foster early exposure to robotics, IoT and AI, with plans to expand to 10,000.

Kant is a thought leader and a prolific author. His books include Branding India: An Incredible Story, Incredible India 2.0, Made in India: 75 Years of Business and Enterprise, and The Elephant Moves: India’s New Place in the World, co-authored with Amit Kapoor.

Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Minister for Electronics & IT, Government of India

Expertise: Governance, Policy-Making

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has advanced India’s AI ambitions with global partnerships and the launch of a ₹10,000-crore IndiaAI Mission, powered by over 18,000 GPUs. Under his watch, India is committed to developing its own large language models, aiming to rival global platforms like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.

In early 2024, he announced the IndiaAI Safety Institute, ensuring models are built safely and ethically using domestic data.

Vaishnaw’s global influence was evident at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum 2025, where he championed “AI for all”, highlighting India’s focus on equity, democratisation, and transparency. He also co-hosted a summit in Paris to set responsible global AI standards.

His push extends beyond policy. India is now designing 3nm chips domestically and ramping up semiconductor and GPU infrastructure. The minister has invited OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to collaborate on building a local AI stack (GPUs, models, and apps).

Debjani Ghosh

Fellow at NITI Aayog; Former President of NASSCOM

Expertise: AI Policy Advocacy, Digital Transformation, Diversity in Tech.

Debjani Ghosh is one of the most influential voices in India’s digital transformation and AI policy landscape. With a deep commitment to inclusive innovation, she has played a pivotal role in shaping India’s AI journey through a people-first lens. As a NITI Aayog fellow and the former president of NASSCOM, Ghosh has been instrumental in driving India’s national AI strategy, emphasising ethical, responsible, and human-centric AI.

During her tenure at NASSCOM, Ghosh led efforts to position India as a global hub for AI and emerging technologies, fostering meaningful collaboration between industry, academia, and government. Her advocacy was central to the development of policy frameworks that prioritise inclusivity, especially in ensuring that AI solutions address India’s diverse linguistic, socio-economic, and gender realities.

Ghosh is also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in technology. She has consistently called for increasing women’s participation in the digital economy and ensuring that AI systems are built with datasets that represent India’s vast and varied population.

As a thought leader, Ghosh has emphasised the need for India to build its own ethical foundations for AI, distinct from the Western frameworks, while remaining globally competitive.

Dilip Asbe

CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)

Expertise: UPI

Dilip Asbe is the managing director and CEO of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), serving since January 2018 after rising through the ranks from CTO and COO. Under his leadership, NPCI processes over 18 billion financial transactions monthly, operating platforms like UPI, RuPay, IMPS, AePS, Bharat QR, and the Bharat Bill Payment System.

Asbe’s vision includes taking UPI global. He’s spearheaded expansions into countries like the UAE, Singapore, and France, aiming for 100 billion UPI transactions a month and enabling voice‑based payments and credit-enabled UPI services. Asbe holds a Master’s degree in global management from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), UK, and a degree in electronics engineering from Mumbai University.

Asbe is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. In India, his work spans AI-driven fraud detection, risk analytics, personalisation, and cyber-fraud mitigation, with a clear view that AI will significantly impact data generation.

Duddilla Sridhar Babu

Minister for IT, Electronics & Communications, Government of Telangana

Expertise: Technology Policy Leadership, AI and Digital Innovation, Public Governance, Legislation

Duddilla Sridhar Babu, Telangana’s minister for IT, electronics and communications, industries and commerce, and legislative affairs, is steering the state into an AI-powered future. A seasoned legislator and former advocate, Sridhar Babu combines legal acumen with policy vision to champion digital innovation and inclusive growth. Under his leadership, Telangana is embracing emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and Industry 4.0 to foster job creation, empower youth, and attract global tech investments.

His international exposure and progressive governance are shaping policies that balance rapid tech adoption with ethical, citizen-centric outcomes. Having held key ministerial portfolios earlier, including higher education and civil supplies, he brings depth and continuity to his governance.

Sridhar Babu’s mission is clear: to position Telangana not just as India’s startup capital but as a global hub for responsible and inclusive AI. In a world racing ahead with digital disruption, he ensures Telangana doesn’t just keep pace, it leads.

Piyush Goyal

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India

Expertise: Governance, Policy-Making

Piyush Goyal, India’s Union commerce and industry minister since 2019, has emerged as a passionate advocate for responsible AI and technological innovation.

He recently unveiled the AI and ML-powered Trademark Search Technology and IP‑Saarthi Chatbot, tools set to expedite trademark clearances and guide users through intellectual property processes, part of a broader push to embed AI into government services.

Goyal has emphasised the importance of ethical AI frameworks. Speaking at the National Law University, Delhi, he warned that “copyright and AI…stand at the crossroads of a very, very disturbing future,” urging expert collaboration to build regulations that prevent misuse.

He believes that AI should “add to creativity” without substituting human judgment.

Under his stewardship, the government is also mobilising ₹10,000 crore through the Fund of Funds for Startups to support deep-tech ventures in AI, ML, quantum computing and more. Initiatives such as the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP) and the PM Gatishakti National Master Plan are leveraging AI to enhance infrastructure and logistics efficiency.

Goyal repeatedly underscores that “AI cannot replace human wisdom,” especially in areas like agriculture, and is betting on “responsible adoption” as a catalyst for India’s growth into a $30–35trillion economy by 2047.

Priyank Kharge

IT Minister, Government of Karnataka

Expertise: Tech Policy, Responsible AI, Digital Governance

Priyank Kharge, Karnataka’s minister for IT and digital economy, is one of the most influential policymakers shaping India’s AI landscape. With a forward-thinking vision, Kharge has been instrumental in drafting and implementing Karnataka’s AI policy, one of the most progressive in the country. His leadership marks a decisive shift toward inclusive, ethical, and human-centred AI adoption across sectors.

An advocate for leveraging technology to solve real-world problems, Kharge has driven several pioneering initiatives. Among them is the Beyond Bengaluru project, aimed at decentralising innovation and tech growth beyond the capital city, thereby fostering talent and opportunity across the state. He also oversaw the launch of India’s first centre of excellence for artificial intelligence, further cementing Karnataka’s position as a national leader in digital innovation.

Kharge’s governance is notably youth-focused and inclusive. He envisions AI not just as a driver of economic growth but as a tool for public good—actively promoting its application in governance, agriculture, education, and public health. His approach strikes a balance between innovation and accountability, promoting responsible AI development that benefits both citizens and the tech ecosystem.

Under his guidance, Karnataka has emerged as a preferred destination for global AI players, while also creating fertile ground for startups and homegrown talent.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar

Former MoS for Electronics & IT, Government of India

Expertise: Digital Economy Policy, AI & Emerging Tech, Startup & Innovation Strategy

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s former minister of state for electronics and IT, played a pivotal role in shaping the nation’s digital future. A technocrat-turned-politician, he brought Silicon Valley sensibility to Indian policymaking, balancing innovation with regulation. Under his watch, India’s AI ambitions found clear direction, championing responsible AI, semiconductor self-reliance, and deep-tech startups.

Chandrasekhar was instrumental in drafting frameworks that fuelled India’s trillion-dollar digital economy vision and positioned the country as a trusted partner in global tech ecosystems.

But beyond titles and policies, his journey is personal, rooted in his early engineering days, when he built chips and products in the US, and his return to serve a country brimming with untapped tech potential. His passion for innovation wasn’t just bureaucratic; it was infectious. In every byte of India’s digital transformation, there’s a hint of Chandrasekhar’s belief that technology, when shaped with purpose and inclusion, is the greatest equaliser of our times.

Rajeshwar Singh

MLA, Government of UP

Expertise: Governance, Policy-Making

Rajeshwar Singh, an MLA from Lucknow’s Sarojini Nagar, is a dynamic leader championing technological transformation and youth empowerment in Uttar Pradesh. Known for his forward-thinking governance, Singh has proposed key reforms to the state government, including the establishment of a state commission on artificial intelligence to regulate ethical use of AI, integration of AI and blockchain in public welfare schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana for enhanced transparency, and an AI-powered Intelligent Traffic Management System for Lucknow.

At the same time, Singh is deeply committed to youth development. Under the Ran Bahadur Singh Digital Education and Youth Empowerment Centre, he has launched free one-month AI training workshops, aiming to equip 50,000 youth with skills in O-Level computing, MS Office, Tally and AI tools. With 14 centres already operational and a goal of 100, each equipped with computers, Wi-Fi, and infrastructure, his mission is to build a digitally skilled and future-ready generation.

Researchers

Balaraman Ravindran

Professor & Founding Head of Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI (IIT Madras)

Expertise: Reinforcement Learning, Responsible AI

Balaraman Ravindran is one of India’s most influential AI researchers, with over 30 years of experience in machine learning, particularly in the field of reinforcement learning. As the founding head of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI, and the Centre for Responsible AI at IIT Madras, Ravindran has helped shape the country’s academic and institutional AI landscape from the ground up.

His contributions extend far beyond campus. Ravindran has advised the Indian government, the RBI, the World Economic Forum, and the REAIM council on the ethical, responsible deployment of AI, particularly in sensitive domains like defence and public policy. With over 150 published papers and multiple Best Paper Awards, he continues to influence AI globally through editorial roles and committee positions at The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (KDD).

Ravindran’s collaborations with Google Research, Intel, and IBM reflect his deep industry engagement, while his design of IIT Madras’ flagship AI programmes has trained a new generation of researchers and engineers. Honoured as an ACM Distinguished Member, AAAI fellow, and Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) fellow, he remains a pivotal voice in advancing both the science and ethics of AI.

Ganesh Ramakrishnan

Professor at IIT Bombay’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Expertise: Statistical Relational Learning, ML, Information & Communication Tech for Rural Development

Ganesh Ramakrishnan’s journey spans academia, industry, and national impact. After earning his PhD from IIT Bombay in 2004, he joined IBM Research India, where he worked on scalable information extraction systems. In 2009, he returned to IIT Bombay as an assistant professor, rising through the ranks to a full professorship in 2019.

Throughout the 2010s, Ramakrishnan led projects in statistical relational learning, feature induction and machine translation. His work underpinned tools like Sandhan (an Indic‐language search engine), BET for inductive logic programming, and Udaan, a translation engine for technical content in Indian languages. In 2024, Udaan evolved into Udaan Project, licensed to BharatBhashaTech, breaking language barriers in education.

Today, he leads BharatGen, a government‑backed, open‑source, multilingual and multimodal foundation model initiative launched in September 2024. BharatGen aims to produce inclusive, data‑efficient AI models tailored to India’s cultural and linguistic diversity, built atop pipelines from Udaan and powered by Bharat Data Sagar and AIKosha.

Beyond research, he serves as Bank of Baroda chair professor in digital entrepreneurship, heads IITB’s Koita Centre for Digital Health, and mentors PhDs focused on data‑efficient learning.

Govindan Rangarajan

Director at IISc

Expertise: Applied Mathematics, Mathematical Sciences, Digital Information Services

At the Indian Institute of Science, Govindan Rangarajan wears the director’s hat with vision and scientific depth. A mathematician trained at BITS‑Pilani (integrated MSc) and the University of Maryland (PhD), he spent time at UC Berkeley before returning to India in 1992 to join IISc, where he later became the director in 2020.

Rangarajan’s research spans nonlinear dynamics, chaos, time-series analysis, and computational biology. He’s been deeply involved in interdisciplinary education, setting up satellite-based Indo‑French cyber‑university programs, an interdisciplinary PhD in mathematical sciences, and the Indo‑French Centre for Applied Mathematics.

A fellow of the JC Bose National and India’s top science academies, Rangarajan also holds France’s Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Speaking at Belagavi in mid-2024, he took a realistic stance on AI’s impact: “Primary-level jobs and very common field and technology jobs will be replaced by AI,” urging youth to “reskill and upskill frequently”.

At NITK’s 2024 convocation, he emphasised “direct interaction” and creativity as essential human strengths that set us apart in an AI‑driven world.

Rangarajan combines deep research excellence—evident in over 220 publications and leadership of national and international mathematical initiatives—with a clear vision for preparing India for an AI‑enabled future.

Mausam

Professor & Founding Head, Yardi School of Artificial Intelligence (IIT Delhi)

Expertise: NLP, Automated Planning

Mausam is one of India’s most respected AI researchers and the founding head of the Yardi School of Artificial Intelligence at IIT Delhi. With over two decades of pioneering research in natural language processing (NLP), automated reasoning, and machine learning, his work has significantly influenced the direction of AI in India.

A former research scientist at Microsoft Research and a professor at IIT Delhi, Mausam has published in leading AI conferences like NeurIPS, AAAI, and ACL. Under his leadership, the Yardi School has emerged as a premier institution producing cutting-edge research and nurturing India’s future AI talent.

He has also served as program chair of global AI conferences and sits on the editorial boards of leading journals. Beyond academia, he contributes to AI policy discussions and ethics frameworks, aiming to align AI development with India’s societal needs. His commitment to AI for social good and academic excellence positions him as a key architect of India’s AI future.

Mitesh M Khapra

Head of AI4Bharat Research Lab

Expertise: Indian Datasets

Mitesh M Khapra, associate professor at IIT Madras and the founding head of the AI4Bharat Research Lab, is quietly driving India towards AI that truly speaks Indian languages. His goal since 2020 has been to bring Indic AI up to the same standard as English.

What began with painstaking data collection and model-building across a few languages has blossomed into one of the world’s largest open-source datasets, supporting IndicTrans2, a translation model that covers all 22 scheduled Indian languages—and it’s only getting stronger.

Khapra’s earlier work at IBM Research India focused on machine translation, cross-language learning, and deep learning. He has published extensively in top-tier venues like ACL, EMNLP, and NeurIPS. His contributions earned him prestigious honours—including the IBM PhD Fellowship, Microsoft Rising Star, Google Faculty Research Award, and several teaching and research awards at IIT Madras.

A key partner in India’s Bhashini Mission, AI4Bharat now powers about 80% of its data engine. Nandan Nilekani calls his work “amazing”, pointing out that real-world impact begins by building quality data and capturing voices from Kashmiri to Maithili.

With deep research credentials, open-source spirit and a vision that embraces linguistic diversity, Khapra is unlocking India’s voice in the global AI conversation.

Paras Chopra

Founder at Lossfunk

Expertise: AI Research, LLMs

Long before building India’s AI future, Paras Chopra was writing neural networks in Visual Basic, and today he’s the founder of Lossfunk, a Bengaluru‑based independent AI research lab. After bootstrapping Wingify (the team behind VWO) to a $200million exit in 2024, he set his sights on founding a lab focused on efficient, high-quality AI reasoning and large‑language‑model alignment.

Under Chopra’s leadership, Lossfunk has already made waves in AI research. In early 2025, the team introduced IPO (Implicit Preference Optimisation), a novel approach to aligning LLMs without requiring external feedback, and demonstrated that it matched or exceeded state-of-the-art reward models.

That added to his list of bold decisions, like not allowing his team to work with Indian customers who don’t pay, showing how much he values their time and effort.

Chopra has also begun assembling a technical core for a lab that aims to contribute to India’s national AI strategy, experimenting with methods like reinforcement learning, pruning, distillation, and neurosymbolic systems to maximise efficiency.

A true independent thinker, he believes “creativity is born out of constraints,” emphasising that limited compute should not limit ambition. From bootstrapped SaaS to foundational AI research, his journey exemplifies India’s growing potential to lead in thoughtful, impactful AI innovation.

Pratyush Kumar

Co-Founder, Sarvam AI

Expertise: Voice Indic LLMs

From pioneering Indian-language AI tools to co-founding a full-stack GenAI startup, Pratyush Kumar has been reshaping the contours of AI in India. A graduate of IIT Bombay (BTech) and ETH Zurich (PhD), he began his career at Microsoft Research, IBM Research, and IIT Madras before co-creating AI4Bharat and PadhAI—initiatives that brought deep learning and language AI tools to classrooms and open-source developers.

In 2023, Kumar joined forces with VivekRaghavan to launch Sarvam AI, a Bengaluru-based startup dedicated to developing sovereign generative AI systems for India. Under his guidance, Sarvam AI focuses on multilingual voice-first applications and foundational models optimised for Indian languages and dialects.

Kumar has published over 89 papers and enjoys the trust of global investors. Sarvam raised $41 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed, PeakXV, and Khosla Ventures.

His vision is clear: build GenAI that understands and responds in India’s native tongues and cultural contexts, creating tools that are as inclusive as they are innovative. With Sarvam AI chosen by the IndiaAI Mission to lead the development of a sovereign LLM, his mission to democratise AI continues to scale.

Pushpak Bhattacharyya

Head of CFILT lab (IIT Bombay)

Expertise: NLP

Long before AI became a buzzword, Pushpak Bhattacharyya was quietly laying India’s linguistic foundations. A distinguished professor at IIT Bombay, where he holds the Major Bhagat Singh Rekhi Chair, he is often referred to as the ‘godfather of NLP in India’. His journey began with a BTech at IIT Kharagpur, followed by an MTech from IIT Kanpur, and a PhD from IIT Bombay in 1994.

Over three decades, Bhattacharyya has authored more than 350 research papers and guided over 300 students in topics ranging from machine translation to multilingual sentiment detection and computational sarcasm. His trailblazing projects include IndoWordNet, Indian‑language neural MT systems, sarcasm and emotion detection, and cognitively inspired NLP via eye‑tracking experiments.

Over the years, he has held major leadership roles, including director of IIT Patna (2015–20), president of the Association for Computational Linguistics (2016–17), and chair of the Bureau of Indian Standards’ AI Standardisation Committee.

His work has earned him numerous honours, including the Abdul Kalam National Fellowship, National Academy of Engineering fellowship, and recognition as an AI Disruptor in AIM’s global list.

Currently leading the Computation For Indian Language Technology (CFILT) lab at IIT Bombay, he also chairs the RBI’s FREE-AI ethical AI panel, shaping India’s fintech AI guidelines. Bhattacharyya’s vision continues to bridge India’s linguistic diversity and AI progress, making technology smarter, more sensitive, and truly inclusive.

S Anand

LLM Psychologist, Straive

Expertise: Data Science

Anand is an LLM psychologist at Straive. He co-founded Gramener, a data science company that tells visual data stories, which was later acquired by Straive. Recognised as one of India’s top 10 data scientists, Anand is a regular speaker at TEDx, PyCon, and other global forums where he champions the power of storytelling with data.

A gold medalist at IIM Bangalore, he also holds a degree in electrical engineering from IIT Madras. Anand’s professional journey spans institutions like London Business School, IBM, Infosys Consulting, Lehman Brothers, and the Boston Consulting Group. Over the years, he has built over 200 data applications and mentored hundreds of analysts and designers, helping them blend analytics with empathy and design.

Anand is also a prolific writer and educator, with a passion for simplifying complex ideas—especially in the areas of data communication, automation, and productivity. Outside of work, he brings the same obsessive energy to his personal interests. He has hand-transcribed every Calvin & Hobbes strip ever made, is addicted to anime, and maintains an elaborate personal wiki to track everything he learns—from productivity hacks to movies watched. He dreams of watching every single film on the IMDb Top 250 list (except The Shining). He codes for fun, automates nearly every aspect of his life.

Urbasi Sinha

Head of Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) Laboratory, Raman Research Institute

Expertise: Quantum Information Science, Photonic Quantum Computing, Satellite-Based Quantum Research

Urbasi Sinha, a professor leading the Quantum Information and Computing (QuIC) lab at the Raman Research Institute, is catalysing India’s quantum revolution. Combining experimental finesse with visionary leadership, she pioneered the development of entangled and heralded single-photon sources, cornerstones for quantum computing, secure communications, and photonics‑driven deep tech.

A Gates Cambridge scholar whose journey from Cambridge to Bengaluru and Canada reflects her global impact, she’s spearheaded India’s first satellite‑based quantum communication project with ISRO and guided the National Quantum Mission.

Sinha’s career is studded with accolades, from the ICTP‑ICO Denardo Award (2018) to the Canada Excellence Research Chair and the recent Gates‑Cambridge Impact Prize (2025). Colleagues describe her ethos as deeply personal, a blend of scientific rigour and a desire to inspire young minds. Whether in labs or classrooms, Sinha breathes passion into quantum deep tech, forging breakthroughs and nurturing a future-ready ecosystem.

V Kamakoti

Director, IIT Madras

Expertise: Microprocessors

At IITMadras, a quiet revolution is underway, and V Kamakoti, director since January 2022, is the one steering it. A researcher-turned-leader, Kamakoti has threaded AI, microprocessors, and interdisciplinary education into the very fabric of the institute.

He’s best known for leading the design of SHAKTI, India’s first indigenously developed RISC‑V microprocessor, a milestone in semiconductor self-reliance, now powering startups and defence-grade systems.

In his role, Kamakoti has championed responsible AI, ethics, and “hyper‑automation” in governance, ensuring that technology remains accountable.

Inside campus walls, he’s expanded IIT‑M’s curriculum to include online learning, interdisciplinary electives, and humanistic studies, blending tech and humanities for a holistic education.

Under his leadership, the institute launched new BTech programs in computational engineering and mechanics, instrumentation and biomedical engineering, integrating AI and computational tools directly into core engineering fields.

Kamakoti’s accolades include the Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship, IBM Faculty Award, DRDO Academic Excellence Award, and the IESA Techno Visionary Award.

With over 150 publications, a seat on the National Security Advisory Board, and a vision that spans chips to communities, Kamakoti is not just shaping IIT Madras; he’s shaping India’s future in semiconductor innovation, AI, and inclusive education.

