Latest news with #ShantheriMallaya
Time of India
17-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
The CIO paradox: Leading when the future won't sit still
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a buzzword—it's the beating heart of digital transformation . But as enterprises accelerate toward AI-led models, a peculiar contradiction confronts today's technology leaders: how do you offer certainty in a world built on constant change? At the ETCIO Annual Conclave 2025 , a high-impact opening panel brought together top CIOs and tech leaders to address the elephant in the boardroom: the evolving role of the CIO in the face of rapid technological, cultural, and business model disruption. Moderated by Shantheri Mallaya, Editor, ETCIO, the panel featured: Hitesh Sachdev, Head – Innovation & Startups, ICICI BankAshok Jade, Global CIO, Kirloskar Brothers LimitedManikandan Thangarathnam, Senior Director – Mobility and Platforms, UberRakesh Bhardwaj, Group CIO, LupinRajesh Gopal, Global CDO, Tata Consumer ProductsMukundha Madhavan, APAC Tech Lead, Datastax Together, they explored the paradoxes shaping the CIO's reality in 2025—navigating blind spots, decoding boardroom expectations, and asking whether AI will become a teammate or a competitor. 'From controllers to translators': Rewriting the CIO job description Rakesh Bhardwaj, Group CIO at Lupin, offered a striking take: 'We're no longer just providers—we're becoming translators. Translating volatility into opportunity, translating AI into business impact.' AI adoption , he emphasized, is not surprising—but what's noteworthy is how quickly business functions have embraced it. With GenAI's natural language interface, AI is no longer intimidating—it's usable. That ease of interaction, Bhardwaj noted, has catapulted IT from a support function to the center of business model redesign. 'The focus now must shift from adoption to embedding intelligence into day-to-day decision-making.' Don't just automate. Ask: Do you even need AI? Manikandan Thangarathnam from Uber brought pragmatism to the conversation. 'A lot of enterprises are suffering from FOMO—fear of missing out,' he said. 'But not every problem needs AI.' He explained how Uber sets error thresholds differently depending on the application. 'For identity verification, we use AI at 99% accuracy. But when showing recommended ride types, 85% is fine,' he noted. 'It's about aligning AI's role with the tolerance of the problem you're solving.' Legacy to leadership: When CIOs become growth architects Ashok Jade, Global CIO at Kirloskar Brothers, challenged the outdated notion that AI is only for boosting efficiency. 'We're not just improving processes. We're opening up entirely new lines of business,' he said. Kirloskar is piloting a service-led model where pumps are sold as-a-service, enabled by AI, IoT, and digital factories. Their goal: reduce channel dependence and let AI agents guide product discovery directly online—disrupting a century-old distribution model. 'The board doesn't ask what LLM we're using. They ask how much new business we're creating with it.' Trust is the new differentiator in consumer-centric businesses Rajesh Gopal, Global CDO at Tata Consumer Products, emphasized the balancing act between deep personalization and digital trust. He highlighted two pillars: Explainability – 'People don't trust what they don't understand—this applies to both customers and internal users.'Contextual relevance – 'Every AI output must feel timely, precise, and intuitive to the user.' His focus? Making AI meaningful by mapping the customer journey from awareness to loyalty, and ensuring touchpoints convert into trust, not fatigue. The quiet revolution: Rethinking AI readiness from the ground up Mukundha Madhavan from Datastax broke down what enterprises often get wrong about AI transformation: 'Most organizations focus on tools. But the real question is—can AI access and understand your data?' He listed two pillars of AI-ready data: Access: via operational data layers that span structured, unstructured, and multimodal dataUnderstanding: through advanced representation formats like vectors, graphs, hybrid search, and LLMs 'Privacy and relevance will be the biggest challenges. Enterprises must develop new strategies to govern AI's interaction with sensitive, high-volume data.' CIOs at a crossroads: Strategy, Talent, and Elevation The panel concluded with a powerful reflection on how AI is reshaping not just systems, but CIO identity itself. Rakesh Bhardwaj called for the CIO to own talent development across the enterprise, not just within IT. 'The real risk isn't displacement,' said Manikandan. 'It's irrelevant.' The takeaway: A new mandate for CIOs in 2025 As the discussion unfolded, one thing became clear: the CIO's role is no longer defined by technology—it's defined by translation, transformation, and trust-building. In 2025, success isn't about deploying more dashboards or faster APIs. It's about: Turning AI uncertainty into business clarityDesigning tech that can be trusted and explainedAligning boardroom expectations with the business value CIOs truly createRethinking talent not as a support layer, but as a strategic differentiator 'We can no longer be gatekeepers. We must be value creators,' said Shantheri Mallaya in closing. 'AI won't replace the CIO. But it will demand a new kind of CIO—one who thinks in algorithms, acts in outcomes, and leads without a map.'
