With over 14 years of industry experience, Apurva Madiraju is now one of the prominent names in India’s AI ecosystem. She currently is the Vice President at Swiss Re- one of the world's leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfers. 

Apurva developed her career when AI was at a nascent stage. Following her interest in AI, data and analytics, Apurva went on to work at Intel, where she focused on manufacturing domain that provided the opportunity to work on large volumes of data. 

However, it's her time at Indian School of Business that helped her transform her interest in AI and data to successful career “The program at the ISB gave me a structure, curriculum and foundation”. Said Apurva in a conversation with INDIAai. “The overall coursework was rigorous and intense, but we had a good application of the course work”, she added. Since 2017, she has been working at Swiss Re, where she leads the governance and assurance analytics team and is responsible for building and driving advanced analytics solutions for data-driven assurance.  

“While working in various organizations, I learned about the business value and impact that this field can generate. That is what drove me towards AI”, says Apurva. Apurva built her area of expertise in three aspects: technical, domain and software. She had been working on the domain side since her time in Cognizant. Her primary technical focus currently lies in NLP, while she also tries to keep up with the constant innovations in AI.  

“In Swiss Re, we deal with many experienced professionals on the domain side, but not necessarily on the technical side", she said. Therefore, translating the result to the domain expert without losing their trust is essential. Apurva, as a leader, works in building collaboration within her teams by giving due significance to all aspects. Her team comprises Data Scientists and Data Engineers who are also solution experts. 

 “In Swiss Re, we focus a lot on bringing more women talent for which company now has a mentorship program”, says Apurva. The team is currently working on making the program more inclusive. Apurva opines that to involve more people in the STEM field, the focus should start at the school level. First, the children must be taught the experimental side of AI to expose them to what a career in it can offer. In Apurva’s opinion, practical learning helps in generating passion for building a career in the field. She also has a clear vision of tutoring the students in Indian villages about AI and STEM.  

Despite a lower women representation in AI, she is confident that gradual change is underway and the enterprises are moving in the right direction. On the other hand, factors such as seeing women as primary caregivers limit many to take up leadership roles. There are also several traditional mindblock existing in our society that limits women in aspiring STEM careers. Amending these ideas will transform the industry and make it more inclusive.  

“Women should raise their hands and speak up with confidence”, says Apurva. She also adds that naysayers might not take the feedback positively; therefore, planning about the outcome of their statements might help. Apurva also reminds the frontline women that they should support and bring other women forward in the industry. This notion of women-supporting women will benefit the field in the long run. She recommends that those interested in building a career in STEM should initially figure out where their passion lies. “Be bold and take that step toward achieving it. Creating a strong foundation on the basics is critical in forming a successful career”, added Apurva.