Describe your role in Cisco and what you do.

For the last two years, I have been leading the Digital Transformation Office for Cisco India and SAARC. Under this remit, I am responsible for the digital transformation think-tank for Cisco, and partnering with the government and Indian enterprises to make their digital initiatives a reality, as well as developing localized industry-specific digital solutions. My team and I focus on establishing a route to market/go-to-market strategies that drive solution adoption and enable outcomes for businesses and building domain-focused ecosystem relationships to capture and scale opportunities emerging in the area of digital transformation.

Gender balance at the workplace is always a hotly debated topic - do you believe this bias is narrowing in the Indian tech sector?

This crisis is a bit of a paradox. In many ways, it illustrates just how vulnerable we are as human beings, but I also believe several good things will emerge out of this, which will help balance the scales as far as gender diversity in the workplace is concerned. For instance, employee well-being is becoming a top priority across organizations, and as leadership becomes more empathetic and people-oriented, India Inc. has an incredible opportunity to transform, both digitally and culturally. As organizations adopt new hybrid models of work, more women can be brought into the workforce, as the previous requirement of travelling to work is rendered obsolete. The Indian IT/BPM industry will be the first to be distributed. Additionally, with technology transforming operations, business models, workflows and customer experience, the focus on reskilling and training people in new-age technologies is increasing. Together, these changes will help create a bevy of opportunities for women, and ultimately make the workplace more inclusive. At Cisco, we see inclusion as a way to connect diverse perspectives, to spark new ideas, explore new possibilities, and tap into the power of digital transformation and innovation. Today, we have one of the most diverse executive leadership teams in the industry – 46% women and 54% diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity.

Specifically in AI, there are far fewer female role models in the mainstream. What steps can be taken to correct this?

Although the scenario has improved over the years, there is still room for reimagining the gender disparity in the tech industry. According to a report by Catalyst, in STEM education itself - girls comprise 50% of science and 30% of engineering students, which is higher than the US and EU, but even then women only make up about 30% of the workforce in the IT sector. The biggest corrective measure is a change in mindset. I truly believe that the pandemic has created tremendous opportunity to plug the gap. For instance, today, 4.5 million people from the tech industry are spread across the country, rather than concentrated in popular IT cities. With technology serving as the bridge between distributed workforces, it opens up a plethora of opportunities for STEM-educated women to join the ranks. Diversity is needed in the tech industry, as it allows companies to create improved and innovative products that take everyone into consideration and not just one section of society. Here, organizations, especially enterprises, need to step up and take proactive measures to involve more women in STEM. At Cisco, we have been dedicated to empowering more women to join the industry through our STEM initiatives. For instance, our Data and Analytics department is led by a woman, who has been spearheading corporate-wide data & analytics strategy to transform Cisco into a data-driven enterprise. We also have Cisco’s Networking Academy, which offers courses in AI/ML, cybersecurity, data analytics, etc. and has trained over 260,000 students in the last 12 months in India alone, out of which 30% were women. Additionally, we also have the Women Rock-IT Program, a live-broadcast event featuring women leaders in the tech space who can inspire more women to join the industry.

Describe some challenges you have faced reaching where you are now.

I have been fortunate that in both the companies I have worked for and definitely at Cisco, I have always been treated as an equal. Of course, I’ve had my fair share of situations that have exposed me to peoples’ biases, but I could always find a way to speak up and be heard. And some of that happened because of the support of managers and team members, mentors and sponsors, I’ve been fortunate to have in different phases of my career

Do you see enough female representation in tech roles within start-ups? What kind of difference would it make to instate women in tech roles?

Lack of diversity is a major challenge in the tech industry. Despite significant growth in the number of women-led start-ups, India was still ranked 52 out of 57 countries on the Index of Women Entrepreneurs 2019. And according to a recent study by the Reserve Bank of India, less than 6% of start-ups were led solely by women in 2019. Historically, we’ve seen how diverse teams bring in more innovation into an organization, directly impacting the bottom line. For the economy as a whole, a recent study by the McKinsey Global Institute has found that India could add up to $770 billion—more than 18%—to its GDP by 2025 if women had equal opportunity. Better representation and inclusion is the need of the hour. At Cisco, through our startup accelerator LaunchPad, and social innovation accelerator NCore, we are working towards incubating deep-tech start-ups that are leveraging technology to solve the biggest challenges for our communities. Our hope is that more women will leverage these platforms, and through their entrepreneurship journeys inspire others to do so too. And since multiple studies have shown that women are more likely to hire other women, this trend of women entrepreneurs in fields like AI, should help increase the representation of women in tech roles.

Discrimination by AI is a real concern while ensuring data integrity - does this exist? If so, how can it be addressed?

AI engines are continuously observing and learning to recognise in-depth patterns in people’s preferences so that it can make suggestions more accurate and “human”. In other words, if we’re not careful, the bias and discrimination coded in human behaviour will make its way into AI algorithms. One of the biggest problems that companies face in terms of machine learning technologies is that of selection or hiring bias. The flaw is not in the technology but the years of information and hiring patterns companies have followed. Building guard rails, against this kind of hiring information that historically discourages hiring women, within the artificial intelligence setting can significantly improve this situation. We follow a Blind hiring approach at Cisco, where the candidate’s gender, age, religion, race, sexual orientation or any other personal characteristics never influence the hiring decision, thus keeping the entire practice free from any kind of bias. For senior leadership positions, we follow the Diversity Hiring approach, where the hiring is done solely based on merit, and by exercising our connections through which we connect with women professionals who can be part of the company.

What's the one thing that you see AI transforming completely?

As more and more organizations turn to hybrid work models, artificial intelligence will become critical for organizations to manage and gain visibility into highly distributed workforces. It will also become an inherent component of how dispersed teams work, communicate and collaborate. Rooted in AI, platforms are now being developed that allow us to understand teams more precisely. At Cisco, we have a tool called Team Space that leverages AI and allows us a unified view of all the teams in the organisation and improve our reach to them. We look at the metadata from people’s digital communication activities to figure out how their network looks, and then use AI to give them recommendations and advice on making informed choices on internal job searches and navigating work relationships.

What's your advice for other women who want to pursue a path similar to yours?

One piece of advice that I had received from one of my mentors and still live by is “what limits you is between your ears.” Therefore, be proactive and embrace the word hustle, as that is the only way you can carve your niche in the industry. I strongly believe that women should develop their unique style, and own tech roles as effortlessly as other roles, as they have the ability to sustain and be successful. Don’t hesitate to put forth your opinion and never underestimate your potential.