V Ramgopal Rao

Group Vice‑Chancellor, BITS Pilani

Expertise: FinFET Technology, Nanoelectronics

At the heart of India’s semiconductor and nanoelectronics renaissance stands V Ramgopal Rao, currently serving as the group vice‑chancellor of BITS Pilani and former director of IIT Delhi (2016–2021). He has authored over 480 research papers and holds more than 50 patents, including 20 issued in the US, with 15 licensed for commercial use.

Under his guidance, IIT Delhi earned the prestigious Institution of Eminence status in 2018 and launched India’s first Global Alumni Endowment Fund, which was kick-started with ₹265 crore. Since moving to BITS Pilani in 2023, he has overseen the expansion of campuses nationwide.

He’s a driving force in practical tech innovation, co-founding startups like Nanosniff and Soilsens, and leading the centre of excellence in Nanoelectronics. He has also worked on improving slew rate in FinFET-based technology. His accolades include India’s top science honours, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2005) and Infosys Prize (2013), along with over 30 national and international awards.

A fellow of IEEE and India’s major science academies, Rao also served on editorial boards (including IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices) and contributed to industry and policy forums. From pioneering nanoelectronics to nurturing India’s next-gen tech institutes, V Ramgopal Rao’s journey blends top-tier research, leadership, and a passion for innovation that shapes both education and industry.

L Venkata Subramaniam

Quantum India Lead, IBM

Expertise: Quantum Computing, Neuro-Symbolic AI, Big Data Strategy

L Venkata Subramaniam is a trailblazer in the fields of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, boasting an impressive career that spans over 20 years. With a knack for innovation, he has made significant contributions to the development of cutting-edge AI products and holds an astounding 38 patents. His work hasn’t gone unnoticed; his groundbreaking research has earned over 3,300 citations in top scientific journals.

As a recognised Master Inventor and a proud recipient of multiple IBM Technical Awards, Subramaniam has paved the way in areas like neuro-symbolic AI, noisy text analytics, and quantum AI/ML. He played a crucial role in shaping IBM’s Global Technology Outlook and was instrumental in coining the term “Veracity” as the fourth V of Big Data, truly a game-changer!

With a PhD from IIT Delhi, Venkata is not just a thinker but a mentor, dedicated to nurturing the next generation of researchers. His collaborations with leading academic institutions aim to establish India as a powerhouse in quantum technologies. Subramaniam’s journey is not just about personal achievement; it’s about lifting others and contributing to a future brimming with possibilities.

Startups Ecosystem

Abhinav Raghuvanshi

Associate Director at Zepto

Expertise: Data Engineering, Scalable Analytics

Abhinav Raghuvanshi is the technical engineer behind Zepto’s lightning‑fast delivery promise. A seasoned data professional and IIT‑Delhi alumnus, he’s led the transformation of Zepto’s data platform from monolithic warehouses to a modern hybrid lakehouse. This shift is powered by S3, Kafka, Databricks, and ClickHouse, enabling real-time insights across operations.

At AIM’s Data Engineering Summit 2025, Raghuvanshi revealed how ClickHouse has become Zepto’s “real‑time nerve centre”, with critical metrics like inventory levels, delivery logistics, and fridge temperatures refreshing in milliseconds, fueling precision decisions like instant restocking.

This architecture now supports over 400 analysts with low‑code, SQL‑friendly tools, empowering business teams to generate insights independently. Before his tenure at Zepto, Raghuvanshi built data infrastructure at Uber, Pickrr, and UnitedHealth Group, refining his ability to scale platform performance and reliability.

His work not only underpins Zepto’s 10-minute delivery model but also helps drive the quick-commerce giant’s ongoing AI-enabled evolution, making rapid, data-driven action a core business capability.

Ankush Sabharwal

CEO, CoRover

Expertise: Conversational AI

Ankush Sabharwal, a national award-winning tech entrepreneur and CEO of CoRover.ai, is leading an innovative effort, guiding the top GenAI-powered, human-centric conversational AI platform that supports over one billion users. He initiated the groundbreaking BharatGPT project, India’s first large language model. His mission is to leverage technology to transform businesses and improve lives.

With 20 years of experience in SaaS product development and leadership across startups and MNCs in India, North America, and Europe (including the UK and France), Sabharwal has generated multi-million-dollar revenues and led teams of up to 1,200 professionals.

Honoured as Innovator of the Year (2024), Entrepreneur of the Year, and ranked among the Top 10 AI Influencers worldwide, Sabharwal has over 20 years of extensive IT experience across India, the US, and Europe. He holds an MS in software engineering from BITS Pilani and an MBA, showcasing his dedication to excellence in both technology and business.

At CoRover, he oversees key areas including strategy, product management, R&D, engineering, customer success, operational excellence, marketing, sales, GTM, alliances, partnerships, and fundraising.

Ashutosh Prakash Singh

Co‑Founder & CEO, RevRag.AI

Expertise: Voice Agents, Fintech, AI‑powered Sales, Revenue Workflows

Ashutosh Singh is steering RevRag.AI to revolutionise how banks, NBFCs, fintechs, and insurers engage and onboard customers through intelligent, voice-driven AI agents. Backed by pre-seed funding ($600,000) from investors like Kunal Shah, Premal Shah and Viral Bajaria, Singh is charting a deliberate path, and “not quitting India” despite long enterprise sales cycles, aiming for his first $1million in ARR from the country, scaling to $10 million by blending operations in India and the US.

At the heart of RevRag’s offering are agentic AI models like ‘Emma’ and omnichannel orchestration systems that guide users during onboarding, resolve document issues, reduce drop-offs, and boost completion rates within apps. Singh bridges product leadership and GTM expertise, combining prior roles in fintech automation (6sense, Slintel) to tailor AI agents that solve real-time problems in the BFSI sector.

Driven by persistence and deep domain insight, Singh is building India’s first truly embedded voice‑AI platform that helps financial institutions scale customer journeys efficiently and personally.

Bhavish Aggarwal

CEO at Ola & Krutrim

Expertise: Indic LLMs, Mobility

When India started dreaming big about homegrown AI, Bhavish Aggarwal didn’t just listen from the sidelines. He built the tools from the ground up. The co‑founder and CEO of Ola Consumer, and founder of Ola Electric and Ola Krutrim, Aggarwal is steering India’s shift toward self-reliant and culturally attuned artificial intelligence.

Under his leadership, Krutrim has launched Kruti, India’s first multilingual agentic AI assistant, supporting over 13 Indian languages and set to expand to all 22 official languages.

At the 2024 Sankalp event in Bengaluru, he unveiled plans for India’s first homegrown AI chips—Bodhi‑1 by 2026, followed by Bodhi‑2 by 2028 and announced a roadmap to establish a 1-GW data centre by 2028.

Aggarwal’s message is bold: build AI in Bhartiya languages, rooted in local data, and make it accessible to all Indians. He’s also deployed powerful open-source models like DeepSeek‑R1 at just ₹1 per million tokens to democratise AI access. From mobility to AI infrastructure, Aggarwal is transforming Ola into a powerhouse of AI innovation, proving that India can pioneer not just in usage but in creation.

Dr Charit Bhograj

Founder & CEO, Tricog Health

Expertise: MedTech, AI for Healthcare, Cardiology, General Medicine

Dr Charit Bhograj is a leading interventional cardiologist in Bengaluru with over two decades of experience. He’s a consultant at Manipal Hospitals, known for handling complex cardiac conditions. Apart from his clinical practice, Dr Bhograj founded and leads Tricog Health, a pioneering medtech company established in 2014.

Recognising a major gap in healthcare that resulted in millions of deaths, he established Tricog Health, one of the world’s leading health AI companies. It leverages cutting-edge technology for quick diagnosis and management of heart disease.

Tricog utilises AI and human expertise for remote cardiac diagnosis, having screened over 27 million patients and identified more than 9.5 lakh critical cardiac cases globally.

Dr Bhograj is a respected figure in both cardiology and health technology. He’s an active member of top cardiology societies and contributes significantly to medical writing and research. He completed his MBBS in Bijapur, followed by an MD in general medicine in Belgaum, and a DM in cardiology in Chennai.

CP Gurnani

Co-Founder & Vice Chairman, AIonOS

Expertise: Technology Leadership, Digital Transformation, AI Platforms

CP Gurnani is recognised as one of the most influential figures in global technology. As the co-founder and vice chairman of AIonOS, Gurnani is shaping the future of AI to solve real-world challenges, making businesses smarter, greener, and more sustainable.

From leading the revival of Satyam Computer Services, one of the most iconic corporate turnarounds in Indian history, to driving Tech Mahindra’s transformation into a digital powerhouse, Gurnani’s leadership journey is a playbook in vision, resilience, and execution.

The Satyam story, now studied at Harvard Business School, was about proving that bold, values-led leadership can rewrite the rules. He carried that transformation mindset into every role, including at HCL Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, and Perot Systems, where he led large-scale digital initiatives and set new standards in operational excellence.

He has represented India in several of the Prime Minister’s international CEO delegations, helping position the country as a global technology leader and forging impactful cross-border partnerships.

His vision is bold yet grounded: technology must work for people, not the other way around. At AionOS, he’s turning that vision into action, creating platforms that solve real-world problems and create lasting value across industries.

Debdoot Mukherjee

Chief Data Scientist, Head of AI and Demand Engineering at Meesho

Expertise: Machine Learning, Data Analytics

Debdoot Mukherjee is the chief data scientist and head of AI at Meesho, leading the development and implementation of AI strategies that enhance every aspect of the e-commerce marketplace. Under his leadership, AI and machine learning technologies at Meesho drive personalised product recommendations to boost demand, assist suppliers in effective product cataloguing and pricing, and optimise supply chain operations to improve fulfilment efficiency.

With over 15 years of experience, Mukherjee has a rich background in building innovative AI products across social, mobile, and e-commerce domains. Before joining Meesho, he served as vice president and head of AI at ShareChat and Moj, where he spearheaded initiatives in recommender systems, multimodal learning, and advanced camera technologies. He also established the AI team at Hike Messenger, developing pioneering methods for conversational modelling in Indic languages and large-scale social graph mining.

Earlier in his career, Mukherjee led machine learning efforts at Myntra, focusing on personalised search, product discovery, and marketing intelligence. He began his professional journey at IBM Research, specialising in enterprise search and information extraction. Mukherjee holds a master’s degree in computer science and engineering from IIT Delhi, graduating as a gold medallist.

His expertise and leadership continue to influence the growth of AI capabilities in India’s dynamic tech ecosystem, particularly in advancing AI-driven efficiencies within e-commerce platforms.

Dipanjan Dey

CEO & Co-Founder, Kombai

Expertise: Generative UI‑to‑Code AI, Product & Ops Strategy, Tech Startup Leadership

Dipanjan Dey is the CEO and co-founder of Kombai, the first AI agent for front-end development. With domain-specific tooling and model optimisations, Kombai significantly outperforms general-purpose coding agents on front-end tasks. Kombai also raised a $4.5 million seed round from Foundry Group Capital.

Dey boasts a remarkable career in the tech industry, marked by innovation and strategic leadership. At Kombai, he took the helm in developing a cutting-edge Figma-to-code tool that garnered widespread acclaim, ultimately being recognised as Product Hunt’s #1 developer tool of the year. This achievement showcases his ability to marry creative design with practical software solutions, making a significant impact on developers everywhere.

Prior to his tenure at Kombai, Dey was a driving force in product and strategy at MindTickle, a dynamic SaaS unicorn renowned for its groundbreaking approach to sales readiness. His role there allowed him to refine his strategic acumen while navigating the complexities of a rapidly evolving market. Dey’s journey in the tech world began with a passion for product development, where he discovered his knack for transforming visionary ideas into tangible successes, setting the stage for a truly impressive career path in strategy consulting.

Ganesh Gopalan

Co-Founder & CEO, Gnani.ai

Expertise: Voice-First Conversational AI, Agentic Automation

Ganesh Gopalan is the co-founder and CEO of Gnani.ai, a voice-first conversational AI company focused on building secure, multilingual automation for enterprises. With over 25 years of experience at IBM and Texas Instruments, he brings deep technical and business expertise to India’s AI ecosystem.

A graduate of the Indian School of Business, Gopalan has spent his career on research and real-world application, specialising in speech recognition, embedded systems, and secure AI deployments. Gopalan is an advocate for responsible AI in enterprise use, particularly in sensitive sectors like finance and healthcare.

Backed by Samsung Ventures and InfoEdge Ventures, his company has helped financial clients automate millions of interactions and recover over $2 billion in just six months. Gopalan’s mission is clear: to combine research and real-world impact, making India a hub for globally competitive AI.

Laina Emmanuel

CEO, Brainsight AI

Expertise: AI in 3D Visualisation, Neuroscience

Laina Emmanuel is a seasoned healthcare leader and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience spanning healthcare management, policy, consulting, technology, and international development. Holding an MBA in healthcare from the Indian School of Business (ISB), she has leveraged her expertise to advise the government of India and high-impact organisations such as the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

Beginning her career as a systems programmer at NetApp and the Offshore Development Centre of Cisco at Infosys, Emmanuel gained deep technical knowledge, building products impacting millions. Transitioning into international development, she worked as an independent consultant on public health and education policy, focusing on sustainable, ethical solutions.

Driven by a passion for systemic change, Emmanuel founded Brainsight AI, a company developing AI and 3D visualisation-based products aimed at improving the diagnosis and prognosis of neuropsychiatric disorders. Her multifaceted background combines technology, policy, and business with a commitment to building impactful, ethically grounded innovations in healthcare.

Emmanuel’s work exemplifies the intersection of cutting-edge technology and meaningful social impact, positioning her as a pioneering figure in AI-driven healthcare solutions.

Madhav Krishna

CEO, Vahan AI

Expertise: Recruitment, Social Impact, Scalable Tech Solutions

Madhav Krishna is a visionary entrepreneur leading the way in leveraging artificial intelligence to foster social change in India. As the founder and CEO of Vahan AI, he has pioneered one of the country’s most impactful job-matching platforms, designed specifically to connect blue-collar workers with employment opportunities.

Educated at institutions like Columbia University and backed by stints in global tech ecosystems, Krishna chose to return to India to tackle one of its most pressing challenges: unemployment in the informal sector. Under his leadership, Vahan AI has facilitated over 3 million job placements, leveraging AI to break down traditional barriers to employment, such as a lack of formal education, weak professional networks, and geographic isolation.

What sets Krishna apart is not just his technical fluency but his unwavering focus on inclusivity. At a time when AI is often built for elite or enterprise use, Krishna is using it to serve the underserved. His machine learning systems intelligently parse user behaviour, preferences, and skills even when input is minimal or unstructured, to match job seekers with roles in delivery services, retail, logistics, and BPOs.

Krishna is part of a new wave of Indian tech founders reimagining what AI can do, not just as a driver of efficiency or profit, but as a tool for empowerment. His work reflects a grounded vision of technology that uplifts rather than excludes, making him a standout leader in India’s AI landscape.

Mahesh Kumar

Founder & CEO, Tiger Analytics

Expertise: Advanced Analytics, Management Science

Mahesh Kumar is the visionary founder and CEO of Tiger Analytics, a global leader in AI and advanced analytics consulting. Since founding the company in 2011, Kumar has been the driving force behind Tiger Analytics’ remarkable growth, transforming it from a startup into a trusted partner for Fortune 1000 companies across multiple industries worldwide.

With deep expertise in management science and a passion for leveraging AI to solve complex business challenges, Kumar has built Tiger Analytics into a premier analytics firm known for innovation, customer-centricity, and AI excellence. His strategic business acumen and leadership have been instrumental in expanding Tiger’s footprint across the US, Canada, India, Singapore, the UK, and Australia—delivering exponential revenue growth and establishing long-term client partnerships.

Before founding Tiger Analytics, Kumar was a faculty member at the Smith School of Business and Rutgers Business School, where his research in data mining and statistical modelling provided actionable insights on critical business problems, including forecasting, pricing, promotions, and customer segmentation. This academic foundation continues to influence Tiger’s data-driven approach to solving real-world challenges.

He holds a PhD in operations research and marketing from MIT and a BTech in computer science from IIT Bombay.

Mayank Singh

Assistant Professor, IIT Gandhinagar

Expertise: NLP, Multilingual AI, AI for Social Impact

Mayank Singh is an assistant professor at IIT Gandhinagar, recognised for his pioneering work in low-resource and Indic language technologies. Singh played a key role in building BLOOM, the world’s largest open-access multilingual language model, and leads the development of the Ganga small language models for secure, offline use. His team is now spearheading data curation for EKA, India’s largest multilingual AI model initiative.

Singh, a collaborator with Soket AI Labs, is also the creator of foundational datasets like CoMI-LINGUA and TabLeX, and has developed public tools such as Gandhipedia and GurukulAI. A founding member of IndoML and host of India’s first ACM Summer School on Generative AI, Singh combines technical depth with community engagement. His mentorship of 100+ BTech students—many published at top AI conferences—has redefined undergraduate research in India.

With ₹8.6 crore in grants and deep industry ties, Singh is advancing inclusive, indigenous AI aligned with national priorities.

Naveen Tewari

Founder & CEO at InMobi, Glance

Expertise: Advertising & Technology, Consumer Intelligence, Digital Transformation

Naveen Tewari is an Indian tech leader and entrepreneur, best known for founding InMobi in 2007 and later launching Glance, both built around cutting-edge AI technologies. A graduate of IIT Kanpur with an MBA from Harvard Business School, he led InMobi to become India’s first unicorn and positioned it as a global mobile advertising powerhouse.

Tewari is now driving an AI-first strategy, including a massive $200 million investment in generative AI for InMobi’s ad tech and Glance commerce platforms. He has boldly predicted that AI could automate up to 80% of coding tasks by year-end, urging engineers to upskill. Under his leadership, Glance has partnered with Google Cloud to integrate generative AI through Gemini and Android, creating real-time, personalised experiences for over 400 million users.

Tewari has played a key role in supporting around 30 start-ups across India, personally investing in and mentoring ventures including NestAway, SlideRule, Mettl, Moneysights, Bombay Canteen, Zimmber, and Razorpay. He is a firm believer that start-ups will drive India’s future growth. He co-founded iSPIRT—a think tank and change agent focused on shaping government policy, creating market enablers and nurturing product entrepreneurs. Through this initiative, he aims to help transform India into a global hub for next-generation software products.

Pranav Mistry

CEO, TWO AI

Expertise: Multilingual LLMs

It’s rare to encounter someone who blurs the lines between imagination and invention—Pranav Mistry does it effortlessly. Born in Palanpur, Gujarat, in 1981, Mistry first gained global attention with SixthSense, a wearable gestural interface that merges digital information with the physical world. He earned a master’s degree in design from IIT Bombay, followed by an MS and PhD at MIT’s Media Lab.

After stints as a UX researcher at Microsoft, NASA, Google, UNESCO and CMU, he joined Samsung in 2012 as director of research. There, he led innovations like the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, Project Beyond, and the NEON AI avatars. In 2019, he became president and CEO of Samsung STAR Labs, continuing to push the boundaries of AR and AI.

In 2021, he founded TWO, an artificial‑reality startup that launched SUTRA, a multilingual large‑language model supporting over 50 languages, with a focus on compact, value-driven AI. His work earned him global accolades, including MIT’s TR35 Innovator Under 35, Popular Science’s Invention of the Year, and recognition as a Young Global Leader by WEF.

Prashant Warier

Co-Founder & CEO, Qure.ai

Expertise: Data Science Solutions, Deep Learning

Prashant Warier is the co-founder and CEO of Qure.ai, one of the world’s leading medical imaging AI companies. Under his leadership, Qure.ai’s innovative AI-driven diagnostic solutions have been deployed in over 100 countries, revolutionising medical imaging accessibility and efficiency globally.

With over two decades of experience in data science and technology, Warier has developed and commercialised numerous AI applications across diverse industries. He holds more than 30 patents and has contributed research published in prestigious scientific journals, including The Lancet and Nature. In recognition of his groundbreaking work in COVID-19 diagnostics, Warier received the Forbes India Leadership Award for Innovation in 2021.

Warier is also a prominent advocate for AI in healthcare, regularly speaking at international forums and conferences. He is driven by a vision to make healthcare more affordable and universally accessible through technology.

He holds a PhD and MS in operations research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

Pratik Desai

Founder, Kissan AI

Expertise: Agritech, Semantic Web, Computer Science

Pratik Desai is a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur, computer scientist, and the founder of KissanAI, a pioneering agritech startup transforming agriculture with generative AI. Born into a farming family in Gujarat, Desai leveraged his expertise in artificial intelligence, semantic web, and knowledge extraction to develop platforms that make advanced technology accessible to underserved farming communities.

He holds a PhD in engineering and has previously co-founded multiple technology ventures in Silicon Valley. As founder and CEO of KissanAI, Desai pioneered KissanGPT, a breakthrough voice-based generative AI copilot that supports Indic languages and helps overcome literacy and language barriers in agriculture.

He continued this innovation with the Dhenu series, the world’s first agriculture-specific large language models and among the first fine-tuned models developed in the country. Currently, he is focused on building an agentic agriculture knowledge platform that connects agribusinesses with farmers, enabling highly accurate and impactful use cases across the sector.

Praveer Kochhar

Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, KOGO AI

Expertise: Agentic Solutions, Retail

Praveer Kochhar is building AI for sectors where control, compliance, and confidentiality aren’t optional. As the co-founder and chief product officer at KOGO AI, he is leading the charge on private AI—agent-based systems that operate entirely within enterprise infrastructure.

A firm believer in practical, secure AI deployment, Kochhar is championing agentic AI intelligent agents that can be securely embedded across critical workflows in sectors like defence, BFSI, and healthcare.

Under his leadership, KOGO AI claims to have become the first platform to implement agentic AI solutions for the Indian Army, operating entirely within the Army’s secure infrastructure without any data leaving the premises.

