It is such an endearing experience to see women leading and making huge impacts in the field of technology. AI has gained commendable momentum in the last two decades, and so has the role of women around Artificial intelligence (AI), data science, and machine learning. 

It is often said that technology is shaped by the people who develop it, and hence women's involvement becomes even more important. Women who hold positions in this tech-dominated world are ensuring we all stand to gain with minimal risks of bias and inaccurate models. 

We feel privileged to have been able to interact with Ms Leena Walavalkar, who is contributing immensely to shape up the arena for AI and related technologies and is determined to change the world as we know it.

Ms Leena is Chief Innovation Evangelist, Business & Technology Services at TCS. She has been actively promoting open innovation, providing technology foresight, and building co-innovation strategies. She holds an M.S. degree from Penn State University and engages with a vibrant ecosystem of TCS innovators, customers, startups, and academia partners to explore opportunities at the intersection of business and emerging technologies, build new products and create value for all stakeholders. She believes in promoting open innovation and is actively involved in providing technology foresight and building co-innovation strategies.

She has been a crusader for women in STEM and diversity for innovation at the workplace. She believes in having an all-around perspective of things which is the key to innovation. It is not just gender diversity; rather, it should be geographical and national diversity too. 

In an exclusive interview with INDIAai's Research & Content Lead Jibu Elias, Ms Leena shares her thoughts on the need for more women in STEM and her constant efforts towards driving innovation through diversity.

A humble yet enriching AI journey so far

Ms Walavalkar's AI journey started some two decades ago with her master's degree, where she opted for fundamentals of computer vision, image processing which is when she got introduced to ML. Her thesis later in ML gave her humble beginnings around AI and ML. "There were quite many computational constraints back then, and the big data and GPU revolution was almost knocking the door. The entry of deep learn changed the scenario and then ML got out of labs to real-world business applications," she said.

"My journey with AI evolved from working closely on the technology to now exploring the transformational potential of AI/ ML. This was in close sync with the evolution of AI over the years," says Walavalkar, who started as a researcher at TCS's innovation labs, where she worked on the algorithms and the techniques of ML. With her expertise, she began exploring possibilities and real needs in the market, working closely with TCS's customers.

She also says there were various challenges initially which limited the ability to look at new real-world problems. Leena believes that we have come far, and those challenges have been dealt with; however, new ones like the suitable business models, sustainability, coexistence of humans and machines, responsibility, fairness, and trust are getting added.

Her love for technology was always there; however, she was exposed to the then very new technology, i.e., AI sheer out of curiosity and love for maths. She then realized that AI holds immense potential to redefine various aspects of life and how constructive it could be if used commercially correctly. This sparked her interest which led to her deep involvement in the subject.

Machine-first philosophy 

Leena believes that we are in an era of hyper-automation where AI and ML are bringing efficiencies in all sorts of business. Her idea of Machine First is all about the coexistence of humans and machines for seamless operations. 

Leena also elaborated on the idea and stated, "AI is going beyond automation to augmentation and amplification of human effort. The future AI machines will need to focus on three Cs (Contextual, Collaborative, Conforming) that will lead to a new era of creative coexistence resulting in the next societal evolution." 

It's great to witness the fact that pandemic has positively affected the Machine First paradigm.

As another accolade, Ms Leena is a Steering Committee member of AI Gamechangers. AI Gamechangers is a program aimed at driving AI adoption in India—one of the strategic pillars of NASSCOM's 'AI for India' mission. It focuses on amplifying the success stories of AI innovators and retracing their journey towards successful implementation across key sectors. The program involves two key milestones—recognizing the key implementations and releasing an annual case study compendium at NASSCOM’s Xperience AI Event.

The idea of diversity in the context of bringing innovation 

Ms Walavalkar has been an advocate of diversity being the core of innovation when it comes to any technology and its application in real life. 

"With technology becoming integral to us all and we need to have multiple perspectives to resolve the issue in hand with precision. This requires taking into consideration diverse inputs and inclusivity too."

She also touched upon the aspect of accessibility and TCS's research program that focuses on using cutting-edge technologies for solving problems for persons with disabilities. In an attempt to successfully execute such projects, it is important to have a diverse and inclusive approach. Unless the end users are a part of the technology building excel or a part of the problem solving conceptualizing, designing, and testing, the idea doesn't serve its purpose.

How to get more women to participate in building the future AI systems? How to beat those norms and stereotypes that classify women to be fit for certain roles and unfit for some?

On a happier note, the scenarios are improving drastically, with organizations defying these stereotypes and welcoming women. 

"I feel the problem needs attention on two levels; One at the grassroots levels where we encourage more girls in schools to take up STEM subjects. It requires a lot of early initiatives to make STEM subjects less intimidating to girls and boost their morale and skills to pursue this line of career. The second is at a business level and more around decision making or leadership positions. When it comes to AI, there is a need for inclusivity and diversity for a more fair and responsible application of AI." 

"Another approach to fetch more women involvement in the tech world would be re-skilling and up-skilling. Encouraging women on entrepreneurship level and industry partnerships can bring women to mainstream AI or decision-making levels."

Handling and curbing bias in AI algorithms

"Responsible AI paradigm is gaining importance owing to AI gaining popularity in decision making. Aspects such as ethics, explainability, governance, trustworthiness, prevention from adversarial attacks, ability to detect bias need to be thought through and shall be woven in the design itself for the AI models "explained Walavalkar.

Framing policies and regulatory framework is another area that requires attention from the fraternity to increase AI adoption at various levels.

TCS's initiatives, innovation, and vision around AI 

"TCS's vision for AI is holistic. It starts by focusing on talent and skills to prepare for the AI future. The organisation has a forward-looking view constantly supporting the ecosystem of AI innovators in academia, startups, industry partners along with integrating these technologies in our own products and platforms." 

TCS's AI-powered retail optimization suite is helping retail customers optimize their merchandising and supply chain decisions. Advanced drug development platform by TCS which is based on cognitive AI, accelerates speed to market for Pharma customers makes clinical trials safe is quite pertinent in the post-pandemic world. 

Message to ambitious female students and professionals

"There are immense opportunities waiting and the stereotypes are diminishing. With the will to learn and make a difference women can really achieve more and stay motivated. The post-pandemic world has a level ground for one to perform and excel," said Ms Leena. 

She added that there is a need for more women at senior decision-making levels so that aspiring young girls can look up to someone and create their own career paths with the right mindset.

In one of her blogs, Ms Leena has said, "As one of the oldest civilizations, India has attracted many who came seeking the balance between material and spiritual. The future is all about the human-machine balance – the ultimate state of Nirvana for AI. And, India is poised to lead!"

And that is a marvellous thing to say as an essence to human and technology collaboration.