Priyanka, Can you take us through your AI journey? 

I started my AI journey with our first little Proof Of Concept (PoC) on Watson APIs and then quickly moved onto infusing IBM Watson capabilities along with Data Science models into an AI-enabled assistant for Call Center representatives to cut down their call duration drastically and also bring down the overall Product Returns rate for a luxury fashion retailer in Europe.

From then on, I have been working to envision and architect intelligent control towers with AI for large scale supply chain companies around the world to achieve efficiency and resiliency.

I am currently leading the creation and adoption of AI models to provide Stock predictions and recommendation engines for a self-correcting supply chain.

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

I would say there were many challenges-personal and professional, but a good support system and a strong passion for technology have helped me overcome these to a great deal.

The first challenge was the belief in new technologies like AI, and Data Science until a few years back in 2015. Although they were a great conversation starter with the clients, there was no clear-cut adoption strategy or a demonstrated Return On Investment for AI. Creating multiple PoCs and helping customers build a broader AI adoption strategy for their organization was the way to overcome these challenges.

Personal challenges, especially as a woman was my maternity break amidst these exciting opportunities and balancing the high demands of my family with the constant adoption to the ever-changing world of new technologies AI, Blockchain, IoT, and Hybrid cloud. However, I emerged stronger with my strong support system at home and work, and my never-ending passion for innovation and leadership.

Being a woman has never stopped me from aiming for the best in everything I do.

What made you interested in AI?

My never-ending zeal with trying out new cool things, and interconnecting all that I know, to create new solutions keeps me passionate about AI.

So, AI was like a toy initially for me to start playing around with, and then see how it works with IoT, or with our own supply chain and this got me started.

But when I went a little deeper, I could see a lot of challenges in its adoption, and articulating its value to anyone who wants to know, WHY AI?

In simple words, AI is the next stage of evolution of our software applications which no longer need millions of instructions and hard-wired process flows to achieve the desired outcome. 

AI helps our machines and software systems to interact and adapt to the continuously changing world of systems and data.

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

My primary areas of expertise in AI are Conversational AI, and Time Series Analysis and Forecasting. These are the key concepts in AI and Data Science that are most relevant to the Supply Chain domain and hence are my focus areas.

What's the one thing that you see AI transforming completely? (Eg. cars becoming self-driving)

I do see AI becoming the foundation for software applications in the future, to enable self-monitoring, self-correcting, frameworks to continuously optimize and adapt to the changing world. 

Your biggest AI nightmare?

It will be inexplicability of the decisions taken by AI bots and when the humans will need to monitor those decisions. We are already experiencing this when we have been forced to accept the recommendations made by AI-based programs for our fashion choices or our travel plans just to avoid digging into the complexity of such recommendations-why and where they came from? This requires a deeper understanding of AI and the need to bring transparency in AI. To counter this, IBM has developed Watson OpenScale which brings trust and confidence in your outcomes.

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

My short and simple advice for the women out there is:

• Be Curious, Relevant - Always be abreast with the new trends and upcoming technologies and how they may impact our future. As a woman, we have to invest our time here.
• Be Passionate - Choose the domain or technology you believe in or feel passionate about and work towards leveraging it in the primary area of your work to get a quick head start. 
• Lastly, ask for help and support and claim your right to succeed! you deserve it!