To accelerate such deployments across industries, Kochhar and his team developed KOGO OS, a low-to-no-code platform that allows enterprises to build and manage custom AI agents across on-premises, hybrid, or secure cloud environments.

What began in 2018 as a travel-focused AI product has grown into a horizontal enterprise platform, now powering agentic automation at scale. For Kochhar, the goal is to simplify AI adoption and give enterprises full ownership of their models, agents, and data stacks.

Raghu Dharmaraju

CEO, ARTPARK at the Indian Institute of Science

Expertise: Equitable AI, Deep-Tech Innovation, Public Impact

Raghu Dharmaraju has spent over two decades building deep-technology products, public infrastructure, and award-winning medical technology solutions with enduring impact. Now leading AI and Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) at the Indian Institute of Science, he helped launch initiatives like the Medical Imaging Datasets for India system and real-time outbreak prediction platforms covering 80 million people.

Dharmaraju is a two-time Global Grand Challenge winner for equitable AI and winner of the Google AI Impact Challenge. He co-founded the national tuberculosis initiative TRACE-TB at Wadhwani AI, raising approximately $20 million from global donors. Dharmaraju is a veteran of the tech-for-good space and was instrumental in starting the ‘AI for social good’ movement as a founding leader at Wadhwani AI. His Embrace Infant Warmers reached over one million babies via the World Health Organisation and governments.

With academic foundations from IIT Madras, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Cornell University, Dharmaraju has shaped national AI programmes with partners like the Indian Council of Medical Research, NITI Aayog and Google. His work bridges policy, research and social scale.

Rishabjit Singh

Co-Founder & CTO, Attentive.ai

Expertise: Cloud Infrastructure, DevOps

Rishabjit Singh’s journey in AI began at IIT Delhi, where he studied electrical engineering with a focus on robotics from 2013 to 2017. At IIT, he played an active role in the Robotics Club, which helped shape his early interest in sensing and autonomy.

After completing a summer internship at Adobe in 2016, he joined the company full-time in 2017 as a member of technical staff and advanced to senior member by early 2019.

He joined Attentive.ai the same year as a software product engineer, quickly moving into leadership roles. By 2021, he became the VP of technology, overseeing computer vision research and engineering teams. In March 2022, he was named the CTO and continues to guide product development, AI research, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps operations. Attentive.ai builds Vision-AI platforms, including Automeasure, Accelerate, and Beam AI. These tools automate manual takeoffs and sales workflows in the field services and construction industries, serving over 500 companies in North America. In a second tranche of SeriesA funding in January, the company raised $12million to expand its capability and market reach.

Ritwika Chowdhury

Founder & CEO, Unscript.ai

Expertise: Agentic Solutions, Generative Media, Digital Marketing

Ritwika Chowdhury is the driving force behind Unscript.ai, which the company claims is the world’s first AI creative video agent. Her platform empowers brands, from D2C and BFSI to marketing agencies, to generate studio-quality videos in under two minutes using only a product link and a brief. Whether it’s a PDP lifestyle shoot, an influencer-style UGC video, or a performance ad, Unscript replaces complex shoots and editing with a straightforward AI workflow.

It automates everything: scripting, visuals, AI avatars, audio, transitions and subtitles, drastically reducing time and cost while preserving creative control. Under Chowdhury’s leadership, Unscript has partnered with over 100 brands globally, delivering personalised videos that drive engagement and conversion. The technology has outperformed competitors like Google Vlogger and OpenAI’s Sora by converting a single image into a fully expressive video, with lifelike movements, voice and emotion.

An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur with a strong foundation in generative AI research and patents, she combines deep technical expertise with a product vision. Thanks to her innovation, Unscript is transforming video marketing with scalable, ethical AI workflows that let creativity soar in minutes.

Sanket Shah

CEO, InVideo

Expertise: Video Production, SaaS Scaling

Sanket Shah is the driving force behind InVideo, India’s fast‑growing AI-first video platform. Founded in 2017, InVideo began as a browser‑based video editor before Shah led a pivot to generative AI in mid‑2023. That propelled the company from stagnation to $70 million in annual recurring revenue by early 2025.

Under his leadership, InVideo has become a go-to platform for content creators, marketers, and entrepreneurs, helping generate over 100 million videos across 190 countries. The company utilises generative media, a vast stock library, and prompt-based workflows to enable professional-grade video creation without requiring technical expertise.

Shah fosters a “hacker mindset” culture, valuing rapid iteration, ownership and autonomy over hierarchy, to stay ahead in a competitive AI landscape. His vision centres on simplifying video storytelling for everyone, making content creation as accessible as writing, and potentially positioning InVideo as India’s next billion‑dollar SaaS story.

Soham Ganatra

Founder, Composio

Expertise: Agentic Solution, Risk & Fraud Intelligence

Soham Ganatra is a seasoned leader with deep expertise in engineering and product management. He is the founder of Composio, a company he launched in June 2023 to build tooling that enhances how AI agents interact with software applications, bridging the gap between automation and real-world usability.

Before founding Composio, Ganatra played a pivotal role at Bureau, Inc as a founding engineer and technical product manager. There, he spearheaded the development of a no-code risk orchestration platform and launched a full-fledged risk API, enabling smarter and more scalable risk management for enterprises.

Ganatra also co-founded Darkhorse Capital, where he focused on trading infrastructure and quantamental investment strategies. Earlier, he co-founded Cogno AI, a customer service automation startup that served large enterprises with AI-powered support solutions.

His professional journey includes stints in quantitative research and internships at leading firms like Indeed.com and American Express, reflecting his strong grounding in data-driven technologies.

Ganatra holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, where he studied from 2013 to 2017.

Tamaswati Ghosh

CEO, IIT Madras Incubation Cell

Expertise: Molecular Biophysics, Biochemistry & Mathematics

Tamaswati Ghosh leads the IIT Madras Incubation Cell (IITMIC) as chief executive officer. She joined the founding team more than a decade ago, helping shape it into India’s leading deep‑tech startup hub. Her journey began with a degree in engineering, followed by early roles in technology-driven startups.

At IITMIC, she built programs to help nascent ventures transform lab‑scale science into market‑ready products. Under her leadership, the cell launched incubator facilities, secured funding partnerships, and introduced mentoring networks linking researchers, engineers, and investors.

Ghosh also championed innovation across sectors, ranging from clean energy to advanced materials. She created workshops, investment forums, and exchange programs that helped dozens of startups scale. Her efforts contributed to the creation of spin‑offs that address challenges in healthcare, climate, and manufacturing.

In her work, she bridges academic research and industry application, guiding support structures that allow deep‑tech teams to validate their ideas and access markets. Alongside core incubation functions, she fosters policy dialogue with government and industry bodies to improve the national innovation ecosystem.

Umakant Soni

Chairman, AI Foundry

Expertise: Deep Tech, Policy, GenAI, Robotics

Umakant Soni is an influential force in India’s AI innovation landscape. As the chairman and co-founder of AI Foundry, he is building an India-first AI startup ecosystem focused on solving complex local problems. With a background in venture capital, research, and entrepreneurship, Soni has incubated and mentored several AI-driven startups across healthcare, fintech, and public governance. He has also co-founded ARTPARK and pi Ventures, a venture firm focused on AI/ML and IoT.

AI Foundry serves as both a product studio and a strategic think tank, pushing for a sovereign AI stack tailored to Indian use cases. Soni’s efforts have catalysed indigenous AI development, ensuring India becomes a creator, not just a consumer, of cutting-edge technologies.

Soni is deeply involved in AI ethics and policy discussions, advocating for responsible innovation. His work aligns startups, academia, and government towards a shared vision for AI-led inclusive growth. Recognised as a leading tech evangelist, Soni is committed to building AI capabilities that are globally competitive but rooted in Indian values and challenges.

51. Vishnu Subramanian

Founder & CEO, Jarvislabs.ai

Expertise: AI Infrastructure

When Vishnu Subramanian launched Jarvislabs.ai from Coimbatore in 2019, his goal was to make high-performance AI compute as easy to access as Google Search. With NVIDIA GPUs priced up to 70% lower than hyperscalers, his initiative with Jarvislabs.ai aimed at becoming the go-to cloud for researchers, startups, and enterprises seeking serious AI power without breaking the bank. Before launching Jarvislabs, he honed his skills as a Kaggle expert and continues to mentor young data scientists

Today, his platform can spin up fully-configured JupyterLab environments in as little as 10 seconds—no DevOps team required. Whether it’s Tesla, Meta, or Indian firms like Zoho and upGrad, customers rely on Subramanian’s platform to train large models without financial or technical bottlenecks. From a modest lab to a Tier 3.5 GPU cloud with global reach, the journey has been entirely bootstrapped and remarkably bold.

As a Kaggle expert, Subramanian brings a hands-on, builder’s mindset to creating solutions in India for the world. His one-click orchestration layer and low-capex model demonstrate that world-class infrastructure can be scaled without Silicon Valley roots.

Vivek Raghavan

Co-Founder, Sarvam AI

Expertise: Voice Indic LLMs

Long before generative AI became a buzzword in India, Vivek Raghavan was already laying the groundwork.

As a co‑founder of Sarvam AI, he’s building India’s own full‑stack generative AI ecosystem, launching foundational models like Sarvam2B and OpenHathi tailored for Indian languages. His impact runs deep in the country’s digital DNA. Raghavan was the chief product manager and biometric architect at UIDAI, playing a pivotal role in architecting Aadhaar, the world’s largest identity system, and integrating AI to boost accuracy and prevent fraud.

As a mentor to AI4Bharat and an advisor to Bhashini, he has championed the use of open-source datasets, models, and benchmarks that support India’s linguistic diversity. In 2025, Raghavan earned a DLitt for his work in digital public infrastructure, spanning Aadhaar, GST, UPI, language AI, and judicial translation systems.

He continues to shape India’s future with Sarvam AI, where the mission is clear: build generative AI that speaks India’s languages, serves its needs, and scales responsibly.

Big Tech and IT

Akash Mukesh Ambani

Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL)

Expertise: Digital Transformation, Telecommunications, Consumer Technology, Public Platforms

Akash Ambani is the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm and a driving force behind India’s digital transformation. He joined Reliance Jio in 2014 as a non-executive director and was appointed chairman in June 2022. Since then, he has led the company’s strategic push into next-generation technologies, including 5G, AI, blockchain, and IoT, with a vision to revolutionise commerce, education, and healthcare in India.

At the 2023 Techfest at IIT Bombay, Ambani announced Jio’s collaboration with the institute to develop Bharat GPT, an indigenous large language model inspired by ChatGPT, marking a significant step in India’s AI journey. He also unveiled plans for a proprietary smart TV operating system as part of the broader Jio 2.0 strategy aimed at redefining the digital ecosystem.

Further advancing Jio’s AI capabilities, he spearheaded the development of a gigawatt-scale AI data centre in Jamnagar, powered by NVIDIA GPUs. This facility is designed to deliver GPU-as-a-service and cloud-PC solutions, solidifying Jio’s position at the forefront of the AI infrastructure in India.

Arundhati Bhattacharya

President and CEO, Salesforce South Asia

Expertise: CRM, Digital Banking, Corporate Governance

Arundhati Bhattacharya, former chairperson of SBI and president and CEO, Salesforce South Asia, sees AI as India’s ‘fire’, capable of transforming everything, but also warns that it needs responsible oversight. In January 2025, she was honoured with the Padma Shri in recognition of her transformative role in trade, industry, banking, and technology.

Bhattacharya made history as the first woman to chair the State Bank of India (2013–2017), where she led multiple digital innovations, including the merger of SBI’s associate banks, the launch of the YONO digital platform, and the introduction of AI and robotics for credit and risk assessment. Under her leadership, SBI weathered major reforms, including the 2016 demonetisation.

In 2020, she embraced a bold pivot, becoming the CEO and chairperson of Salesforce India and South Asia. Since then, she has spearheaded rapid growth, expanding the workforce fivefold, establishing a community of over two million trailblazers, forging deep partnerships with colleges, and championing AI-powered CRM adoption across industries.

A respected voice on digital equity, Bhattacharya often speaks of AI as “a social equaliser” that can bring quality services to all Indians.

Jaya Jagadish

Country Head & Senior Vice President, AMD India

Expertise: Silicon Design Engineering

Jaya Jagadish is the country head of AMD India and senior vice president of silicon design engineering, leading one of AMD’s largest global design centres. Under her leadership, the team has grown from a small engineering team to a design centre of over 9,000 strong engineers.

Jagadish stands as a transformative leader in the global semiconductor industry landscape. At a time when engineering design work in India was limited, Jagadish was a trailblazer, assembling and mentoring a high-performance team at AMD. Under her leadership, the India design centre has expanded significantly, playing a pivotal role in AMD’s global product roadmap across CPUs, GPUs, SoCs, and AI.

Today, AMD is well-positioned to address the AI market with a comprehensive portfolio offering end-to-end solutions that integrate both advanced hardware and optimised software to power AI infrastructure at scale. Under Jagadish’s leadership, there is a strong focus on upskilling employees in AI and emerging technologies, ensuring the workforce is future-ready and aligned with the evolving demands of the industry.

Beyond AMD, she has been actively working with the government of India in shaping the country’s semiconductor policy and ecosystem. As chairperson of the Semiconductor Talent Building Committee under the India Semiconductor Mission, Jagadish collaborated with government and industry stakeholders to position India as a global hub for semiconductor talent.

Kalika Bali

Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research India

Expertise: Inclusive NLP, Equitable AI

Kalika Bali is a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research Labs India, where she has dedicated nearly two decades to enhancing human-computer interactions through language technologies. Her focus lies in creating inclusive tech for a diverse range of languages and communities, especially those that are underrepresented. She is particularly interested in how foundational models like GPT can impact society, for better or worse.

Bali is a key member of the Project VeLLM (UniVersal Empowerment with Large Language Models) team, an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to enabling inclusive LLM applications across all languages and cultures
Her recent work navigates the crossroads of multilingual and multicultural AI, exploring how to use AI in a safe and responsible manner. She was on the first (2023) TIME100 AI list for her work on breaking down language barriers and fostering inclusivity in the AI sphere. More recently, she was named among the 30 Indian Minds Leading the AI Revolution by Forbes India.

Kamna Sama

CTO, Volkswagen Group Technology Solutions India

Expertise: AI in Automotive, Digital Transformation

Kamna Sama is the chief technology and information officer at Volkswagen Group Technology Solutions India, bringing over 20 years of cross-industry experience spanning pharmaceuticals, banking, manufacturing, ITES, telecom and agriculture.

Known for driving innovation, Sama specialises in leveraging technology to transform service delivery, streamline business operations, and lead product management initiatives.

Before joining Volkswagen, Sama held leadership roles, including IT director at Cummins and head of the manufacturing digital experience practice at TCS. She has a strong background in program management, presales, and launching new business initiatives. As an active member of the CII regional committee on digital transformation and AI, she continues to champion technology-led growth.

A computer science engineering graduate from the University of Mumbai, Sama now leads IT strategy and innovation for Volkswagen Group Technology Solutions India, which was established in 2016 in Pune. Her focus is on integrating advanced technologies to enhance efficiency and productivity while aligning with Volkswagen Group’s global IT vision.

Manish Gupta

Senior Director, Google DeepMind

Expertise: Foundational Models, Multilingual Systems

ManishGupta is a distinguished leader driving Google DeepMind’s research across India and Japan, passionately committed to building AI that’s both inclusive and impactful. Under his guidance, DeepMind’s India team made pivotal contributions to Gemini 2.5 Flash, a high-efficiency, low-latency model that delivers approximately five times better performance per dollar than its peers.

He previously founded Google Research India, dedicated to powering accessible AI that works on mobile, across India’s linguistic diversity, and in resource-constrained settings. His team spearheaded IndicGenBench, a benchmark covering 29 Indian languages, and developed modules that enable support for over 125 languages, including those with negligible digital presence.

A PhD graduate from UIUC, Gupta has led research efforts at IBM, Xerox, and VideoKen, authored over 75 papers, holds 19 US patents, and is a fellow of ACM and INAE. At DeepMind, he champions technologies like Gemini Nano and Matryoshka model architectures, ensuring AI scales efficiently from supercomputers to smartphones.

Gupta firmly believes that AI should augment human capabilities rather than replace them, empowering billions, especially underserved communities, to access transformative tools in health, agriculture, science, and other fields.

Narasimha M

Data Science Head, Myntra

Expertise: LLMs, NLP, Recommendation Systems, Explainable AI, LLMOps

After a game-changing stint at MakeMyTrip, leading the company’s AI initiatives, Narasimha M has recently taken on a new chapter as the head of data science at Myntra. Known for turning complex data problems into elegant, real-world solutions, Narasimha’s work has been instrumental in reshaping how millions of Indians discover and plan their travel.

At MakeMyTrip, he spearheaded the development of intelligent recommendation engines, real-time pricing models, and personalised travel experiences that made the platform smarter with every click. From optimising ad spend to predicting user intent across the booking journey, his AI systems drove both top-line growth and customer delight.

What sets Narasimha apart is his rare blend of technical depth and product intuition. He doesn’t just build models, he builds impact. A strong advocate for explainable AI and ethical model deployment, he’s often seen mentoring young data scientists, promoting the importance of context over complexity.

Now at Myntra, Narasimha is poised to bring this same magic to fashion tech, where style meets science, and personalisation is the new runway.

NR Narayana Murthy

Co-Founder, Infosys

Expertise: Corporate Governance, Advocacy, Software Systems, Global Delivery Model

NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys and a pioneering figure in India’s tech landscape, has emerged as a thoughtful voice on artificial intelligence. Known for his clarity and realism, Murthy warns against overhyping AI in India, urging a focus on true innovation over buzzwords. He views AI as a powerful tool to augment human productivity, rather than replace it, and utilises tools like ChatGPT to streamline his work.

Murthy laid the foundation for Infosys to evolve into a global technology services leader with the capability to embrace and invest in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. Under his early leadership, Infosys established a strong technological and ethical base that enabled it to later integrate AI into key service areas such as automation, customer support and data analytics

Murthy emphasises that AI will lead to job transformation, not destruction, creating new roles in complex problem-solving. He also advocates integrating AI education into university curricula to future-proof the workforce. At public forums, he consistently reminds audiences that while AI is valuable, the human mind remains the most powerful instrument.

Nikhil Malhotra

Chief Innovation Officer, Tech Mahindra

Expertise: Quantum Computing, Robotics, Emerging Technologies

With over 23 years of experience under his belt, Nikhil Malhotra serves as the chief innovation officer and global head of AI and emerging technologies at Tech Mahindra. He is also a World Economic Forum AI fellow, actively contributing to conversations on responsible AI and quantum ethics. A researcher at heart, Malhotra leads both the research direction and the business growth of AI and quantum computing within Tech Mahindra.

Malhotra has received numerous accolades, including the Innovation Congress Award for India’s Most Innovative Leader in 2020, 2021 and 2023. He is also a TEDx speaker and the author of the bestselling book ‘Courage: The Journey of an Innovator’. One of his standout contributions is Project Indus, Tech Mahindra’s Indic language LLM launched in 2021.

Malhotra holds a Master’s degree in computing with a specialisation in distributed computing from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. A passionate physicist, Malhotra lives in Pune with his wife Shalini and their sons, Angad and Rudra.

Pragya Misra

Public Policy & Partnerships Lead for India, OpenAI

Expertise: AI Governance, Policy Advocacy

Pragya Misra is OpenAI’s first employee in India, shaping the intersection of AI, policy, and society. Appointed in April 2024, she charges ahead, leading public policy and partnerships to bring OpenAI’s vision of safe and inclusive AI to the world’s second-largest ChatGPT user base.

Before OpenAI, Misra led public affairs at Truecaller, collaborating extensively with government, civil society, media, and investors to strengthen digital trust in India. Earlier, she was WhatsApp’s first hire in India, managing communications during major rollouts and misinformation crises, helping double its user base in the country.

She also co-founded a startup, holds an MBA from the International Management Institute (2012), and earned a Diploma in Bargaining and Negotiations from LSE, besides a commerce degree from Delhi University.

At OpenAI, she serves as the bridge between India’s digital ecosystem and AI’s global frontiers, advocating for affordable token pricing, multilingual tools, and AI applications tailored to sectors such as agriculture, education, and healthcare.

Misra’s influence extends beyond policy corridors. She hosts The Pragyaan Podcast, is a heartfulness meditation trainer, and was among India’s top‑ranked amateur golfers, representing the country internationally.

Prayank Swaroop

Investor, Accel

Expertise: AI, Cybersecurity, SaaS

Prayank Swaroop is an investor at Accel, focusing on cybersecurity, developer tools, marketplaces, and SaaS. He has leveraged his diverse experience from previous roles at Adobe and Standard Chartered Bank, where he worked across engineering, product marketing, pre-sales, and product management. Swaroop holds degrees from IIT Delhi and the Indian School of Business.

Known for his passion for coding, Swaroop actively builds practical products and prototypes using tools like Jupyter notebooks, Django, Supabase and Llama, although he prefers backend development over frontend technologies. Despite a demanding schedule engaging with founders, he enjoys hands-on product experimentation.

Swaroop values the skill of prioritisation, recognising the challenge of balancing numerous important tasks within a limited time. He advocates empowering teams and focusing on asking the right questions rather than micro-managing, continually refining his approach to effective leadership.

Outside of work, Swaroop humorously envisions innovations that blend utility with lifestyle—for instance, clothing that burns calories when worn. Based in Bengaluru, Swaroop contributes significantly to Accel’s portfolio and its evolving focus on emerging technologies in AI, cybersecurity, and SaaS.

