Geetha, tell us about your AI journey.

I have been working on finding insights from data for more than a decade. My first notable work was related to analyzing massive structured and unstructed data generated by IT systems and applications in pinpointing the root cause of performance problems in large production systems. I loved working with data, looking for patterns in data and in finding out when the patterns changed. I moved to a new team and technically led the creation of IBM Log Analysis and IT Operations Analytics offerings, which leverages text analytics and prediction of sytem outage by correlating hundreds of metrics generated across application components. Currently, I’m the chief architect of IBM TRIRIGA Building Insights, which infuses AI to provide space optimization to Global Real Estate organization of large enterprises.

What are the major challenges you faced as a woman in reaching where you are right now?

Many factors contribute to one’s growth. Some of them are results and impact created, Growth mindset and Personal Brand. While results are demonstrated by the work we do, it requires one to be vocal and articulate the passion within. At times I have picked up the phone to say I wanted to drive a new initiative. When new initiatives start, instead of waiting for it to be given to me, if I like it and have the passion for driving it, I was proactive and asked for taking the lead role and that has helped me a lot.

When it comes to choosing new projects and teams, there is no clear right or wrong answer. It's often a matter of timing. Based on my need to be at home with my first child, I moved from customer services role where I was ready to be promted to next level to a product development lead role which was a new area and did not require much travelling. While it did take time to establish credibility in the new team and to grow from there. But when I look back, I am happy about being with my child during the early stages.

While flexible hours are helpful, given our global roles and time zones, work stays active till midnight. With children around and the growth mindset, it becomes important to choose where you will be in the evenings (office meeting or helping children with homework). Strong support from family and taking and asking for help and saying no when needed has helped me a lot.

What made you interested in AI?

I love exploring data and I am very passionate about finding the patterns present in the data. It is fascinating to see how pattern repeats in nature and the data sets I have seen. Whatever I did manually using domain knowledge became automatically possible with products such as IT Operations Analytics. As I worked on these products my appetite to understand and learn AI increased. I took new courses to gain knowledge in this area. When a new opportunity came to lead the entire new offering as Chief Architect, I embraced the opportunity, learnt more on AI, blogged about it and released the offering with AI Infusion. Given the learning involved in AI and the rediscovery of meaning of intelligence makes me go deeper on this topic and learn about the advancements happening in this field and apply it to the usecases at hand.

 What's your area of expertise in AI and why chose that one?

I am an AI Software Architect, where I understand the usecases in a specific domain and provide valuble solution by infusing AI. Providing compelling solutions to address customer need and innovating for client success has been my passion. This combined with my desire to explore and leverage data to provide compelling solution naturally tuned me towards taking this.

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

I see AI transforming almost all the industries. In few industries, the adoption and transformation are faster versus others. For example, in customer care, AI is used extensively to cater to customer queries and complaints. In sectors like finance and healthcare, it’s used for providing useful insights to decision makers. AI is also heavily used in supply chain, social media and entertainment industries. AI will touch more usecases in each of these industries as we move forward in time and this would change the way we live.

Your biggest AI nightmare?

Ethical use of AI is very critical in ensuring use of AI for betterment of humanity. Given its power, the applier needs to think about where and what purposes AI needs to be used. AI depends on learning and the learning is dependent on the datasets provided to the system. If there is bias in the dataset, there will be a bias in the decision. So, it’s very important to ensure that there is awareness of this bias and work towards removing them.

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

My mentors and allies have helped me whenever it comes to making a career decision. Designing your career life journey can be done in collaboration with your mentors and allies versus doing it solo. Build a network of mentors and reach out to them regularly for advice. If you don't have one, find one and start the conversation. Have a support system to talk to and to ensure a good work-life integration. I can do it all can lead to lot of stress and burndown. Reskill based on the current need for greater impact.