From Career Milestones to Leading AI at Scale

My path has been shaped by three core principles that I've carried through my entire career.

• Forging partnerships with the business. “You can't solve a problem you don't understand”. From my earliest career days, I made it a priority to meet with business stakeholders to understand their challenges and have a continued dialogue. This foundation is critical for ensuring technology serves the business, not the other way around.

• A drive to simplify and challenge the status quo. I've always been drawn to untangling complexity. This instinct naturally led me to embrace the transformative power of Cloud, Automation, and now AI, as they help create simpler, faster, and more intelligent solutions.

• My commitment to continuous learning, supported by great leadership. Each role has been a building block, and I’m fortunate to have had leaders who recognized my passion and gave me the runway to grow. I learnt that adaptability isn't just a skill, it's the key to staying relevant and driving meaningful change.

Targeting Business Challenges with Transformative AI Solutions

We start by understanding the core business problem, then do rapid prototyping to quickly test hypotheses through black-boxing to provide potential solutions for our stakeholders. This allows us to collaboratively assess the viability, risks, and potential ROI of each approach before committing significant resources.

We must take a business-first, technology-agnostic mindset. The lines between AI, automation, and advanced analytics are blurring, and the tools are evolving daily. The focus should be on solving the problem and creating a framework for continuous improvement.

The most transformative and measurable impact invariably comes from initiatives that directly improve the experience of our customers, employees, and suppliers. Whether it's by personalizing a customer journey, eliminating tedious work for our teams, or optimizing our supply chain, if we can create a tangible, positive impact there, we will naturally see the benefits reflected in our P&L, morale and brand equity.

Bridging the Gap Between Legacy and Modern Digital Platforms

The technical hurdles when dealing with legacy

applications are well-known: Complex business processes, inconsistent data models, poor data quality, siloed information, and brittle infrastructure. But frankly, those are often the easiest issues to solve.

The real challenge and the key to success is navigating the people and processes built around those legacy systems & data estates. You must proactively build alliances with the teams who have deep institutional knowledge of these systems. We don't go in with a mandate, we start with a mission to partner. By collaborating and co-creating a path forward, we simplify processes together. It's about transformation through collaboration, not disruption by decree.

Redefining Success Metrics for AI and Automation

We first look at increased adaption rates for the newer technology, and we are already starting to see the shift. The world of technology being pushed to users for adaption has changed. We are seeing a trend where businesses want technologists to deliver solutions that transform their day-to-day lives.

You can't solve a problem you don't understand. Technology must serve the business, not the other way around

Then we look for increased collaboration & trust. We want to see where executives & business stakeholders show the most interest in trying multiple approaches to problems, being open to fail fast and encourage adoption wherever the solution works and partnering with tech teams at every step in the journey.
When reviewing productivity and performance, the metrics to measure success have changed. It’s no longer just the output, it’s the quality, speed & impact of that output that matter. So, every aspect of our customer, supplier & employee experience metrics tell us whether we’re delivering impactful solutions or not, and the degree of difference. We embed these units of measurement into our process as we iterate & improve our solutions.

Shaping the Next Five Years of Industry with AI

• Cloud adoption: This isn't new, but its importance is accelerating. Cloud is the foundational fabric for delivering scalable AI solutions.

• Agents and Digital co-workers: We’re moving beyond simple automation to AI agents that are fully embedded in mainstream enterprise applications like SAP and Oracle. I envision a future of mixed intelligence, where 'digital coworkers' complement a human user/role. It would be an AI persona that handles routine tasks, analyzes data, and augments human capacity, allowing people to focus on strategic decision making.

• Open-source adoption: By integrating open-source solutions, organizations can significantly drive innovation and accelerate their time-to-value equation. This marks a crucial move away from a sole reliance on closed-source technologies, which can often lead to vendor lock-in and slower development cycles. Embracing open source fosters a more agile, flexible, and cost-effective technology ecosystem.

• Improving Cybersecurity posture: As AI becomes more powerful, the risks associated with data privacy and security will grow exponentially. We will see a corresponding evolution in cybersecurity, using AI to proactively detect threats and manage complex governance. It will become a non-negotiable part of the enterprise’s technology landscape.

Unlocking Business and Human Potential Through AI

Being part of Digital ecosystem is a mindset, and it’s not just about expertise with Technology – so, grow the mindset of continuous learning and don’t get hung up with a tool/technology. This would be the differentiator for a long/ short-lasting career in the ever-evolving tech industry.

In addition, don’t grow the mindset of Technology-first, grow the mindset of business-first and look for ways to leverage technology that complement business needs. Don’t try to complicate the problem by making the solution rich. This is key in determining whether the solutions you develop will be adopted or not.

Last, stay grounded. Always remain hands-on and don’t give that up. It is important for you to practice and not just preach.