Puneet Chandok

President, Microsoft (India & South Asia)

Expertise: Cloud, Offshoring, Consulting

At a time when AI is no longer confined to research labs and boardroom presentations but is becoming part of everyday conversations and chai breaks, Puneet Chandok is leading the charge in making AI accessible in India. Now heading Microsoft India and South Asia, Chandok has been quietly pushing AI into daily life, through partnerships with over 500 Indian companies and supporting language models that work across 20 Indian languages.

Since joining Microsoft in 2023, he’s focused on using AI not as a buzzword, but as a practical tool that helps organisations work smarter and people connect more meaningfully with technology. Calling 2025 the year of AI agents, he is optimistic about a future where AI doesn’t merely assist, but understands and collaborates.

Chandok believes in leading with empathy and from the heart. With a career spanning over 23 years, he has previously worked with companies like AWS, McKinsey and IBM, and now chairs the CII AI Council and sits on NASSCOM’s executive council.

Sanjay Nath

Co-Founder & Partner, Blume Venture Advisors

Expertise: Enterprise/SaaS, Emerging Technologies

Sanjay Nath and Karthik Reddy founded Blume in 2011. Sectorally, he focuses on enterprise/SaaS investments and also oversees Blume’s go-to-market platform initiatives. Nath has overseen investments in some of Blume’s leading portfolio companies, such as Grey Orange Robotics, Lambdatest, Locus, PixxelSpace, Yulu, Dataweave, Tricog, Sprinto, Minjar (acquired by Nutanix), Agaralabs (acquired by Coinbase) and TapChief (acquired by Unacademy), amongst others. He also represents Blume on the boards of Arka Venture Labs and the Draper Venture Network.

Nath’s stints at Sun Microsystems, PwC, IBM Global Services (all in Silicon Valley), Loxodrome and Mumbai Angels have given him a breadth of experience across the US and India in management consulting, product management and early-stage investing.

Nath is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and UCLA Anderson School of Management and divides his time between San Francisco and Mumbai.

Santhosh Kumar

President & Managing Director, Texas Instruments India

Expertise: Semiconductor Product Strategy, AI-Driven Chip Design, Automotive and Industrial Electronics

Santhosh Kumar, president and managing director of Texas Instruments (TI) India since 2013, is a driving force behind the country’s semiconductor and AI ecosystem. With over 20 years at TI, Kumar has overseen pivotal growth in analogue and embedded processing, most notably in ADAS (autonomous-driving systems) and video solutions during his Dallas tenure. In India, he’s led end‑to‑end chip development spanning industrial, automotive, communications, and consumer tech.

Known for championing engineer development, Kumar spearheads initiatives like TI’s WiSH mentorship programme for women and deep collaborations with top institutes such as IITs and IISc. He also advocates for India’s semiconductor potential, highlighting how AI is driving personalised chip design and positioning the nation for a $400 billion ESDM future.

Kumar’s leadership style is both visionary and hands‑on, whether advancing EV powertrain chips or nurturing India’s next‑generation tech talent.

Shub Bhowmick

Co-founder and CEO, Tredence

Expertise: Agentic AI, Enterprise AI Deployment

Shub Bhowmick is the co-founder and CEO of Tredence, an AI engineering and analytics company. Since 2013, Bhowmick, along with his co-founders Sumit Mehra and Shashank Dubey, has scaled the company into a global player serving clients across the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia.

Under his leadership, Tredence has become an early mover in agentic AI–autonomous AI systems that can make decisions, adapt, and collaborate with humans and other agents.  His vision of AI extends beyond functionality, focusing on the design of AI agents’ personalities, behaviours, and trustworthiness, whether for legal use cases or for empathetic and privacy-aware applications in healthcare. This human-centred design philosophy underpins Tredence’s investments.

Bhowmick is a graduate of IIT-BHU and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He brings a blend of technical expertise, strategic insight, and entrepreneurial drive to shaping the next wave of enterprise AI adoption.

Sreekanth Menon

Senior VP of Global AI Practice & Innovation, Genpact

Expertise: Data Science Solutions, MLOps

Sreekanth Menon leads the AI/ML practice for Genpact Analytics and oversees the delivery of global projects. He brings over 20 years of innovation and industry expertise to his role, guiding strategy, business transformation, product development, and delivering analytical solutions.

Menon has developed and launched over 50 advanced analytics solutions in the global market. He has collaborated closely with Fortune 500 clients to create a significant impact on their businesses by enabling innovative AI-driven solutions and practices.

His focus is on building competencies in AI ecosystems, such as machine learning, NLP/text mining, and computer vision, while nurturing new capabilities. Moreover, he develops, mentors, and guides a global team to deploy complex AI/ML models and capabilities at scale, fostering engagement and employee growth.

Before joining Genpact, Menon was responsible for developing analytics engines, establishing virtual captive teams, and building big data analytics platforms. He also led a large analytics team at Symphony Marketing Solutions. He joined Genpact in February 2010 as part of the company’s acquisition of Symphony Marketing Services.

Sridhar Vembu

Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Zoho Corporation

Expertise: Deep-Tech Research, CRM

Sridhar Vembu, the chief scientist at Zoho Corporation, is one of India’s most respected tech entrepreneurs. He co-founded Zoho in 1996 and served as CEO from 2000 to 2024, leading the company to become India’s largest software product firm.

Under his leadership, Zoho introduced its in-house large language model and launched Zia, a suite of AI agents and a no-code builder platform, to automate tasks like HR, accounting, and customer support.

In 2025, he transitioned to the role of chief scientist, focusing on deep-tech research and AI development. Vembu is known for his unconventional yet deeply principled approach to business_, emphasising humility, contentment, and self-reliance over hypergrowth. Under him, Zoho adopted unique strategies in hiring and training talent from rural India, building world-class products entirely in-house, and choosing customer satisfaction over aggressive marketing.

Vembu has also championed rural development and tech decentralisation, setting up offices and training centres in non-urban areas. His move into AI R&D reflects a continued commitment to building indigenous, future-focused technologies grounded in long-term thinking and inclusive progress.

Vijay Guntur

CTO and Head of Ecosystems & Practices, HCLTech

Expertise: Software Engineering, GenAI Strategy, AI Engineering

Vijay Guntur, with over 30 years at HCLTech, sits at the intersection of innovation and execution as the company’s global CTO and head of ecosystems. From spearheading GenAI-driven service transformation with platforms like AI Force to building silicon-to-cloud solutions that push India’s semiconductor and AI engineering ambitions, Guntur’s influence spans deeply across industries and borders.

He leads HCLTech’s global centres of excellence (CoE) across AI, data engineering, IoT, IT/OT, and software engineering, creating hubs that accelerate time to market for G2000 clients. He also heads initiatives like AI Foundry and HCLTech’s global AI Labs, spaces where enterprises can co-create, consult, and experience GenAI in action. Under his leadership, CloudSMART has become a key cloud modernisation enabler for clients worldwide.

An alumnus of BITS Pilani and the University of Chicago Booth, Guntur brings together hardcore tech acumen and strategic foresight. His focus on responsible AI, AI-at-the-edge (physical AI), robotics, and cyber-physical systems makes him a crucial architect of India’s AI‑powered digital future.

Vishal Dhupar

Managing Director, NVIDIA (South Asia)

Expertise: Accelerated Computing, GPU Technology

Vishal Dhupar, managing director for South Asia at NVIDIA, plays a key role in driving the widespread adoption of accelerated computing and AI in India.

A passionate advocate for the power of artificial intelligence, Dhupar actively contributes to various organisations and advisory bodies, such as the CII and IDGS, and is an active member of the World Economic Forum’s AI Advisory Council in India. Prior to his tenure at NVIDIA, Dhupar held senior leadership positions at industry giants including Symantec, Autodesk and Sun Microsystems, driving growth and market expansion.

At NVIDIA, Dhupar is currently responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s business operations, including sales, marketing, operations, and channels, in India and the South Asian economies. He is responsible for developing and maintaining relations with government, public institutions, and industry representative bodies, and serves as the single point of leadership for NVIDIA.

With a strong belief in the power of AI for India and AI for all, he champions the philosophy of leveraging AI to tackle the most complex challenges across industries.

Social Sector

Amandeep Singh Gill

Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, United Nations

Expertise: Tech Diplomacy, Global AI Governance, Digital Inclusion

Ambassador Amandeep Singh Gill stands at the confluence of diplomacy and technology, representing the world’s collective voice on digital and AI governance. Appointed as the United Nations secretary-general’s envoy on technology, he plays a crucial role in shaping global conversations around responsible, inclusive and ethical use of technology, particularly in artificial intelligence.

With a distinguished background as an Indian diplomat and technologist, Gill brings a unique combination of geopolitical insight and technical acumen to the table.

Gill has been a key architect of global AI frameworks, co-chairing the UN secretary-general’s high-level panel on digital cooperation and leading the International Digital Health and AI Research Collaborative (I-DAIR). His work has consistently focused on ensuring that AI and emerging technologies do not deepen existing inequalities but instead become tools for empowerment across nations, especially in the Global South.

Hailing from India’s diplomatic corps, Gill’s early engagement with nuclear disarmament and internet governance shaped his approach to tech diplomacy—rooted in equity, human rights, and international cooperation. As the UN envoy, he works across governments, private sectors and civil society to align digital progress with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Geetha Manjunath

Founder, CEO & CTO at Niramai Health Analytix

Expertise: AI for Healthcare, Thermal Imaging Technology, Deep-Tech Product Innovation

Geetha Manjunath, founder, CEO and CTO of Bengaluru-based Niramai Health Analytix, harnesses artificial intelligence to revolutionise breast cancer detection. With a PhD in AI from IISc and an MBA from Kellogg, her 25-year career spans pioneering AI research at Hewlett-Packard Labs and Xerox, where she led data analytics innovation before charting a new course into healthcare.

Niramai’s flagship Thermalytix technology, radiation-free, portable, and privacy-first, combines thermal imaging with proprietary AI to non-invasively detect early-stage breast cancer, even in women under 45. It’s US FDA and CE‑approved, backed by clinical trials, and has screened over 2.8 lakh women across 200 hospitals.

Her personal connection is profound: losing loved ones to breast cancer motivated her to create a solution rooted in empathy and scientific rigour. An inventor with over 16 US patents and numerous awards, from the CSI Gold Medal to Forbes’ Top 20 Self‑Made Women, Geetha blends deep‑tech brilliance with heartfelt purpose. Whether in labs or remote villages, her AI-driven vision embodies innovation with compassion.

Himanshu Gupta

Co-Founder and CEO, ClimateAi

Expertise: Climate-Tech Innovation, Emissions Modelling, Environmental Risk Forecasting

Himanshu Gupta, the visionary co-founder and CEO of ClimateAi, is leading the charge in harnessing artificial intelligence to tackle the pressing challenges posed by climate change. His company empowers businesses and nations to adapt their food and water supply chains, ensuring resilience in an uncertain future.

With an impressive background that includes collaborating with notable figures like former US Vice President Al Gore and Lord Nicholas Stern, Gupta has made significant contributions as the lead emissions modeller for India during the pivotal Paris Discussions. His remarkable work earned him the highest civilian honour from the Vice President of India for his home state, and he has been recognised as one of Tech Insider’s most influential figures in artificial intelligence worldwide.

Gupta’s thought leadership is featured across prestigious platforms, including Stanford Social Innovation Review. As a co-author of a groundbreaking book focused on India’s low-carbon economy, he is shaping the conversation around sustainable development. With both an MBA and an MSc from Stanford University’s esteemed School of Business and Engineering, Gupta is not only an industry leader but also a trailblazer in the pursuit of a more sustainable world.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Executive Chairperson, Founder at Biocon & Biocon Biologics

Expertise: Public Policy, Corporate Governance, Biopharmaceutical Development, Industrial Biotechnology

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is a pioneering first-generation entrepreneur and globally recognised business leader with over four decades of transformative impact in the biotechnology sector. She began her biotech journey in 1978 from her garage in India, driven by a vision to make healthcare more affordable and accessible.

As the executive chairperson of Biocon and Biocon Biologics, she has led the company to the forefront of innovation in biopharmaceuticals. Under her leadership, Biocon has strategically integrated AI across various domains, including early-stage drug discovery, manufacturing optimisation through predictive analytics, AI-driven personalised medicine and enterprise-level forecasting and operations.

In July 2024, through the Biocon Foundation, she spearheaded a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science to launch Aarogya Aarohan, a multi-centre AI-based oral cancer screening initiative designed for early detection in low-resource settings. Shaw has received prestigious national honours, including the Padma Bhushan, and has also been recognised internationally. She continues to break barriers in biotech, steering Biocon toward future growth grounded in ethical and inclusive technology.

Perumal Vivekanandan

Executive Director, SEVA

Expertise: Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Sustainable Agriculture Innovation

For over three decades, Perumal Vivekanandan has been a pioneering force at the intersection of traditional knowledge and modern technology. As executive director of SEVA, Madurai, Vivekanandan has documented over 8,000 grassroots innovations and helped register four indigenous livestock breeds, making him a champion of both biodiversity and local ingenuity. His work has spanned AI-informed ethnoveterinary practices, sustainable agriculture, and tech-enabled knowledge dissemination, inspiring rural communities to integrate ancestral wisdom with contemporary solutions.

A key figure in the Honey Bee Network, he mentored innovation ecosystems long before AI became a buzzword. His accolades, including the Jamnalal Bajaj Award and the World Technology Network Finalist recognition, celebrate his efforts to democratise science and technology. In an era of rapid digital disruption, Vivekanandan remains a vital voice proving that innovation doesn’t only come from labs, it also lives in fields, forests, and the collective memory of rural India.

Dr (Maj) Satish Jeevannavar

Founder & CEO, Ai Health Highway

Expertise: Pharma & LifeSciences Consulting, MedTech

Dr Satish Jeevannavar is a physician, ex-army medical corps officer, and an alumnus of IIM Bangalore with over 25 years of experience in scaling startups in primary healthcare, mHealth, pharma and life science strategy consulting in India, across APAC and emerging markets. He launched the mHealth services with a leading telecom partner across 23 circles (2015-16). Dr Jeevannavar was instrumental in scaling 0-60 primary care clinics across five states, launching India’s first OPD insurance product and the Senior Citizen Independent Home Project in Bangalore (2010-15).

He is also the founder and CEO of Ai Health Highway, a med-tech startup from FSID/IISC. The company has won several competitions, including the Top 24 Maharashtra Startup Challenge 2025, Leap to Unicorn Season 2, Phix.Ai Public Health Tech Challenge 2024, and PHC Tech Challenge 2021. It is also one of the 27 most promising ML startups selected for Amazon’s AWS ML Elevate 2022 program.

Shekar Sivasubramanian

Head, Wadhwani AI

Expertise: Information Retrieval, Language Technologies

From pioneering software engineer to taking on the role of Head of Wadhwani AI, Shekar Sivasubramanian has spent nearly four decades building AI that truly matters.

A mechanical engineering graduate from IIT Bombay and seasoned researcher at Carnegie Mellon University for 20 years, Shekar now leads efforts to deploy AI solutions across India’s health, agriculture, and education sectors.

Under his leadership, Wadhwani AI has developed over 25 real-world AI applications, including tools like ‘Shishu Maapan’ to help ASHA health workers track newborn growth, and pest-management apps used by over 100,000 farmers

“AI is the least important part of AI problem-solving,” he says, urging a problem-first approach that is grounded in local realities. He adds, “If AI works in India, it can work anywhere,” highlighting India’s diverse data environment as a unique testing ground.

Wadhwani AI, under Shekar’s watch, is one of the few AI organisations working directly with government ministries, a testament to its focus on embedding ethical AI into public systems. With over 250 staff and counting, his mission is clear: applying AI at scale to benefit millions in the developing world. Rooted in research yet driven by impact, Shekar Sivasubramanian is not just an AI leader but an architect of AI for the public good.

Tanuj Bhojwani

Founder, Sthaan.ai

Expertise: AI Transformation, Data Analytics

You might call him a “storyteller who codes”, but that description barely scratches the surface of Tanuj Bhojwani’s unique impact on India’s AI narrative. Armed with a chemical engineering degree from IIT Bombay and liberal arts training from Ashoka University and Young India Fellowship, Bhojwani bridges the gap between deep tech and human insight.

As the former head of People+AI, an independent initiative under EkStep, he quietly shaped India’s grassroots AI transformation. Bhojwani believes that “solutions must originate locally,” noting that village-level problems demand AI crafted by Indians for Indians. Under his leadership, People+AI built an open use case repository to catalogue and scale AI solutions for India-specific challenges.

He’s co-authored The Art of Bitfulness with Nandan Nilekani, a calm guide for navigating the digital today.

Beyond writing and speaking, his work at iSPIRT and the Digital Public Goods Alliance reflects a deep commitment to ethical AI in areas like digital identity, payments, data protection, and drones.

Currently, Bhojwani, who founded Sthaan.ai, is working directly with businesses to achieve their AI transformation goals. He believes that AI transformation must shift from being a huge leap of faith to a series of well-thought-out, measurable experiments.

Bhojwani’s team diagnoses challenges within organisations and builds bespoke tools and processes using AI. This hands-on approach allows for grounded, effective implementation of AI solutions that drive real change and don’t die as Pilots or PoCs.

Vivek Seshadri

Co-Founder & Partner, Karya

Expertise: DRAM Technology, Responsible AI

Vivek Seshadri is a principal researcher at Microsoft Research India and co-founder of Karya, a platform focused on providing ethical and dignified digital work to underserved rural communities. With a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and a BTech from IIT Madras, his academic work has centred on efficient computer architecture, particularly DRAM-based memory systems.

At Microsoft Research, he is part of the Technology for Emerging Markets group, combining deep technical expertise with a mission to drive social impact. He helped launch Project Karya within Microsoft, which evolved into a broader effort to deliver fair wages and inclusive AI participation through crowd-based tasks tailored for low-connectivity regions. Seshadri highlights issues such as data worker rights, mental health safeguards, and royalty-based compensation models, pushing the discourse on ethical data labour.

Under his leadership, Karya has become a model for responsible AI deployment rooted in Indian linguistic and cultural contexts. Seshadri has also contributed to widely cited research in computer systems, including innovations like Ambit and ChargeCache. Known for his thoughtful approach to technology and equity, he continues to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world social transformation.

Digital Public Infrastructure

Amitabh Nag

CEO, Bhashini

Expertise: Indian Datasets

In a country where linguistic diversity is both a richness and a challenge, Amitabh Nag has emerged as a key architect of India’s multilingual AI transformation. As the CEO of Bhashini under the MeitY’s Digital India initiative, Nag has overseen a platform that processes over six million translation requests a day, bridging communication across more than 22 Indian languages and handling around 300 million monthly translations.

With a tech career spanning four decades in various roles at TCS, HP, Coforge and beyond, Nag brought extensive experience to government service when he took charge of Bhashini in March 2023.

Under his leadership, Bhashini has built over 300 open-source AI models, delivered voice‑to‑text, translation, OCR, and speech‑to‑speech services, and even converted railway manuals into audio for the visually impaired. He has also taken on dual roles as the director of IndiaAI’s dataset platform (AIKosh) and applications development initiatives to further national AI infrastructure

Nag’s work is more than technology; it’s an unwavering push for digital inclusion, cultural connection, and linguistic equity.

Nandan Nilekani

Co-Founder and Chairman at Infosys & EkStep Foundation

Expertise: Identity Systems, Policy & AI, Advocacy

Nandan Nilekani’s impact on India’s digital transformation is vast and deeply personal. Best known for co-founding Infosys and leading the creation of Aadhaar as the founding chairman of UIDAI, Nilekani’s work has fundamentally reshaped how over a billion Indians access identity and services. From building global software systems to spearheading the EkStep Foundation, an initiative that uses technology to improve early learning, his vision seamlessly blends innovation with inclusion.

In 2023, he was appointed co-chair of the G20 Task Force on digital public infrastructure, further solidifying his role as a global voice on technology for development. In 2014, he won The Economist Social and Economic Innovation Award for his leadership of India’s Unique Identification initiative (Aadhaar).

An IIT Bombay alumnus, he’s received the Joseph Schumpeter Prize in 2005, the Padma Bhushan in 2006, and several global honours. He’s also the author of ‘Imagining India: Ideas for the New Century’ and the co-author of ‘Rebooting India: Realising a Billion Aspirations’ and ‘The Art of Bitfulness: Keeping Calm in the Digital World’. For Nilekani, AI is not just about intelligence; it is also about a contribution to the infrastructure.

Pawan Goenka

Chairperson, IN-SPACe

Expertise: Automotive Innovation, Space Tech Reform, Risk Management

Pawan Goenka is a distinguished industry veteran with a career spanning several decades across diverse sectors, from automotive to space. An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Cornell University and Harvard Business School, Goenka began his professional journey at General Motors’ R&D centre before returning to India in the early 1990s to lead transformative innovation at Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).

At M&M, he expanded the R&D infrastructure from a modest five-acre, 150-person setup to a world-class facility covering 200 acres with over 3,000 employees. His leadership resulted in benchmark products like the Scorpio SUV, earning him the moniker ‘Scorpio Man’, and positioning Mahindra as a respected global automotive brand. He also served as chairman of SsangYong Motor Company until its divestment in 2022.

Currently, as chairperson of IN-SPACe, Goenka is driving India’s space sector forward, fostering private sector participation and crafting policies that promote collaboration between startups, industries and ISRO. He played a pivotal role in shaping the Indian Space Policy 2023, advancing indigenous satellite technology and research capabilities. His vision emphasises building a self-reliant, innovation-driven space ecosystem to elevate India as a global leader.

A recipient of Padma Shri, Goenka has received numerous other prestigious awards recognising his outstanding contributions to the mobility industry.