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Tata Communications WeConnect 2025: Forging the Future of Hyperconnected Enterprises
In a world shaped by rapid change, complexity, and convergence, Tata Communications brought together some of India's sharpest technology and business minds for the 15th edition of Executive WeConnect 2025 in Bengaluru. The event focused on tracking emerging trends and on co-creating strategic frameworks for enterprises navigating the new age of the audience, Shubhomoy Bhattacharya, Vice President and Sales Head – Global Accounts at Tata Communications, emphasized the need to reinvent enterprise strategy in a world where traditional boundaries are dissolving. He noted the shift from legacy architectures to internet-first, cloud-native environments. With security perimeters fading and an identity-centric model gaining ground, every technology investment must now be measured by its ability to deliver concrete business outcomes — whether through agility, resilience, or enhanced customer experience. At the center of this vision is Tata Communications' " Digital Fabric ", which integrates Network, Cloud and Security, Interaction, and IoT capabilities into a unified architecture. Bhattacharya shared how this architecture empowers enterprises to stay agile, deliver superior user experiences, and reinforce cyber-resilience. He also highlighted two upcoming innovations: GPU-as-a-Service and a MeitY-certified AI Studio , underscoring Tata Communications' focus on democratizing AI infrastructure for enterprise-scale innovation. Arijit Banerjee, Senior Vice President and Head of India Business at Tata Communications, provided a broader outlook. He observed that the world was stepping into the Fifth Industrial Revolution — an era where technology must serve human values. In this evolving landscape, Banerjee pointed to four transformative forces: The erosion of digital trustAn impatience economy shaped by instant gratificationThe rising demand for dignity and flexibility in workA shift towards asynchronous collaboration Banerjee outlined a scenario where enterprises become orchestrators of hyperconnected ecosystems. Citing examples such as Bajaj Auto Credit's 90-day NBFC launch, Maruti Suzuki's integrated post-sales CX platform, and Tata Communications' innovations in live sports broadcasting, he illustrated how forward-thinking businesses are leveraging intelligent platforms to achieve speed, intelligence, and resilience. The evening's discussions moved from vision to execution with two high-powered panel conversations moderated by Shantheri Mallaya, Editor at Economic Times (ET) CIO. Panel 1: Reinventing Networks for a GenAI Future Moderated by Shantheri Mallaya, Editor at ETCIO, the first panel explored the strategic transformation of network infrastructure in an era dominated by AI, cloud, and GenAI. Panelists included: Surendra S, Managing Director- Global Network Services & Voice Operations, AccenturePavan Goyal, CIO, Mphasis LimitedVenkatesh Kris, APAC CIO , CSCHari Nair, VP, Tata Communications The panelists emphasized that static, legacy network architectures no longer serve modern business needs. Instead, networks must be dynamic, programmable, and intelligent — capable of real-time decision-making, self-healing, and seamless integration across hybrid and edge environments. Security, latency management, and end-to-end visibility emerged as core requirements. Panelists urged enterprises to treat networks not as background infrastructure, but as a strategic enabler of innovation, customer experience, and operational agility. Key Takeaways: Prioritize investment in programmable, AI-ready network observability to preempt network design with CX goals and digital transformation roadmaps. Panel 2: The CX Paradigm in a GenAI World The second panel delved into the evolving expectations around customer experience and how GenAI is reshaping engagement models. Panelists included: Sriram N A, Regional IT Head at Bosch DigitalKrishnenjit Roy, Senior Vice President – Technology , Bank BazaarRajesh Chandran, Vice President, Product Management, Tata Communications The panelists discussed and shared insights on how today's customers demand hyperpersonalized, real-time, and omnichannel interactions. GenAI is opening doors to deliver these experiences at scale — from intelligent chatbots to dynamic content generation. However, the panel also attempted to address serious concerns such as the risks of unchecked experimentation, governance challenges, and ethical responsibilities related to data usage and privacy. The group agreed that GenAI must be integrated thoughtfully, with a focus on trust, transparency, and sustained value creation, rather than for novelty. Key Takeaways: Use GenAI to enhance—not replace—human touchpoints in robust governance frameworks for model training and in AI literacy across the organization to drive responsible adoption. Saina Nehwal: Lessons from the Arena The event closed with a fireside chat featuring Saina Nehwal, Indian badminton icon. In conversation with Bhattacharya, Nehwal shared her personal journey to the top — a story marked by perseverance, reinvention, and focus. Her reflections on resilience, strategic thinking, and mental agility drew powerful parallels with enterprise transformation. In an age where businesses must continuously evolve, her story served as a reminder that adaptability and determination remain timeless drivers of success. As Executive We Connect 2025 concluded, a central insight emerged: navigating the future of hyperconnectivity demands enterprise reinvention at every level — technological, cultural, and strategic. Tata Communications, with its Digital Fabric and deep ecosystem capabilities, is positioning itself not just as an enabler of this transformation, but as a catalyst for leadership in the digital-first era. Note: This article is a part of ETCIO's Brand Connect Initiative.