Shankar Maruwada

Co-Founder and CEO, EkStep Foundation

Expertise: AI for Public, Data Analytics

Shankar Maruwada is a leader whose three decades of experience span corporate, entrepreneurial, government and development sectors, each of which has deepened his ability to design for digital transformation at scale, with ecosystems, and for societal value.

He began his career at Procter & Gamble, where he honed skills in brand marketing, consumer behaviour, and strategy. He then co-founded Marketics, India’s first successful data analytics startup. He then joined the founding team at UIDAI, led by Nandan Nilekani, where he oversaw marketing and data analytics and coined the now-iconic name ‘Aadhaar’.

Currently, at the EkStep Foundation, he works on digital transformation for a billion people across various sectors, from education to agriculture, and from learning to earning. EkStep works at the intersection of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), AI and open networks.

An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad, what sets Maruwada apart is his commitment and ability to build for billions with scalable public digital platforms that bridge sectors and stakeholders.

Sunil Gupta

Co-Founder, Managing Director & CEO at Yotta Data Services

Expertise: AI Infrastructure, Data Centres, Digital Transformation

Sunil Gupta, often hailed as the ‘Data Centre Man of India’, is reshaping the country’s AI and digital infrastructure from the ground up. With over three decades of experience and global recognition, Gupta’s tenure is marked by visionary leadership and relentless innovation.

At the helm of Yotta Data Services, this alumnus of Columbia University and NIT Kurukshetra has launched some of India’s most advanced hyperscale data centres and built cutting-edge platforms, including the AI/HPC-powered Shakti Cloud and Yntraa Cloud, India’s first homegrown open-source hyperscale public cloud. These innovations aren’t just about scale; they’re about sovereignty, affordability, and empowering the next generation of AI-native enterprises.

This platform offers research labs, startups and enterprises the tools to innovate and grow on a pay-per-use model. It’s a game-changer, enabling industries across various domains, such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and education, to leverage AI in developing transformative solutions.

From collaborating with NVIDIA to mentoring startups through the CIO Angel Network, Gupta’s mission is clear: to democratise AI access and position India as a global tech powerhouse. As the Chair of ASSOCHAM’s National Council on Data Centres and a leading voice at CII and NASSCOM, he’s not just a catalyst but also an active angel investor.

Deeptech

Pradeep Gulipalli

Co-Founder and CEO, Tiger Analytics India

Expertise: Statistical Modelling, Data Analytics

Pradeep Gulipalli, the CEO of Tiger Analytics’ India operations, has been instrumental in building the company’s advanced capabilities, processes, and teams specialising in AI and analytics. A technologist by training and passion, Gulipalli’s leadership emphasises deep technical expertise combined with a strong people-first culture, fostering a collaborative environment where diverse talents unite to solve complex business challenges.

Recognised as one of India’s leading AI thought leaders and entrepreneurs, he began his career focused on research involving mathematical models and simulations of urban systems to support city planning. Over time, he transitioned these modelling and analytical skills to business decision-making and strategic planning, laying the foundation for his current work in AI-driven analytics.

Gulipalli holds a master of Science degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras). Under his guidance, Tiger Analytics continues to push the boundaries of AI innovation, contributing to India’s growing AI ecosystem across sectors, including insurance, MSMEs, and enterprise software.

Sharad Sanghi

CEO, Neysa Networks

Expertise: AI‑Native Cloud Infrastructure, GenAI Platform‑as‑a‑Service

Sharad Sanghi is the co-founder and CEO of Neysa Networks, a next-gen AI-native cloud company launched in 2023. Sanghi, recognised as a trailblazer in India’s digital infrastructure, previously founded Netmagic. He grew it into the country’s top data centre brand, which was later acquired by NTT. Following this, he led NTT’s global data centre and submarine cable operations across four continents.

Now at Neysa, he is pioneering India’s first AI acceleration platform with Velocis (GPU-as-a-service), Overwatch (AI observability), and Aegis (AI security), enabling enterprises to build and deploy GenAI securely and independently. The company’s rapid growth, raising $50 million from Matrix, Nexus, NTTVC, and Z47, signals strong faith in his vision.

An IIT Bombay Distinguished Alumnus and Columbia University graduate, Sanghi also co-chairs CII’s data centre council and contributes to national cloud and AI policy through roles at APNIC Foundation and ASSOCHAM, continuing to shape the future of sovereign tech infrastructure.

Sivakumar Agneeswaran

Group CEO & Chairman, DataSwitch

Expertise: Data Analytics, Digital Transformation

Sivakumar Agneeswaran is the group CEO and chairman of DataSwitch, leading a bold transformation in AI-driven data engineering. With over 23 years of industry experience, Agneeswaran is recognised for his visionary approach to building innovative solutions that empower enterprises to unlock the true potential of their data. At DataSwitch, he has been instrumental in developing an advanced low-code/no-code platform that modernises data engineering by harnessing the power of AI to streamline and solve complex data challenges.

Prior to joining DataSwitch, Agneeswaran built an illustrious career at Cognizant, culminating as vice president and global delivery leader for the data and intelligence practice in Europe, APAC, and the global life sciences sector. His expertise spans P&L management, big data, cloud services, solution development, and competency building.

Agneeswaran is celebrated for his passion for automation and for delivering strategic business outcomes to Fortune 500 clients, particularly in the insurance and financial services sectors.

A dynamic leader and mentor, Agneeswaran is dedicated to fostering innovation, continuous improvement, and high performance across diverse teams. His commitment to nurturing talent and building a culture of excellence has inspired professionals across the industry, setting new benchmarks in data and AI leadership.

Tarun Dua

Founder & Managing Director, E2E Networks

Expertise: AI/ML Cloud, Hyperscale Computing, Data Sovereignty

Tarun Dua is a pioneer in India’s cloud and AI/ML infrastructure space. A computer science graduate from NIT Kurukshetra, he founded E2E Networks in 2009 with the vision of building India’s first homegrown hyperscale public cloud focused on AI/ML infrastructure.

Under his leadership, E2E Networks has grown into a leading platform that powers higher education institutions, startups, enterprises, and research organisations globally. The company is recognised for offering self-service, high-performance cloud infrastructure and platform tools purpose-built for AI/ML workloads, including powerful GPU instances such as A100, H100, and 64×H100 configurations.

A strong advocate of open-source technologies and data sovereignty, Dua has guided E2E Networks to become MeitY-empanelled and NSE-listed, while enabling AI/ML-led digital transformation at scale, a once-in-a-generation opportunity for businesses and institutions to leapfrog into the future.

Prior to E2E, he held engineering and technical roles at Yahoo, GlobalLogic, ValueFirst, and Nanocast R&D. He also lectured at JMIT Radaur, gaining hands-on expertise in system architecture, high-availability infrastructure, and open-source systems.

Kiran R

VP of Engineering, Oracle

Expertise: MLOps, Data & AI Engineering

Kiran R is a Kaggle Grandmaster, an elite title held by only a few globally, signifying his exceptional prowess in data science and machine learning. Apart from holding the position of VP of engineering CDA at Oracle, Kiran is known for his razor-sharp problem-solving skills. He has consistently tackled some of the most challenging machine learning problems across various domains, including healthcare, finance, and computer vision.

What sets Kiran apart is not just his technical expertise but his spirit of collaboration and community contribution. With hundreds of public notebooks, kernels, and datasets shared on Kaggle, he has played a pivotal role in democratising access to advanced AI techniques. His work has become foundational learning material for thousands of aspiring data scientists, both in India and globally.

Kiran’s commitment to open science and peer learning has helped create a vibrant community of Indian data science professionals and enthusiasts. He is often seen mentoring young practitioners, conducting workshops, and engaging in forums that nurture AI talent from the grassroots. His emphasis on real-world problem solving—especially in high-impact areas like medical diagnostics and financial forecasting—demonstrates how AI can be used meaningfully and responsibly.

Mass Media & Social Media

Amitabh Bachchan

Actor, Strategic Partner of Generative AI Platform Ikonz

Expertise: Film, Music

Apart from being a legendary actor, Amitabh Bachchan has actively advocated for the ethical use of artificial intelligence in the creative industry. In recent years, he has expressed concerns about AI-driven technologies such as face mapping and digital cloning, warning against their misuse without consent.

Speaking at public forums, including the Symbiosis Film Festival, he emphasised the need for strong regulations to protect artists’ rights in the age of AI. In 2023, Bachchan partnered with generative AI platform Ikonz, allowing fans to interact with his virtual avatar. The digital representation of the actor enabled customer engagement via an interactive ‘AI Bachchan’ interface—a pioneering example of merging celebrity and AI-driven customer experience.

He has also reflected on how AI is impacting music and film, calling it both “fascinating” and “frightening”. While hosting Kaun Banega Crorepati, Bachchan even showcased AI-generated fan art, acknowledging its creative potential while highlighting concerns about its authenticity. While he is not an AI technologist, Bachchan’s engagement, through public dialogue and AI-powered media avatars, positions him as a cultural figure helping shape India’s ethical and experiential understanding of AI technology.

Ansh Mehra

YouTuber, The Cutting Edge School

Expertise: AI Educator, Corporate Trainer

Ansh Mehra’s journey into AI education started with a foundation in UX and product marketing. After working at Swiggy and Zuddl, he saw a growing need for AI-driven workflows. In response, he founded The Cutting Edge School, a platform focused on AI and automation training for enterprises.

Through this platform, Mehra has trained teams from leading organisations, including The Economic Times, Dubai Future Foundation, Lenskart, Reliance Digital, HP, and Intel. He maintains a strong presence in both India and the UAE, becoming a trusted advisor to enterprises seeking to leverage AI in their workflows.

In 2025, Mehra represented India at the Global Prompt Engineering Championship in Dubai. The competition, part of Dubai AI Week, saw over 3,800 entries from 125 countries. Mehra was one of five finalists in the video category and ranked first after the first round.

Beyond corporate training, Mehra has built a thriving online community. His YouTube channel, The Cutting Edge School, has amassed 633K subscribers and features hundreds of videos on AI, UX design, and prompt engineering. On Instagram, he engages over 220K followers with practical insights, free tutorials, and AI prompts.

AR Rahman

Composer, Founder at Panchathan Record Inn, AM Studios & AR Rahman Foundation

Expertise: Music Composition, AI-Assisted Audio Technology

AR Rahman is a globally acclaimed composer whose work spans over 500 film scores, earning him multiple Oscars, Grammy Awards, and the Padma Bhushan. Known for blending Indian classical music with electronic production, Rahman has consistently embraced innovation, from digital recording in the 1990s to AI-assisted audio in the present day. Moreover, he established Panchathan Record Inn, AM Studios, and the AR Rahman Foundation.

In 2024, Rahman became the first Indian composer to use AI-generated voice models in a popular film song, Thimiri Yezhuda, in Lal Salaam, recreating the voices of late singers Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed with the consent of the singers’ families, along with fair compensation. He described the approach as a purposeful, ethical use of AI, clearly stating that it was “not a gimmick”.

Rahman remains a thoughtful voice in the global debate on AI in music. He warns against replacing human artists but believes AI can empower under-resourced creators and expand access to quality production. At 58, he continues to blend melody and machine—pioneering with principle.

Dwarkesh Patel

YouTuber, The Dwarkesh Podcast

Expertise: AI Communication, Podcasts

Dwarkesh Patel has quickly emerged as one of the most perceptive and articulate voices exploring artificial intelligence, science, and human progress. As the host of The Dwarkesh Podcast, he engages in long-form, in-depth conversations with some of the most influential thinkers and builders in the AI world—ranging from researchers and entrepreneurs to economists and philosophers. His unique strength lies in distilling complex, often abstract technological ideas into intellectually rich yet accessible narratives.

Patel’s background in computer science and deep curiosity about how innovation shapes the world enable him to ask thoughtful, probing questions that go far beyond surface-level discussion. His episodes are meticulously researched, and he often engages with guests who are actively shaping the future of AI—such as engineers at OpenAI, cognitive scientists, or startup founders at the frontier of AGI research.

Patel doesn’t shy away from difficult questions—be it around AI safety, alignment, existential risk, or the societal impact of automation. His conversations explore not just the “how” of AI but also the “why” and “should,” making the podcast essential listening for those trying to make sense of this transformative era.

Beyond his podcast, Patel is also a prolific writer, often sharing essays and notes that further unpack the themes discussed on his show.

Kamal Haasan

Actor-Filmmaker & Technophile, Raaj Kamal Films International

Expertise: Film, AI Innovation

Kamal Haasan is one of Indian cinema’s most respected figures, known for pushing artistic and technical boundaries across acting, directing, and production. His career spans over 230 films, with innovations ranging from screenplay software in the 1992 film Thevar Magan to VFX and animation in Aalavandhan, which was released in 2001.

In 2024, Haasan deepened his engagement with artificial intelligence by completing a 45-day AI course in the US and visiting Perplexity AI’s San Francisco headquarters, where he met CEO Aravind Srinivas. He views AI as a tool to enhance creativity, not replace it, and has expressed interest in using AI to augment projects like Indian 3 and Thug Life.

At 70, Haasan continues to merge technology with storytelling, remaining both a cinematic legend and an advocate for thoughtful innovation. His forward-looking approach places him at the intersection of culture and computation—an actor who is unafraid to code the future.

Krish Naik

Founder & CEO, KrishAI Technologies

Expertise: AI Educator

KrishNaik spent over 11 years working in data science and AI for companies such as Panasonic, Honeywell and EY. This experience exposed him to the lack of accessible, affordable education in AI, inspiring him to act. In 2017 and 2018, Naik began creating hands‑on YouTube tutorials aimed at simplifying complex topics in AI and data science. Each video helped him build a vibrant community of global learners.

In 2019, he co‑founded iNeuron.ai, India’s first truly affordable AI education platform. Under his leadership, iNeuron offered over 400 courses, facilitated more than 10,000 career transitions, and partnered with hundreds of industry employers. In December 2023, PhysicsWallah acquired iNeuron, expanding its reach to more students while maintaining Naik’s vision for accessible learning.

In early 2025, Naik launched KrishNaik Academy through KrishAI Technologies. Within six months, the academy trained over 1.5 million learners, supported more than 60,000 career transitions across 180 countries, and delivered millions of minutes of live and recorded training. His work has earned him recognitions such as the GitHub Star Award and an invitation to NVIDIA GTC in March 2025, where he represented the AI education community.

MG Srinivas

Film Director, Screenwriter, AI Samhitha

Expertise: AI in Cinema, Voice Cloning Solutions

MG Srinivas is a prominent Indian actor, director, and screenwriter, known for his significant contributions to the Kannada film industry.

In addition to his creative pursuits, Srinivas is at the forefront of integrating artificial intelligence into the entertainment industry. Notably, during the pan-India release of Shiva Rajkumar’s film Ghost in 2023, he experimented with AI-driven voice cloning technology. The film, also featuring Anupam Kher, received positive critical reviews and was a landmark in Srinivas’s use of AI in cinema.

Srinivas told AIM that when his team first began using AI, it started with script and screenplay writing. Gradually, they moved on to creating storyboards. Over time, they realised that when audiences watched dubbed films—like a Tamil film in Hindi or a Kannada film in Telugu—they often want to hear the original actor’s voice to preserve the film’s emotional impact. That insight led them to explore voice cloning technology.

Srinivas co-founded AI Samhitha, a company specialising in voice cloning solutions. The company is currently developing innovative technology that enables an actor’s original voice to be seamlessly retained across multiple languages.

Prateek Arora

VP of Development, BANG BANG Mediacorp

Expertise: AI Artistry, Screenwriting

Prateek Arora is a screenwriter and visual artist based in India who blends speculative fiction and AI to create surreal, cinematic, and often haunting artwork. He moves between worldbuilding for screen and image-making for the internet, shaping a distinct creative voice rooted in science fiction, horror, and Indian urban life. Arora is currently VP of development at the global content studio BANG BANG Mediacorp.

Arora’s AI artworks were among the first in India to gain mass attention on a global scale. His images of cyborgs working at construction sites, amphibious rickshaws on flooded streets, floating apartment blocks above the city skyline, and spectral figures roaming Old Delhi by night reimagine the Indian city, helped catalyse the country’s AI art movement and built a cult Instagram following. Arora is widely regarded as a central figure in Indofuturism, a growing movement that imagines Indian futures untethered from colonial, Western or techno-utopian frameworks. His work has appeared in Cosmopolitan, Grazia, and WePresent, and has been covered by The Indian Express, Deccan Chronicle and The Economic Times.

Raftaar

Rapper, Lyricist

Expertise: Music Composition

Indian rapper and musician Dilin Nair, known by his stage name Raftaar, made an announcement on Instagram that was more than ordinary. It was neither a song nor an album, but rather an app that he developed and published on GitHub.

His project, called CompCal, performs precision timing calculations for vocal compression, delay, and reverb effects, enabling music producers to calculate accurate Attack, Release, and Delay/Reverb timings based on their track’s BPM and vocal style. Platforms like Jammable are offering Raftaar’s AI-generated voice to compose music.

This project serves as inspiration for creators across all industries, illustrating how professionals can harness their domain expertise to build meaningful applications using development tools and platforms accessible today.

Raftaar’s venture into software development—alongside his music career—demonstrates how artists and professionals increasingly recognise technology as a powerful amplifier for their work. Whether through AI-assisted development, modern frameworks, or other emerging tools, creators now have unprecedented opportunities to translate their specialised knowledge into innovative solutions that enhance their craft and expand their impact.

Santhosh Narayanan

Film Composer & Technophile

Expertise: Music Composition, AI-Assisted Sound Engineering

Santhosh Narayanan is a leading Tamil film composer known for his experimental soundtracks in films like Jigarthanda, Attakathi and Kalki 2898 AD. With a background in computer science and early work as a sound engineer, Narayanan brings a deep technical lens to music production.

In 2025, he began using the Chinese AI model DeepSeek for projects like Sikandar and Retro, cutting production time by over 60%. The model assisted with scripting and automation in Reaper DAW, which he described as a glimpse of “great times ahead for AI reasoning and GenAI”.

Narayanan believes AI should support, not replace, human creativity. While it enhances technical precision and speeds up workflows, he cautions against relying blindly or being misled by misinformation. At 42, he continues to push the boundaries of Indian film music, advocating for responsible AI integration that benefits both composers and indie creators. His openness to AI tools has resonated with indie creators and the broader tech-art community.

Varun Mayya

Entrepreneur & YouTuber, Aeos Group

Expertise: Digital Content, Generative AI

Varun Mayya is a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur and AI innovator known for transforming content creation through the use of generative AI. Mayya, a computer science graduate from Manipal Institute of Technology, began his journey with startups like Jobspire and Avalon Labs. In recent years, he has focused on developing AI tools, including AutocodePro, AlphaCTR, and God in a Box, used collectively by over a million people.

He currently leads the Aeos Group, an AI-driven content studio co-founded with his wife, Achina Sirohi Mayya, which produces over 1,000 short-form videos per month using synthetic avatars, AI voice, and automated scripting. Varun pioneered this high-speed, AI-powered content model, utilising tools like ElevenLabs and ChatGPT, thereby eliminating the need for traditional filming.

Recognised among India’s top AI influencers, he’s always been vocal about responsible and creative AI adoption. Through public talks, social media, and podcasts, he continues to shape how creators and businesses embrace AI for storytelling, automation and scalable digital impact.

Check AIM 100: 2024

[Note: We’ve removed numerical labels that were mistakenly read as rankings. The featured list showcases 100 influential voices in AI in no particular order.]

The post India’s 100 Most Influential People in AI appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Building websites has long required a mix of design instinct, coding knowledge and patience, but vibe coding changes that by letting users describe what they want and having AI create it.

No menus to navigate, no syntax to remember. With Hostinger Horizons, it’s a conversation, not a construction project. Users stay in the creative flow while their AI partner handles the structure and design.

This approach is already helping build blogs, portfolios, and landing pages with speed and clarity. However, e-commerce has remained a challenge. Until now, creating a fully functional store with vibe coding tools involved managing product databases, payment methods, shipping rules, and more, tasks that couldn’t be easily handed off to AI. With its new update, Hostinger Horizons removes those barriers entirely.

More than 2.7 billion people now shop online, and the number continues to grow. For independent creators, small businesses and side hustlers, being able to launch a store quickly has become essential.

Get an additional 10% off with code AIMHOSTINGER on any Hostinger Horizons plan.

Horizons Adds E-Commerce with Zero Tech Burden

Hostinger Horizons now includes a full e-commerce engine within its vibe coding platform. It’s the same reliable backend that powers Hostinger’s Website Builder, now reworked to integrate directly into the Horizons interface. 

The result is a simplified process where one doesn’t have to switch tools or explain complex store logic to the AI. They simply express the wish to start selling, and Horizons sets up everything.

When beginning a new project, the AI will suggest online store integration if a user intends to sell products. For ongoing projects, users can access them from the Integrations tab. Once enabled, it opens up a guided setup process. Users can manually manage digital or physical products, set payment methods, configure taxes and shipping, apply discounts, and even track orders, all without writing a line of code or using up AI prompts.

There are no transaction fees, and users can list up to 600 products. Store updates happen instantly and don’t require reprocessing through the AI. The manual overhead is gone, and store owners can focus on selling rather than setting up.

A Store Built in Minutes, Not Days

The addition of e-commerce to Hostinger Horizons means the gap between idea and execution is now measured in minutes. Whether it’s handcrafted items, skincare kits, online courses, or art prints, one can launch a shop as soon as the idea takes shape. Horizons removes the traditional friction that comes with choosing a platform, stitching together integrations, and managing store infrastructure.

Customisation is still fully available. Users can ask the AI to tweak layouts, change colours, or add new sections to the storefront. Yet, the complexity that once surrounded e-commerce has been pushed into the background. Selling online no longer requires a technical project.

With e-commerce now built into Horizons, vibe coding becomes not just a faster way to build websites, but a practical way to build businesses. There’s no need to choose between speed and capability. Users can get both, without the usual trade-offs.

Hostinger launched Horizons in March this year to help non-technical users start, scale, and succeed online. Users can build and publish websites and web apps by simply describing their ideas to AI, no coding needed.

Hostinger Horizons takes care of design, copy, and SEO-ready structure. A recent update also improves visibility in AI-powered search by automatically adding an LLMs.txt file when the website is published on a custom domain.

Get an additional 10% off with code AIMHOSTINGER on any Hostinger Horizons plan.

The post Build an Online Store in Minutes with Hostinger Horizons & Vibe Coding appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

ABBYY wrapped up its third annual AI Pulse Developer Conference in Bengaluru, which brought together developers, engineers, business leaders and enthusiasts under one roof. 

The event also featured a hackathon with 35 participants, who competed to develop innovative solutions by utilising ABBYY’s document processing technologies, while also integrating AI agents and various GenAI frameworks. 

The hackathon drew participation from big consulting firms, tech companies and emerging talent from academic institutions—all competing across three categories. 

The hackathon was evaluated by ABBYY’s senior leadership team, comprising of Paula Sanders, SVP of pre and post-sales; Neil Murphy, chief revenue officer; and Bruce Orcutt, chief marketing officer. They assessed solutions for their practical use and potential for business impact. 

The team from Deloitte, consisting of Kaustubha Uday Vaidya, Rithi M, S Shanthaseelan and Md Shahid Akhtar, was adjudged as the winner in the ‘Best Overall App’ category. Their solution, called Spend Guard, automated the scanning, interpretation and validation of business expense receipts. 

They leveraged ABBYY Vantage for data extraction and integrated agentic capabilities using Gemini to ensure policy compliance by automatically flagging non-compliant expenses. 

“Participating in the ABBYY Developer Conference was an incredible opportunity to push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI-driven document processing,” Rithi said. “The energy, innovation and support from the ABBYY community made this an unforgettable experience.”

Moreover, the winners in the second category, ‘Best Use of an ABBYY Product’, were awarded to Team McKinsey, who built a ‘Smart Translator’ solution. The team, led by Sathish Kumar Murugan, developed a solution that addressed document processing challenges, utilising ABBYY Vantage’s data extraction capabilities in conjunction with ChatGPT for instant, context-aware translation, thereby eliminating language barriers in international business operations. 

“Building Smart Translator showed us how AI and intelligent OCR can come together to solve real-world challenges with speed and accuracy,” Murugan said.

The team from Telstra was awarded the ‘Best Integration of Third-Party AI’ for their project called Insurance AIdvisor. Behind the wordplay and the project were Krishna Kumar S and Madhu Shankar from the company. The two created a solution to address a challenge in the healthcare industry: understanding complex insurance policies. Their project integrated ABBYY Vantage and OCR with frameworks such as spaCy, OpenAI Embeddings, ChromaDB, LangChain Agents and Gradio to create an agentic AI assistant that simplifies health insurance jargon. 

In addition to winning from a pool of $1,500 worth of Amazon gift vouchers, these winners will gain automatic entry into the ABBYY MVP 2026 programme, no application required.

Besides teams from the corporate world showcasing their skills, the hackathon also witnessed emerging talent from various universities competing for the prize. As an honorary mention, the ‘Student Excellence Award’ was won by CMR Institute of Technology for their SILO AI project. The team, comprising Sarvottam Bhagat and Deepankar Sharma, developed a unified document automation toolkit that analyses various document types and suggests optimal ABBYY models for processing.

 The tool integrates OpenAI and Google APIs, Gmail, Slack (via MCP server), n8n, Bolt.new, Lovable and Cursor to enable real-time processing, automation and collaboration. 

“Participating in the ABBYY Developer Conference Hackathon was a phenomenal learning experience. It pushed us to creatively integrate multiple AI agents with ABBYY’s powerful document processing tools live and in real time,” Bhagat said. 

ABBYY’s Commitment to the Global Developer Community 

The hackathon not only demonstrated AI’s potential to address pressing challenges but also highlighted how ABBYY’s technologies and products can develop practical solutions with measurable real-world outcomes. 

“What stood out most was how our partners combined ABBYY technology with other platforms to solve real business problems. That spirit of innovation and collaboration is what makes this event special,” Murphy said. 

“Since our first devcon three years ago, the level of sophistication and imagination using purpose-built AI for business-critical processes has surpassed all expectations. We’re seeing challenges with document automation and process workflows eliminated, accuracy and time-to-value increase, and leadership teams more confident knowing they’re using ABBYY AI,” Orcutt said.

“Whether you want to network, code or co-create, the ABBYY developer conference is where the future of AI and automation are shaped,” he added. 

Moreover, the two-day annual conference provided attendees with practical insights through hands-on sessions and case studies led by ABBYY MVPs and experts. Participants learned how to design, scale, and deploy Document AI solutions for maximum impact. The event also offered opportunities to build new relationships and expand technical knowledge to support their progress in intelligent automation.

ABBYY, the US-based company with a presence in 13 countries, has not only built innovative products that aid document processing, trusted by more than 10,000 companies worldwide, but it has also taken several steps, such as the abovementioned hackathon, to nurture the talented developer community globally. 

For instance, it offers comprehensive training programs through ABBYY University, which include instructor-led classes, self-paced e-learning, and certification exams for its products, such as Vantage, FlexiCapture, Timeline and more. 

These programs enable customers, partners and MVPs to develop intelligent automation solutions, accelerate digital transformation and foster a global ecosystem of knowledge sharing, expertise and innovation.

The post How Developers Pushed the Boundaries of AI in ABBYY’s Hackathon  appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Enterprise and tech firms increasingly rely on third-party certifications and awards to benchmark culture and people practices. Each program uses distinct methodologies—from employee-driven surveys to fact-based audits—to assess areas like trust, leadership, wellbeing, and social impact. Earning these recognitions helps organizations stand out in recruitment, improve retention, and signal commitment to employees and stakeholders.

Below is a comprehensive look at the ten leading workplace certification and award programs, detailing how they work, what they measure, and why organizations pursue them to validate culture, attract talent, and drive performance.

1. Best Firm Certification

AIM’s Best Firm Certification spotlights AI and tech workplaces that truly empower data professionals. It relies on an independent, survey-based evaluation of employee perceptions across four dimensions: benefits, identity, purpose, and value quotient. Companies that meet the threshold receive a globally recognized badge valid for one year, signaling a supportive, growth-oriented culture to prospective talent.

Learn More about the Best Firm Certification >

2. Great Place to Work® Certification

Great Place to Work Certification measures culture through the Trust Index Survey and a Culture Brief, evaluating five dimensions—credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie. To qualify, organizations with 10+ employees must achieve high positive response rates. Certified companies enjoy benefits like award eligibility, stronger recruitment metrics, and lower turnover—51% lower than typical U.S. workplaces Great Place To Work®Great Place To Work®.

3. Top Employers Institute Certification

Top Employers Institute grants certification based on a fact-based HR Best Practices Survey covering domains such as People Strategy, Digital HR, Wellbeing, and DE&I. A dedicated HR auditor validates all survey responses, ensuring data accuracy. Certified organizations receive a global seal and access to benchmarking insights, helping them refine people practices and strengthen employer branding Top Employers InstituteTop Employers Institute.

4. Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®

Compiled in partnership with Great Place to Work, Fortune’s annual list ranks U.S. employers (≥1,000 employees) using two components: the Trust Index employee survey and a Culture Audit of programs and practices. Only Great Place to Work–certified organizations are eligible, and the list highlights those with outstanding trust, leadership credibility, and employee satisfaction Fortuneboxinvestorrelations.com.

5. Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards: Best Places to Work

Glassdoor honors top workplaces based solely on anonymous reviews submitted by current and former employees. Winners are determined through a proprietary algorithm that weighs the quantity, quality, and consistency of ratings across nine workplace attributes—from culture and values to compensation and work-life balance—without any fees or self-nominations GlassdoorGlassdoor.

6. B Corp Certification

Administered by B Lab, B Corp Certification assesses companies on their social and environmental performance via the B Impact Assessment. To certify, firms must score at least 80 out of 200 points, integrate stakeholder commitments into governing documents, and pay an annual fee. Re-certification every three years ensures ongoing adherence to high standards of accountability and transparency.
Learn more: Wikipediabcorporation.net.

7. Investors in People Accreditation

Originating in the UK in 1991, Investors in People accredits organizations against a framework of nine performance indicators—Leading, Supporting, Improving—using a Standard comprised of 39 outcome-based requirements. Accredited companies demonstrate effective leadership, strategy execution, and employee engagement, with four levels of recognition: Accredited, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
Learn more: WikipediaInvestors in People.

8. Forbes America’s Best Employers Lists

Forbes partners with Statista to survey employees and rank large (≥1,000 employees) and midsize (1,000–5,000) U.S. organizations. The methodology covers dimensions such as employee satisfaction, career advancement, and benefits. In 2025, over 4,000 employers were evaluated via more than 21,000 employee surveys, with top scorers earning placement on the lists.
Learn more: Forbes.

9. Fairygodboss Best Companies for Women Awards

Fairygodboss’s annual awards, launched in 2016, are based entirely on anonymous reviews from female employees. Companies are scored on three questions about job satisfaction, perceived gender equality, and willingness to recommend the employer to other women. Specialized lists—such as Best CEOs for Diversity and Best Companies for Flexibility—are derived from single-question ratings.
Learn more: FairygodbossFairygodboss.

10. PEOPLE’s 100 Companies That Care

PEOPLE magazine, in collaboration with Great Place to Work, recognizes 100 U.S. companies demonstrating exceptional care for employees, communities, and the environment. Rankings are based on over 1.3 million Great Place to Work Trust Index survey responses, complemented by company-submitted narratives showcasing social impact initiatives, volunteer programs, and sustainability efforts.
Learn more: People.com.

By pursuing these certifications and awards, organizations gain actionable feedback, external validation, and powerful branding assets. Whether improving culture, strengthening employer value propositions, or demonstrating social responsibility, these programs help companies attract top talent, boost engagement, and drive sustainable growth.

The post Top Ten Workplace Certifications Driving Culture and Growth appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Once seen as support hubs, Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India have evolved into strategic powerhouses, fueling innovation, scaling operations, and transforming how global enterprises function. Their economic and technological contributions have been significant creating jobs, advancing digital capabilities, and embedding global standards across industries.

MachineCon GCC Summit, Goa >> 5 – 7th December 2025 >>

Behind this evolution stand visionary leaders. These individuals are not only responsible for delivering operational outcomes but also for setting long-term direction, balancing global mandates with India’s dynamic opportunities. Their leadership drives agility, innovation, and excellence. This list celebrates the individuals at the helm those shaping the future of GCCs and elevating India’s position in the global enterprise map.

See Last year’s List >

(Listed in alphabetical order by company name)

Malahar Pinnelli

At 7-Eleven Global Solution Center (7-Eleven GSC–The Global Capability Centre of 7-Eleven in India), Malahar leads the strategy and operations for the center.

Malahar brings over two decades of experience in driving digital transformation and scaling global operations. His extensive background includes leadership roles at Ecolab, where he served as Senior Vice President of Technology and Managing Director of India GCC Operations, and significant tenures at leading retailers such as Target, Kohler, Joann Fabrics, and Digi-Key.

Malahar has a strong track record of building and scaling Global Capability Center (GCCs) for various organizations, including Ecolab, PFS, and others. His experience in establishing and scaling Ecolab’s digital innovation center in India is a testament of his ability to build high-performing teams from the ground up.

Malahar’s entrepreneurial experience, founding and scaling a startup, demonstrates his self-reliance and innovation. His strategic leadership in driving digital transformation and enhancing Global Business Services, resulting in significant business impact, marks him as a promising tech and business leader in India.

Ramesha Narahari

Ramesha Narahari is a seasoned executive professional serving as Whole Time Director, Head of ABB Business Services from starting 2025, and Electrification Enterprise Architecture Lead at ABB. With a rich track record in enterprise business services and the electrification landscape, Ramesha plays a pivotal role in shaping ABB’s regional architecture, aligning technology strategies with business goals across India, the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.

In his current capacity, he oversees multi-country ERP management and support, leading more than a dozen ABB nations through integrated digital transformation journeys. Ramesha manages large cross-functional teams, ensuring the seamless deployment, operational stability, and continuous enhancement of critical systems that enable value-driven industrial automation and smart electrification.

His leadership is rooted in a deep commitment to innovation, operational efficiency, and sustainability. Ramesha actively fosters collaboration across global and regional stakeholders, leveraging enterprise architecture principles to deliver scalable, resilient, and business-aligned technology solutions. As a strategic thinker and mentor, he cultivates high-performing teams prepared to meet the dynamic demands of the industry.

Ramesha brings a clear vision of leveraging digital transformation and architectural innovation to drive sustainable growth, operational resilience, and long-term value. His blend of strategic insight, technical acumen, and people-first leadership makes him a respected leader in the industry.

Prashant Jadhav

Prashant Jadhav leads the India Global Capability Centers (GCCs) of Air Products, overseeing the Digital Technology (DT) hubs in Pune and Vadodara. As a senior technology executive, he is responsible for establishing, scaling, and nurturing high-performing, value-driven teams that are at the forefront of product development, digital innovation, operational excellence, and strategic transformation.

Under his leadership, the Air Products DT India team has emerged as a key enabler of the company’s global digital strategy delivering technology solutions that align seamlessly with business priorities and drive enterprise-wide efficiency and agility. His efforts have contributed significantly to Air Products DT India earning the prestigious “Great Place to Work®” certification, a testament to the culture of excellence and employee-centric values he champions.

A recognized thought leader in the IT and GCC ecosystem, Prashant frequently shares his insights on building AI-enabled high-performing workforces, strategic talent development, and employee engagement. He is known for his ability to foster collaboration across cross-cultural, globally dispersed teams and his passion for transforming technology centers into strategic innovation partners.

Before joining Air Products, Prashant played a pivotal role in leading the Global IT Capability Center for Franke Faber India for nearly six years. With close to two decades of experience in digital technology leadership, he holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Pune University.

Jison John

Jison John is a seasoned leader with over 28 years of experience in the IT/ITES industry. He currently serves as the CEO and Managing Director of Allianz Services India, while also holding the global position of Chief Delivery Officer for Allianz Services locations in Mauritius, Morocco, Portugal, and Malaysia.

An accomplished academic, Jison is a Gold Medalist in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Kerala University. He further enhanced his expertise with a Post Graduate Diploma in Management and has been recognized as a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute UK (FCMI), the British Computer Society (FBCS), and the Institution of Engineers India (FIE). In 2024, he was honored as one of the “Top 25 CEOs/MDs/Founders” by the Great Manager Institute.

Under Jison’s leadership, Allianz Services India has garnered numerous national and international accolades. These include the prestigious Grand Stevie Award for Excellence in Customer Service, which the company has won twice, the title of World’s Best GBS in 2024, and recognition as one of the Top 20 Most Admired Shared Services in 2019 by SSON. Additionally, Allianz Services India has been named the Top GBS Employer in India by the Everest Group and has received the OPEX Team of the Year award. 

Jison has been instrumental in fostering an engaging workplace culture at Allianz Services India, earning the company the Great Place to Work® certification for six consecutive years. His leadership empowers employees to reach their full potential, driving continuous improvement, innovation, and delivery excellence across the organization.

Siva Kumar Padmanabhan

Siva Kumar Padmanabhan is the Managing Director of AstraZeneca India Private Limited and the Head of the Global Innovation and Technology Centre (GITC) Chennai. Since joining the organisation in 2014, Siva has been instrumental in the transformation of AstraZeneca’s global capability centre, driving the insourcing of critical IT services, building high-performing leadership teams and advancing innovative digital and data capabilities.

Under Siva’s leadership, AstraZeneca’s GCC was named one of India’s Top 50 Workplaces and Top 50 Best Companies for Women by Great Place to Work®, with 2024 marking the seventh consecutive year of certification. It has also consistently featured among India’s Top 50 Workplaces in IT & IT-BPM. What began as a focused IT centre has now evolved into a dynamic, multi-functional hub supporting global operations across IT, Global Business Services, Supply Chain Solutions and other enterprise functions.

Prior to AstraZeneca, Siva led the Global In-house Centre for IT & Digital at Flex, a Fortune 500 company, where he was responsible for delivering digital solutions across customer engagement and supply chain operations. Earlier in his career, Siva worked with PwC in management and technology consulting across India and the United States.

He holds an MBA in Finance and Information Systems from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore. Siva currently serves on the NASSCOM GCC Council (2023–27) and was named one of India’s 100 Most Influential AI Leaders in 2024 for his commitment to enterprise innovation through AI.

Mohit Dhingra

Mohit Dhingra is a seasoned leader with 24+ years of global expertise across banking & financial services, technology, and biopharmaceutical industries. He has been recognized with industry awards including CIO100, CSO100, Stevie and Brandon Hall Excellence awards for innovation and accelerating talent development. Since becoming Managing Director at Bristol Myers Squibb Business Services India in August 2023, Mohit has helped rapidly scale operations, to establish Hyderabad as one of BMS’ strategic global hubs and its largest international site outside the USA.

In two years, Mohit facilitated the expansion of the Hyderabad team from a small number to over 2,700+ employees. His efforts helped significantly enhance global partner confidence and fuel business expansion in Hyderabad, expanding capabilities across multiple functions in BMS, and swiftly driving full process ownership internally. These efforts have helped further BMS’ mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases.

Mohit regularly champions inclusivity initiatives, establishing impactful diversity-focused groups and CSR activities that uplift local communities. This has helped the organization secure industry awards including the GCC Transformation Catalyst Award and AIM MachineCon GCC Excellence Award.

Mohit is also a speaker in forums like the AI Global Summit and BioAsia 2024, participating in critical discussions on the future of technology and healthcare.

Kamal Sharma

Kamal Sharma is an accomplished business and technology leader in the Global Capability Centers (GCC) ecosystem, renowned for his visionary leadership in digital transformation, tech-driven innovation, and capability development. As the Head of Global Connected Hubs at Carrier, Kamal is at the forefront of redefining enterprise value delivery through a unique globally integrated GCC model that spans Carrier’s India, China, and Mexico based capability hubs. His leadership is instrumental in shaping Carrier’s digital future, driving innovation-led transformation, and building high-impact technology ecosystems.

Having worked with reputable organizations such as IBM and Satyam and bringing over two decades of experience in digital strategy, business growth, and deep-tech innovation, Kamal has consistently driven enterprise-wide transformations for leading multinational corporations. His early recognition as one of the youngest CIOs appointed Global CIO at Mindlance at the age of 28 highlights his forward-thinking approach and ability to lead at scale. Since then, he has led transformative initiatives at organizations like Jay Kuling Group and Tally Solutions, establishing himself as a trusted leader in digital excellence.

At Carrier, Kamal has been pivotal in scaling up the Digital Hub India into a center of innovation and operational excellence, fostering capabilities in cloud, AI/ML, IoT, data & analytics, and product engineering. His strategic foresight and ability to align technology with business outcomes have accelerated Carrier’s digital maturity and global competitiveness in recent times.

Kamal’s leadership philosophy is rooted in purpose, agility, and innovation. An enthusiastic champion of strengthening organizational D&I portfolio, Kamal views it as a catalyst for innovations and sustainable growth. His people-first mindset and commitment to building high-performing, inclusive teams makes him a role model in the GCC landscape. Beyond his corporate success, Kamal is a credible voice in the GCC/GIC/GBS domains, actively shaping the narrative around the evolution and growth of GCCs as strategic value creators in India truly exemplifying the vision of “building in India for the world.”

Ashish Patel

Under Ashish Patel’s leadership as the Managing Director of CBA India, the brand has strengthened multi-fold, and we have recently won three prestigious awards- Best Firms for Diversity & Inclusion in Tech by AIM; Impactful Global Capability Centers of India, 2025 by ET Edge; 20 Best Firms for Women in Tech to Work For by AIM in 2025!

He brings over 24 years of diverse experience across leading global organizations, including Allianz Holdings UK, Barclays
Bank, and HDFC Bank. His passion lies in Retail & Commercial Banking, Treasury, Digital Banking, Insurance P&C, Life & Health, e-Commerce, Robotics & AI, and Analytics, driving 50+ transformative projects locally and globally.

Ashish has successfully led teams in establishing digital excellence through open-source platforms, cloud delivery, and
cybersecurity frameworks. His strategic approach has built sustainable digital assets revolving around customer-centricity,
leveraging big data, APIs, and mobile solutions. Through resilience and innovation, he delivered 100% operational success
during the pandemic, ensuring seamless work-from-home transitions for his teams.

Ashish’s accomplishments include pioneering OPEX innovations to deliver considerable financial benefits, leading a strategic IT outsourcing deal at Yes Bank, and steering critical initiatives like the HDFC-Times Bank merger. Recognized globally, his accolades include the Silver Stevie Award, Asia Outsourcing Award, and consistent recognition as a high performer. Ashish remains focused on creating future-ready, connected ecosystems through agile transformation and sustainable digital solutions.

He has contributed to societal causes by championing energy conservation, earning national recognition like the SEEM Award and the National Energy Conservation Award. His leadership also earned his organization consecutive “Great Place to Work” certifications.

Ashish is dedicated to nurturing employee growth and development while delivering exceptional customer service.

Pratik Nath

With two and a half decades of experience in technology and business leadership, Pratik Nath is at the helm of Epsilon India as Managing Director, leading the company’s Global Capabilities Centre (GCC). Since taking charge last year, he has been instrumental in shaping Epsilon India into a vital engine of innovation, delivery, and talent for the company’s global advertising and marketing technology landscape.

At Epsilon, he is also a key driver of the company’s AI-first agenda, globally, helping teams to build best-in-class capabilities, scale AI-driven solutions across business lines, and embed intelligent automation into our ways of working. Under his leadership, the India centre comprising of 3500 associates, drives high-impact solutions that power client success worldwide. Pratik’s approach is rooted in building a culture of continuous innovation, unlocking strategic value, and nurturing career growth across the organization.

Known for his deep technical expertise and design-led approach to problem-solving, Pratik holds six engineering patents, reflecting his passion for innovation and first-principles thinking. He has successfully led large-scale transformations, built resilient and high-performing teams, and delivered outcomes that create lasting value for organizations and clients alike.

He is a strong advocate for inclusive leadership and a people-first culture, guided by a core belief: when you take care of your people and your clients, success follows. Through his work, Pratik continues to reinforce Epsilon India’s position as a center of excellence, innovation, and opportunity in the global GCC ecosystem.

Sachin Kulkarni

Sachin Kulkarni has over three decades of experience in building and scaling Global Capability Centers (GCCs) and driving profitable growth across global consulting and technology businesses. At Fiserv, he leads the transformation of a broad portfolio including cards, core banking, digital payments, ecommerce, financial risk and treasury solutions, application operations, product implementations, and professional services. Under his leadership, Global Services, Fiserv has successfully deepened its product engineering capabilities, achieved maturity in agile and DevSecOps practices, migrated critical workloads to the cloud, and pioneered the use of GenAI to drive productivity.  His career spans leadership roles across Europe, USA and Asia-Pacific, where he has delivered high-impact transformation programs, built differentiated go-to-market strategies, led strategic sales campaigns, and managed post-merger integrations with a focus on CXO relationship management and alliance partnerships.

He is also a member of the NASSCOM GCC Council and known for delivering strong outcomes across client satisfaction, operational excellence, and strategic growth. He has been instrumental in championing global roles out of India and is also a proud sponsor of Fiserv’s Women Impact Network, advancing inclusion and diversity.

With hands-on experience across 28 countries, Sachin has been a key driver of digital transformation, intelligent automation, and platform resilience initiatives.

Saurabh Saxena

Saurabh Saxena is the Intuit India Site Leader and Senior Vice President of Go-To-Market (GTM) Technology. In this dual capacity, he leads a global team that builds the technology platform capabilities powering Intuit’s go-to-market strategies. His team is responsible for building the platform capabilities that leverage AI to create deeply personalized customer journeys, optimize monetization, and accelerate experimentation, delivering transformative experiences for customers worldwide.

As the leader of the India site, Intuit’s second-largest tech and innovation hub, Saurabh’s leadership has been instrumental in accelerating India’s position as a strategic growth site for the company. An embodiment of Intuit’s home-grown success, Saurabh began his journey as a staff software engineer and has steadily risen through the ranks. In a previous role leading the Small Business & Self-Employed Group (SBSEG) in India, he and his team defined the strategy, vision, and roadmap that drove $2 billion in revenue for core products like QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Desktop.

A testament to his leadership and commitment to unleashing the potential of talent around him, Saurabh has been recognized as one of India’s Most Trusted Leaders by the Great Place To Work® Institute and named one of the Top 25 GCC Heads in India for 2024 by AIM Research. His other accolades include being conferred as a ‘Visionary Leader’ in the AI100 awards by Analytics India Magazine 2023 and receiving several prestigious Intuit awards, including the Scott Cook Innovation Award and the CEO Leadership Award.

Under his leadership, Intuit India has consistently earned recognition as one of ‘India’s Best Companies to Work For,’ Top employer for LGBTQ+ inclusion by the India Workplace Equality Index, and one of the country’s Top 10 Best firms for Data Scientists to work by Analytics India Magazine.

Dr. Rajesh Puneyani

With a remarkable career spanning 28 years of leadership experience across the globe, Rajesh has played a key role in setting up and maturing Centers of Excellence (COE), Global Delivery Centers (GDC), and Global Capability Centers (GCC).

Rajesh is recognized for his expertise in infrastructure technology, service management, and operational excellence, along with a strong commitment to digital transformation at Kenvue and during his previous roles at Lowe’s, Wells Fargo, Oracle, IBM, and Dell.

He is a graduate in Computer Science, and has a degree in MCA along with a MBA in Operations Management. He has completed several executive education programs, including the Artificial Intelligence for Leaders program from Texas McCombs School of Business and a CIO Program from New York University.

As a certified professional coach, Rajesh is dedicated to developing and bringing out the best across his teams and managing talent across levels. With a strong passion for employee engagement he ensures the experience for employees is on the top of his radar always. He has played a pivotal role in championing diversity and inclusion practices within the organizations he has served, particularly focusing on technology leadership and strategic initiatives.

As an industry leader, Rajesh has been a recipient of numerous awards throughout his career, including the coveted “Next 100 Future CIO” award in 2023, along with other prestigious recognitions for leadership and excellence in his previous roles.

Outside of work, Rajesh is dedicated to holistic wellness and health programs, and actively promotes this in his personal and professional space. He also has a passion for playing badminton and serving the community.

Ankur Mittal

Ankur Mittal is a visionary leader in India’s growing GCC ecosystem. As the Chief Technology Officer and Managing Director of Lowe’s India, he has played a major role in turning the company into a global center for innovation and digital growth. With over 20 years of distinguished experience in technology and strategic business leadership, Ankur has played a pivotal role in positioning Lowe’s India as a critical global hub driving cutting-edge digital transformation and seamless co-creation with Lowe’s Inc. His leadership is driving meaningful change and growth in the Indian GCC sector.

Under his leadership, Lowe’s India has significantly expanded its capabilities, increasing its leadership team fivefold and overall headcount by over 60% during the pandemic. The company now drives key initiatives across Lowe’s global operations, including omnichannel, online marketplace, and enterprise platforms among others. Notably, the India team developed the One Roof Media Network, a unique retail media service, and played a crucial role in the Pro Rewards, which has strengthened customer loyalty.

Ankur’s approach emphasizes ‘human leadership’, building an inclusive, agile culture that contributed to Lowe’s India being recognized as one of the best workplaces in the country. His educational background in engineering and management supports his ability to balance technological innovation with strategic business goals.

Prior to joining Lowe’s in 2019, Ankur held senior leadership roles at Target, including Vice President of Technology, and has also worked with major technology firms like Wipro and Infosys. His extensive experience reflects a sustained commitment to driving innovation and excellence in the technology sector.

Soumitra Saha

Soumitra Saha serves as the Managing Director and Country Head of Lumen Technologies, India, and is based in Bangalore. As a key leader within the organization, Soumitra is spearheading a transformative initiative to establish Lumen India as a premier technology hub for Lumen Technologies globally. He is also an active member of the NASSCOM Karnataka Regional Council.

Soumitra has been recognized for his exceptional leadership with multiple accolades, including “Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia” by the Times Group, “Influential Leaders of India 2024” by Republic TV and Marksmen Daily, and the “Visionary Leader” award at the Bharat Leadership Excellence Awards 2024. Under his leadership,Lumen India has also earned distinctions such as “Technology Leader” and “Most Preferred Workplaces 2024” by Marksmen Daily.

With over 25 years of experience in Banking, Finance, and Information Technology, Soumitra brings a wealth of expertise to his role. Prior to joining Lumen, he served as Head of Technology for the APAC region at Northern Trust across multiple business units, where he successfully drove key technology initiatives. At Fidelity Investments (FMR) India, Soumitra held several leadership positions, including Head of Capital Markets Technology, Head of Innovation, and Head of Strategy and Planning. During his 14-year tenure at Fidelity, he contributed across diverse domains such as Asset Management, Institutional Services, Stock Plan Services, and Brokerage Services. Soumitra’s earlier career includes roles at UBS (via HCL Perot Systems) in London, where he worked in the Confirmations and Settlements team, and Infosys Technologies, where he began his professional journey in 2000.

Soumitra’s extensive international experience spans Boston, Toronto, Ottawa, San Francisco, and London,providing him with a rich multicultural perspective. He is deeply passionate about leveraging technology as a catalyst for innovation, creating groundbreaking products, services, and experiences that enhance client engagement.

An alumnus of INSEAD’s Executive Management program, Soumitra also holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, India.

Manu Saale

As the Managing Director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI), Manu leads the largest R&D centre for Mercedes-Benz Group AG outside Germany. With nearly three decades in automobile innovation and engineering, Manu has held various leadership roles, driving organisational transformation through complex business challenges. He focuses on digital engineering, passenger safety, and sustainable mobility, leading a team of over 8,500 engineers.

Under Manu’s leadership, MBRDI has evolved from a cost-focused unit to a strategic partner for the group, noted for its skilled workforce and impactful innovations. During his tenure, the centre has witnessed a rise in gender diversity and grown to excel in digital mechanical engineering and software development. Manu has fostered advanced technologies in automotive, leading to numerous industry awards, including the CII Industrial Innovations Award ‘Top 75 Innovative Companies’ recognition and the ASSOCHAM IP Excellence Award for the ‘Best IP Portfolio – Large Enterprises (Engineering)’ in 2024. Manu’s engineering contributions and visionary leadership have also been recognised by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), which elected him as a Fellow for his pivotal role in driving technological development in India. 

Manu holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication from the University of Mysore, India.

Ramya Parashar

Ramya Parashar is the Chief Operating Officer of MiQ’s Bangalore Center of Excellence, where she drives strategic growth, operational excellence, and a people-first transformation agenda for one of the most critical innovation hubs in global adtech. At the helm of one of India’s most transformative GCCs, Ramya Parashar is redefining how data, innovation, and people-first leadership converge to shape global impact.

With over 13 years in Executive Leadership across JCPenney, FireEye, and Monsanto, Ramya brings a rare combination of technology depth and business acumen, having led large-scale digital transformations, enterprise application strategies, and data science-driven growth initiatives.

At MiQ, she steers CoE operations with a focus on:

• Scaling high-impact teams and sustainable delivery models
• Embedding data and analytics into core business decisions
• Enhancing operational agility to drive profitability and retention
• Driving operational leverage

Ramya is a member of MiQ’s Global Executive Board and a published voice in digital media with over 50+ features. Her leadership has earned her industry recognition including Top 25 GCC Head-AIM, Women COO (2022), Leader 2.0 – 40 Under 40, Iconic Women of Excellence (Fortune India), and The Inc Most Inspiring Women Entrepreneur.

She holds a degree in Electronics and is a certified Digital Business Strategist and Organisational Performance Expert from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB).

Uma Ratnam Krishnan

Uma Ratnam Krishnan is Managing Director of Optum India, which is a global capability center of UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune 4 company one of the world’s largest health care organizations.

At Optum, Uma oversees strategy, execution, delivery, and governance in close partnership with clients and global teams. In this role, she sets the company’s vision across the country, helping teams deliver distinctive value across all businesses.

Uma has a rich and diverse experience including global roles where she has been part of senior leadership teams – conceptualizing, providing strategy and vision, setting up and managing P&L businesses and initiatives, and working with large cross functional and geographically diverse teams.

Uma started her working life with the Indian Foreign Service having secured all India 13^th rank in the Civil services exam. Prior to starting her corporate career, she completed an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore. And followed this up with a Women in Leadership program at Harvard Business School and a Strategy Program at Wharton. She has been engaged with various industry associations and been a speaker at many forums with diverse talent. She currently serves as a member of the NASSCOM National GCC Council.

Prior to joining Optum, Uma served as the CEO & MD, Barclays Global Services. Over the last three decades she has had senior leadership roles in Natwest in the UK, ANZ Grindlays Bank, HDFC Bank and Polaris Software. She has served as an independent director on the boards of various companies including Chennai metro rail and mentored promising startups to scale.

Uma is passionate about building high performing business where every team member can deliver their best work every day. She is an avid trekker and outdoor and fitness enthusiast and loves travelling with her family.

Murali Krishna

As Chief Global Officer for Providence, one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the United States, Murali Krishna heads Providence’s global innovation center in Hyderabad, India, and also leads the expansion of new and diversified business models, building partnerships with U.S. health systems to drive digital transformation at scale in the industry. Providence India builds information services, products, and solutions to enable health for a better world. The center’s innovative engineering capabilities help accelerate digital transformation in healthcare, improve patient and caregiver experiences and deliver digitally enhanced outcomes. 

Recognized as one of the top GCC leaders in India, Murali brings more than 25 years of rich engineering and business acumen from strong executive leadership roles at Microsoft and General Electric (GE), where he led business and digital transformation, and technology integration and customer success efforts. He played a pivotal role in GE’s information technology set up in India.

A people-first leader, Murali is a strong proponent for inclusion and work-life integration. He champions gender diversity in the workplace as a strategic priority and actively advocates for mental health and well-being. At Microsoft and GE, he served as executive sponsor for DEI, driving meaningful cultural shifts.  

Murali is Vice Chair of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM India), the apex chamber of U.S. industry in India. He is also an executive committee of the Society for Cyberabad Security Council, a not-for-profit association that brings together business and government to drive industry-wide safety and security programs in Hyderabad’s IT corridor.

In his career, Murali has received several awards for leadership and excellence in business and transformation, including the Business CIO Award for Lasting Contribution, and the President’s Award for community service.

Murali is an engineer, has an Executive MBA from Indian School of Business, and is an associate alumni of Harvard Medical School. He is Six Sigma Black Belt certified, underscoring his expertise in operational excellence.

Debashis Neogi

Debashis Neogi is an Auto Industry professional with over 35 plus experience in Product Development, Innovation, Project management and launch of vehicles not only in India but also in his stint abroad. As a Managing Director of Renault Nissan Technology & Business Centre, India, he is leading India’s biggest GCC centre in Automotive with 10500 plus workforce having three key verticals – Engineering, Information Technology and Business Process Services. Since taking over the centre in 2021, he has been instrumental in growing the centre’s strength and revenue by 50% in last few years.

The centre has not only grown in numbers but also in capabilities like vehicle design /development in advanced technologies like Autonomous driving, Electrification, Connectivity but also deep tech areas like AI, Cyber security, Cloud computing etc. He is a people centric leader, whose leadership and strategies has resulted in his centre being certified as Great Place to work by Great Place to Work Institute and Top Employer Award by Top Employer Institute. Prior to being MD of the centre, he worked as Director, Powertrain Engineering in Renault Technical Centre in Romania and was instrumental in launch of many cars in Europe with latest powertrain technologies.

Before Renault Nissan, he worked in reputed Automotive companies like General Motors, Tata Cummins, Case New Holland Tractors and Bajaj Auto. He is also actively involved in growth of Tech Industry in India as a Nasscom Engineering R&D Council member. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with postgraduate in Management Science.

Kalavathi G V

Kalavathi GV (Kala) is the Executive Director and Head of the Global Development Center (DC) at Siemens Healthineers (Siemens Healthcare Pvt. Ltd.). In this role, she leads one of the organization’s largest technology excellence centers outside Germany, with operations in India and Slovakia. Under her leadership, DC plays a critical role in advancing precision health solutions and enabling global and local healthcare innovation.

With nearly three decades of industry experience, Kala brings deep expertise in product segmentation, R&D development, and market-focused innovation. Before joining Siemens Healthineers, she served as the Senior Vice-President and Global Head of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the Software Centre of Excellence at Royal Philips. There, she led large-scale transformation programs and drove global healthcare growth through technology leadership. Her earlier tenure at GE Healthcare, spanning over a decade, was marked by her focus on glocalization and delivering value from India to global markets.

She firmly believes that Global Capability Centers (GCCs) have evolved into innovation centers that co-drive strategy, innovation, and business outcomes. At Siemens Healthineers, she has championed the belief that healthcare is inherently local, and so must be the solutions. She emphasizes the importance of increasing patient touchpoints and sees collaboration as the cornerstone for driving meaningful, context-aware impact. She has fostered a multi-dimensional approach that includes strengthening talent development, focused on academic partnerships and upskilling initiatives, while also building ecosystem collaborations to accelerate innovation and knowledge exchange.

Kala’s journey is defined by purpose, resilience, and a strong commitment to making a difference to the world. She is driven by the strong purpose of saving and making a difference in people’s lives. She is a strong advocate for digital transformation and its potential to improve access and outcomes in healthcare, especially for underserved populations. She actively contributes to various industry forums and councils, working at the intersection of healthcare and IT to strengthen India’s leadership in the global innovation ecosystem. She is also a committed voice for increasing the representation of women in senior technology roles.

Amit Kalra

As Managing Director at Swiss Re group, Amit Kalra has more than 20+ years of global leadership experience in financial services industry. He leads Swiss Re’s Global Business Solutions division, which offers groupwide capabilities of Digital Services for employees and clients, Partner Enablement, and global capability hubs in India (Bangalore and Hyderabad) and Slovakia. He has diverse experience in executive and strategic leadership, business and cultural transformation, innovation and thought leadership.

He also heads the global capability hub in India- a setup of over 2,400 professionals across the re/insurance value chain. In this role, he works with his counterparts to enhance Swiss Re’s competitiveness in the market by delivering excellence in core business and technology capabilities and enabling transformation through R&D-focused initiatives and innovation.

Amit joined Swiss Re in 2007 and has held various roles since then- setting up and leading Economic Research and Consulting India; incubating and leading analytics and non-life actuarial teams; as Head Strategy India, designing and executing strategic development initiatives, enabling growth and ecosystem connect; and as Head of India setup, he drove the growth, capability development and holistic transformation of India hub.

He also founded and led the global Swiss Re startup initiative- InsurTech Accelerator, which sourced innovative ideas/solutions in the re/insurance sector. He has written several global studies published under Swiss Re’s sigma publications on trends in emerging markets, covering topics like food security, micro insurance, and urbanization.

Amit is an executive member of NASSCOM national and Karnataka GCC Councils and has previously served as Chair NASSCOM Karnataka GCC council and President South- Swiss India Chambers of Commerce (SICC). He is also an Independent Board member at Institute of Insurance and Risk Management (IIRM), Hyderabad.

Amit is a Harvard Business School alumnus (AMP 2023), and holds a Master’s degree in Business Economics from University of Delhi. He is a qualified Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Reinsurance from The Institutes, United States.

Andrea Zimmerman

Andrea Zimmerman is the president of Bengaluru-based Target in India (TII), a headquarter location of Target, one of America’s leading retailers that serves guests at nearly 2,000 stores and at Target.com.  Andrea leads a multi-disciplinary team of more than 5000 team members across tech, data and core business functions that include merchandising, marketing and digital, properties, supply chain, HR operations, finance and more. Andrea has held the position of president of TII for close to two years during which she has been instrumental in expanding TII’s capabilities and driving strategic initiatives that help deliver transformative retail solutions and accelerate growth for Target. Her previous experience in human resources has ensured her focus on continuing to nurture an award-winning culture at TII, positioning the organisation as an employer of choice across the GCC and retail industry.

Under Andrea’s tenure, Target in India has received some of the following key recognitions:

2025:

• Best companies to work for in India by Blind
• Featured at No.2 for the second year running in LinkedIn Top Companies: The 10 best Retail and FMCG employers
• Finkelstein Awards for Data Engineering Excellence in the category of ‘Best Collaboration between Data Engineering and Business teams’

2024:

• 50 Best Firms for Data Scientists to Work – Analytics India Magazine
• Top GBS Employers + Top Employers for Tech Talent – Everest Group
• Best Companies for Women in India in the Avtar & Seramount Top Companies for Women in India (BCWI)

Andrea joined Target in 2007 and has held a variety of roles in HR in the U.S. and India, driving large scale structural and operational change and building highly effective global teams. Prior to her current role, she was Vice President of Future of Work and HR Strategy for Target Corporation, reimagining how global teams connect, work and collaborate in a hybrid environment, while also leading and driving strategic priorities across HR.

Andrea has a post-graduate degree in business administration from the Carlson School of Business. She lives in Bengaluru with her husband and, in her personal time enjoys being outdoors, traveling and spending time with family.

Vijayaraman Subramanian

Vijayaraman J. Subramanian (Vijay) is the Vice President & Managing Director for Verizon India, one of the largest telecoms based Global Capability Centers (GCC) in the country. Vijay spearheads the charter for transforming and evolving Verizon India as a strategic center, an innovation hub and a great place to work. Vijay is a member of the CSR Committee for Verizon India.

Verizon India is an integral part of the global teams that brought 5G to life. Driven by its purpose of moving the world forward, Verizon India, is focused on areas ranging from emerging technologies, design, customer experience, cybersecurity to global services.

Vijay has been associated with Verizon India since its inception in 2001. As a passionate leader and firm believer in empowerment, championing customer-focused innovation, he leads people through change, building high-performance, diverse, & inclusive teams. He also focuses on organization level initiatives like talent transformation, driving innovation through intrapreneurship and ecosystem connections with start-ups, academia and industry peers.

Vijay holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Applications from Bharathidasan University, Trichy (TN, India). He also holds two patents to his name, actively contributes to industry forums including NASSCOM. In 2023 & 2024, Vijay was recognized as one of the top 25 GCC Heads in India by Analytics India magazine. He was also recognized as one of India’s Most Trusted Leaders by the Great Management Institute in partnership with Great Places to Work in 2024. Under his leadership, Verizon India has been recognized as one of the most impactful GCCs in India by ETNOW, and amongst the top 10 Great Places to Work in 2024.

Envisioning the importance of unlocking the potential of the young workforce in India, Vijay devotes a lot of his time in coaching youngsters to navigate their way into the professional realm. He also works closely with select start-ups to mentor and help them shape their aspirations in line with the changing technology landscapes.

Balu Chaturvedula

As the Senior Vice President (SVP) & Country Head, Balu leads Walmart Global Tech‘s vision in India to drive a culture of innovation and support the delivery of delightful experiences for Walmart’s customers, members and associates.
He oversees the building and deployment of scalable, leverageable capabilities and systems across the enterprise. His hands-on approach and vision for the future of retail has been instrumental in nurturing high-performance teams. With nearly three decades of experience in the industry, Balu has been deeply invested in aligning technology with business goals and leading teams that consistently deliver compelling results. He has played an integral role in nurturing the supply chain talent in India.

Balu joined Walmart in 2015. During his tenure, he played a vital role in building the fulfillment technology that focused on delivering a flawless experience for each customer order while reducing costs. With nearly three decades of experience in the industry, Balu has been deeply invested in aligning technology with business goals and leading teams that consistently deliver compelling results. He has played an integral role in nurturing the supply chain talent in India.

Prior to Walmart, Balu has worked with organizations such as HP, Yahoo! and Motorola where he spent time creating systems and platforms that have significantly contributed to the bottom line. He was also a founding member of Confluent Software where he helped enterprises reduce security threats by building security intermediary products.

Balu holds an engineering degree from the University of Madras and an executive management degree from UC Berkely.

Uday Odedra

Uday Odedra leads Wells Fargo’s operations in India and the Philippines. He is responsible for executing on Wells Fargo’s strategy for the region by building efficient capabilities and enabling a performance driven culture. Recently, he was appointed to the Nasscom India GCC Council 2025-2027. A seasoned executive, Uday has a wealth of experience in the global financial services sector.

He joined Wells Fargo from UBS AG, bringing broad experience in the global financial services sector, including international business leadership, technology and data strategy. With more than 25 years of experience at UBS, Uday served in a variety of leadership roles, including Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of India, and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Asia. As the CEO of UBS India, Uday led the build out of the company’s footprint in India, driving strong collaboration between technology, operations, and the business. Additionally, he led large global teams across UBS Investment Banking, UBS Services, which included Digital, Technology, and Operations, and UBS philanthropy.

Our GCC Explorer provides detailed insights on nearly 1,400 GCCs—and if you’d like our help navigating this ecosystem write to info@aimmediahouse.com.

The post Top 25 GCC Heads India 2025 appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Far from being a mere support function, India’s GCCs have turned into a formidable sector driving cutting-edge innovation, groundbreaking research and development and digital transformation.  

For instance, JPMorgan Chase’s India team embedded LLMs into financial systems to enable smarter decision-making. This is just one of the examples. Such advancements, once the exclusive domain of core teams at global headquarters, are now being ideated and led out of GCCs in India. 

Today, 40–50% of India-based GCCs are focused on R&D, AI, analytics, and product engineering, according to a Zinnov report. Among mid-market firms, these GCCs are 1.3 times more likely to focus on digital transformation, and nearly half of all global product management talent for these companies is now based in the country. 

A clear indicator that the GCC landscape is not just expanding, it’s accelerating up the value chain, evolving beyond their role as cost-efficient support functions into strategic engine rooms of AI-led innovation.

India is home to nearly 1,975 GCCs, employing close to 1.9 million professionals, with projections estimating over 3,000 GCCs by 2030. Between FY25 and FY29, GCCs are projected to generate value at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11-12%, according to the PwC India report.

With deeper alignment between Indian centres and global headquarters, this could surge to 14-15%, underscoring their growing strategic relevance. The scale and impact are truly staggering.

“The conversation has moved beyond operational efficiency to delivering strategic impact,” Ayushi Jain, GCC head at LatentView Analytics, said. “Organisations now expect tangible business value from their GCCs at speed, making innovation non-negotiable.” GenNext GCCs are levelling up with AI-driven advanced analytics. 

AI, Data, and Tech as Innovation Multipliers

At the core of this transformation is the pivot towards data-driven innovation. Over 185 GCCs have established dedicated AI/ML centres of excellence (CoEs), while more than 30 innovation centres have been launched in just the past few years. It shows that the Indian hubs of MNCs are committed to innovation, leveraging the country’s vast talent pool.

A BCG report states only 8% of GCCs lead in innovation, but over 90% are developing AI centres of excellence. GCCs now design AI-driven supply chains, customer intelligence engines, and analytics tools—beyond their back-office roles. 

One notable example of Indian GCCs taking leadership in R&D and AI is Walmart Global Tech India. The GCC employs AI in its retail ecosystem—optimising inventory, enabling real-time substitutions, and deploying personalised recommendations to enhance shopping.

“GCCs are now deeply involved in building products, enabling digital transformation, and even contributing directly to topline growth,” said Jain, adding that LatentView is working with a multinational American climate solutions company to improve their supply chain by creating a unified productivity view and integrating a GenAI chatbot for data-driven insights across regions. 

LatentView also helps clients apply AI across business functions including early threat detection through Risk and Fraud Analytics.  

However, AI-driven innovation demands high investments, and many companies hold back unsure of the returns at the risk of losing a competitive edge. To navigate this, LatentView recommends a use-case-driven balanced approach. 

“It’s about first identifying the low-hanging fruit where companies can unlock dollars by improving operational efficiency and then using the resources to fuel innovation,” Krishnan Venkata, Chief Client Officer at LatentView, said.

Tier-2 Cities Join the Innovation Party

While Bengaluru still hosts over 875 GCCs and accounts for 34% of India’s GCC workforce, its share is declining as Tier-2 cities increase their presence. GCCs are now coming up in Indore, Mysuru, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Jaipur, and Ahmedabad, where companies benefit from 40-60% lower operating costs and 30-40% lower attrition.

Jain stated that several state in India now has their own GCC policy, indicating the widespread adoption of this model at both the industry and policy levels. Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and UP, all have framed GCC policies aligning with their respective states. 

But scaling in newer regions is a constraint. Parameters like site selection, local compliance, and operational coordination across multiple cities often trip up global companies. Besides, attracting and retaining talent, especially in the face of competition from well-established IT companies, also remains a challenge for the GCCs. 

“Many GCCs, particularly in analytics and IT, still function as execution arms rather than strategic partners. Their value is often assessed by team size instead of business impact,” Rajan Sethuraman, CEO of LatentView Analytics, said. “As a result, most of them struggle to influence major decisions or spearhead new initiatives.” 

This is where LatentView comes in. The company helps GCCs with change management, talent, and business cases to make data-driven innovation central to India’s strategy.

“While GCCs hire top-tier talent, they often underutilise these professionals by restricting them to narrow functions,” Sethuraman added, noting that employees can’t innovate without understanding customer problems or participating in strategy. “Our Global Innovation Hub fosters integration, collaboration, and business outcomes through change management and value transition, he said. 

Nano GCCs: A New Model for Mid-Sized Enterprises

Apart from large companies, LatentView helps mid-market firms, especially those with revenues between $400 million and $1 billion, establish ‘nano GCCs’—small innovation centres of about 50-100 people focused on AI experimentation. “We assist global firms in launching and scaling innovative centres that attract top talent and avoid the need for large initial setups,” Jain said. 

The company believes in a combination of technical and domain expertise. It also has learning pathways to equip employees with the latest technologies. “We don’t just train our employees for AI, we train for AI in consumer goods, or AI in BFSI,” said Jain. “That domain depth is what separates real impact from theoretical capability.”

Organisations realise that scale alone doesn’t define GCC success, especially as they adopt strategic, innovation-led roles. Their advantage lies in intelligently leveraging data, talent, and AI for measurable impact.

The new benchmark is their ability to influence product vision, drive experimentation, and embed analytics into the core of business strategy.

The shift is already underway, with India’s GCCs at the centre, not only executing strategies but also informing and enabling them through data-driven innovation embedded in global enterprises.

The post Indian GCCs are Becoming the R&D Hub of the World appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

As witnessed in recent years, the remarkable capabilities of AI and large language models have transformed business expectations. 

For example, a KPMG report this year revealed that 72% of 225 executives surveyed believed generative AI could significantly boost productivity. Additionally, 66% anticipated a future shift in work practices, and 62% believed it could foster innovation, leading to the development of more products and services.

However, this unprecedented demand for AI expertise has created a skills shortage that traditional education models struggle to address. 

Against this backdrop, O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) has introduced India’s first one-year master’s programme in artificial intelligence and data science through its Jindal Centre for Digital Sciences. The programme is developed in collaboration with upGrad, one of Asia’s largest integrated skilling and lifelong learning majors. It is also offered in true upGrad tradition, enabling flexible schedules for working professionals.

This offers a concise yet thorough curriculum tailored for professionals looking to benefit from the AI revolution without lengthy time commitments.

While upGrad has partnered with international universities such as Golden Gate University, Edgewood College, Paris School of Business, International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B), Liverpool John Moores University and Liverpool Business School to facilitate their postgraduate programmes, this collaboration signifies a deeper Bharat penetration with one of India’s top-tier academic institutions.

JGU was also ranked as India’s top private university by the QS World University Rankings 2023, maintaining this position for three consecutive years. This means students not only have the chance to upskill and participate in the ongoing AI revolution, but they can also do so as alumni of a prestigious institution. 

Breaking the 2-Year Tradition

Given that AI transformation of your profession isn’t a matter of “if” but “when,” there’s an urgent need to accelerate your career development and upskilling journey. This is where JGU’s program provides a distinct competitive advantage.

The program’s one-year duration represents a unique advantage in the Indian higher education system. Additionally, it is one of only four private institutions to be awarded the Institution of Eminence status by the Ministry of Education. The curriculum that is being offered is also approved by the AICTE/UGC. 

This programme has been crafted under the active guidance of Professor Dinesh Singh, former Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi.

Professor Dinesh Singh is a distinguished mathematician and educationist. He serves as the Chairman of the Executive Committee as well as Vice Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Higher Education Council. He is also a Distinguished University Professor at O. P. Jindal Global University where he heads the Centre for Digital Sciences as its founding Director. His mathematical work has been recognised internationally and he has been conferred several honours including the Padma Shri and honorary doctorates from leading global universities. He has been instrumental in shaping India’s National Education Policy 2020 and holds/has held academic appointments in some of the top universities globally. He has been President of India’s leading mathematical body, the Ramanujan Mathematical Society. He is a prolific writer, scholar and is pioneering new technology and AI based ideas in education and research. Singh has also served as AICTE Distinguished Chair Professor.

What truly sets this program apart is the world-class faculty. The programme will be taught by instructors from renowned universities, such as the University of Houston and the University of Waterloo, as well as industry experts from companies that have successfully implemented AI, ML, and data science on a large scale. 

The curriculum is based on the ‘Zero to One’ principle, beginning with fundamental mathematical concepts and progressing to technical skills and business applications. There is no requirement for prior coding experience, making this program truly accessible to graduates from any academic background.

It also offers straightforward eligibility criteria. Candidates must hold a bachelor’s degree to be eligible; even those with less than 50% marks in their graduation have a fair opportunity to participate in the programme by appearing for an online entrance examination.

Whether you’re a recent graduate or a working professional seeking to pivot into the digital future, this program is your gateway to a high-impact career in AI, ML, and data science.

A 3-Trimester Structure With a ‘SMART’ Approach

The program spans three trimesters, with the first focusing on foundational elements. These include probability and statistics, linear algebra, Python programming for data science, and database management. 

The second trimester advances to machine learning fundamentals, deep learning applications, big data analytics, and data visualisation techniques. The final trimester concludes with classical machine learning models, modern AI technologies for business, and a 12-credit capstone project covering various industries.

Students have the option to choose from five specialised capstone projects, involving practical applications across various sectors such as finance, e-commerce, marketing, healthcare, customer service, and more. 

During the three trimesters, students will also learn to apply their knowledge in a practical environment by utilising over 15 industry tools and frameworks. 

Moreover, the programme has dedicated modules on generative AI technologies, keeping pace with the latest industry trends. By learning to harness GenAI for coding efficiency and data science applications, students gain the cutting-edge skills that graduates need.

What’s more important is that the three-trimester programme uses a ‘S.M.A.R.T’ learning approach, covering all the key aspects of an effective upskilling process. 

The S.M.A.R.T framework combines Study (30%), Make (25%), Attempt (25%), Revise (10%), and Test (10%) to enhance learning through hands-on practice, skill-building exercises, and ongoing assessment. 

AI as a technology of the future is a narrative of the past — we’re living in its era today. 

Every day spent without upskilling allows competitors to gain exponential ground in a market that highly rewards early adopters.

JGU’s one-year Master’s in AI and Data Science cuts through the clutter of endless online courses and purely theoretical programmes. It delivers precisely what today’s market demands: real expertise that can be acquired in relatively short timelines. 

The question has evolved beyond whether you need AI skills; it’s whether you’ll master them before your competitors do. In a world where technology advances at breakneck speed, human hesitation remains the only genuine risk.

Learn more about the program here. 

The post Go From Zero to AI Expert in 12 Months With JGU’s Master’s Powered by upGrad appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

As enterprises move from digital experimentation to transformation at scale, Global Business Services (GBS) and Global Capability Centres (GCCs) are being redefined. 

Once seen as cost-saving functions, GBS units are now emerging as strategic enablers of enterprise innovation. A recent EdgeVerve report developed in collaboration with SSON, unpacks how a unified AI platform can help organisations break from piecemeal AI initiatives to drive full-scale, value-centric change.

From Fragmented AI Initiatives to Strategic Platforms

A key insight from the report is that fragmented AI efforts, although easier to implement, rarely scale. However, many GCCs and GBS units remain entrenched in outdated paradigms, with legacy service models focused on cost still dominating. 

According to the survey, 65% of GBS organisations are still in the early stages of AI adoption, while 51% are using function-specific AI applications. These projects are often driven by a conservative and incremental mindset, optimising what already exists rather than redesigning for the future.

Meanwhile, 77% of such organisations plan to implement AI within the next year, signalling a clear strategic priority and an exciting opportunity. 

“The biggest shift comes from the top down, where [executives] look at it strategically end to end,” Manzur Ali, AVP and head of GBS solutions at EdgeVerve, said. “Incremental gains rarely scale. GBS leaders are missing the power of delivering improvements end-to-end across their business processes,” he added.

A unified AI platform enables real-time visibility, process orchestration and end-to-end collaboration across departments. Traditionally, front and mid-office operations have consumed the majority of enterprise budgets while operating in isolation from back-office functions, creating inefficiencies and blind spots. By aligning front, mid, and back-office processes on a unified platform, organisations move toward a “Central Office” model, achieving full visibility across customer journeys and business functions. 

As Sathish Kumar EV, senior director at EdgeVerve, put it, “Traditional back-office teams are often confined to a single geography. A unified platform breaks this constraint, enabling on-demand access to skills across locations.”

The Case for Agentic AI

The report also tracks the emergence of agentic AI, a new class of intelligent systems capable of autonomous planning, decision-making and execution. Unlike traditional automation or generative AI, agentic AI systems operate with minimal human input, executing tasks by understanding objectives and sourcing data in a contextual manner. 

It’s important to note that Agentic AI marks a significant evolution and shouldn’t be perceived as an improvement to the erstwhile automation technologies like RPA, etc.

“Agentic AI is not RPA++. It is a megatrend and much bigger than generative AI,” Praveen Kombial, global sales head at EdgeVerve, said. “Imagine an AI ecosystem autonomously identifying a facility defect, soliciting vendor quotes and initiating repair without any human involvement. This is not the future; this is now.”

Despite its promise, challenges around data readiness, governance and integration persist. 

Vladimiro Ferreira,  head of automation CoE at SEG Automotive and SSON thought-leader, noted, “Agentic AI is indeed a game-changer when it is rolled out on a solid foundation. Deploying agentic AI without quality data is like building your house on quicksand.”

This underscores the report’s central argument: platform-led transformation is a prerequisite for scaling AI initiatives across the enterprise.. A unified platform anchors the data infrastructure, integration capabilities and implementation of responsible AI needed for scalable, secure deployment.

Building a Scalable AI-First Model

The report lays out a five-step roadmap for GBS leaders looking to move beyond pilots. It includes choosing the right model, setting clear goals, preparing the data layer, scaling responsibly and focusing on ROI and long-term value.

Case studies in the report showcase successful large-scale implementations enabled by the platform approach. For instance, a global bank used EdgeVerve’s AI Next platform to initiate over 95 transformation projects, saving over a million hours. A manufacturing firm cleared a million contract lines with 100% accuracy, while a logistics firm boosted automation coverage from 10% to 70%.

The Path Forward

The report presents a clear case that the next wave of transformation in GBS will be driven not by more tools, but by deeper integration and innovation. 

“If you want people to be democratically building applications, as long as it is on one common stack, then at least you know that you have built the right controls,” Praveen Kombial noted.

Beyond Incremental Gains offers a practical and strategic view of what comes next. It reframes AI not as a toolset, but as an operating model, one that is platform-led, Agentic AI-powered and built to scale.Download the full report here.

The post Why GBS Leaders Must Move Beyond AI Experiments appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Google Cloud is doubling down on its commitment to empower India’s global capability centres (GCCs) with AI infrastructure and tools that go far beyond basic automation. From LLMs to purpose-built data agents, the company is positioning its unified agentic data-to-AI platform as the foundation for next-generation enterprise transformation. 

At the heart of this strategy is the belief that GCCs aren’t just back offices; they’re becoming innovation hubs capable of driving autonomous decision-making, end-to-end product development, and real-time intelligence at scale.

At the MachineCon GCC Summit, Arun Ramamurthy, who leads the GCC charter at Google Cloud, offered a comprehensive vision of how the company is making advanced AI tools, including Gemini, Agentspace and Vertex AI, directly accessible to developers, data teams, and operations leaders within global capability centres.

“When we started engaging with GCCs five or six years ago, it was all about developer tools and infrastructure optimisation,” Ramamurthy said. “But today, it’s [about driving] business transformation through critical technologies like data and AI.”

Google’s new unified approach—what Ramamurthy called a “vertically integrated, top-down platform”—brings together decades of AI research into production-ready products. At the core is its agentic data-to-AI platform, designed not only to support teams but to act on their behalf.

What Lies Beneath

To illustrate what the future looks like, Ramamurthy played a demo of Project Astra from DeepMind—a single-shot video featuring a multimodal AI assistant that can hear, see, reason, and respond in real-time. 

The underlying technology is now being integrated directly into Google Cloud’s stack, Ramamurthy explained.

“Generative AI is like an assistant—it waits for instructions. But agentic AI is more like a CEO you never knew you had,” Ramamurthy said. “It can take autonomous decisions, collaborate beyond human boundaries, and still operate within constraints defined by you.”

Google’s suite of tools extends from its most performant LLM, Gemini 2.5, which supports up to 1 million context tokens, to its proprietary AI infrastructure. 

Ironwood, the company’s seventh-generation Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), delivers a staggering 42.5 exaFLOPs per pod—25 times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputers. 

For businesses exploring hybrid AI strategies, Google’s AI Hypercomputer allows seamless orchestration of TPUs alongside NVIDIA GPUs, enabling performance at scale without sacrificing cost efficiency.

There’s also Willow, Google’s quantum chip that tackles complex mathematical problems as well as video and audio generation models like V2 and Lyria. “With Lyria, we recently partnered with Grammy Award winner Shankar Mahadevan to explore Indian classical music with AI,” Ramamurthy shared.

Creating AI for GCCs

These capabilities are not theoretical. Enterprises like Vodafone are already using Gemini and Imagen to optimise their telecom infrastructure, while L’Oreal is tapping into generative AI to reshape marketing content. 

“These are examples of AI at scale,” Ramamurthy said. “But scale needs more than just models—it needs the right platform.”

That platform is Vertex AI, which serves as the orchestration layer for Google’s AI ecosystem. Developers can integrate Gemini, open-source models like Gemma, or third-party LLMs such as Claude or Llama, all while maintaining interoperability across their tech stack. 

“We’re giving GCCs the choice to pick the right model for their use case and integrate it seamlessly,” Ramamurthy added.

The highlight of the session was Google’s new Agentspace—its platform for building agentic AI solutions. 

Already in live demos, Agentspace enables enterprises to create internal assistants that combine enterprise search, conversational interfaces, and connectors to third-party tools like SAP and SharePoint. “We’re enabling you to give your employees the experience of using Google-quality search within your enterprise,” Ramamurthy said.

But the story doesn’t stop at assistants.

Google is Moving Beyond Assistants

GCCs are data-heavy operations. If we’re not solving for the data ecosystem, we’re missing the larger picture. To address this, Google Cloud is building data agents—agentic systems deeply embedded into data platforms like BigQuery. 

These agents aren’t standalone bots; they’re integrated intelligence layers built for specific personas, like data engineers, analysts and scientists, across the entire workflow, from data exploration to pipeline creation and ML deployment.

“Normal AI agents perform standalone tasks,” Ramamurthy explained. “But data agents are embedded and real time. They provide contextual recommendations and insights without needing to be prompted. It’s a shift from query-based interaction to proactive intelligence.”

BigQuery itself is evolving into more than just a warehouse. With intelligent agents layered in, the platform becomes an active participant in data workflows, accelerating productivity and enabling faster decision-making grounded in enterprise data.

Ultimately, Google Cloud’s message to the GCC community is one of partnership and empowerment. Whether it’s through advanced chips, expansive LLMs, multimodal capabilities, or embedded data agents, the goal is to give Indian GCCs the tools they need to lead global innovation.

“We are building an AI-optimised platform to help you leverage open, multi-cloud ecosystems and create interoperable, collaborative models. The future of AI isn’t just about scale; it’s about strategy,” Ramamurthy concluded.

The post Google Cloud’s Agentic AI Stack is Changing How Indian GCCs Build for the Future appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.