Tell me about your AI journey thus far, your area of expertise and how you chose it

My interests lie in driving business value and exceptional customer experience with Analytics, Strategy and Leadership. I currently lead a team of global data scientists to engage with VMware Customer Experience [CXS] leadership, product, engineering, and IT to drive concept to completion data sciences and business analytics projects towards exceptional customer experience. We do tremendous amount of work in leveraging NLP and in productionizing ML for consumption apart from designing and building ML that is integrated into proactive support products.

After my Electronics Engineering, I enjoyed the learning in a technical role for a couple of years followed by a full-time Post graduate Management degree with Minors in Econometrics from MICA. Analytics marries my interests across solving business problems and making sense of patterns in data. In my 13+ years of experience I have worked across analytics & data sciences – specifically in Product, Pricing and Customer Experience Analytics, Product Management and Strategy across companies such as Oracle, Dell Global Analytics and Tata Docomo. This has helped enable me to bring in a human-centred approach to win with AI. This I believe is critical to unlock growth from the new wave of exponentially converging technologies and create a future we want to live in.

How do you look at organisational AI strategy?

I very strongly believe that analytics and the most accurate models are not useful unless the humans involved in it can use it. I think therefore that the AI strategy should be aligned to business strategy and it should start with the needs of the humans in the loop. Managing a data sciences team of high performers also requires exceptional leadership – in terms of constantly learning and enabling people across process, tech and designing systems that work.

What challenges do women commonly face while building a career in tech?

I have heard of some experiences from other women friends who work in tech having faced challenges in getting back to their roles after a career break, unconscious bias, staying relevant during a break to upskilling or reskilling themselves. I have, thankfully, been part of organizations and worked with leaders who value diversity as not just the right thing to do but also one that makes the most business sense in bringing diverse perspectives to the table. Passion for what I do and a love for learning in an inclusive environment has enabled me to work towards what I love to come back to – each day.

How will women in tech roles help mitigate bias and promote inclusion?

Absolutely. Not just tech, inclusivity of all kinds, including gender diversity is proven to be not just the right thing to do, but also something that improves business outcomes in the knowledge economy. American social scientist and professor of complex systems at the University of Michigan, Scott Page shows research to back this up in his book Diversity Bonus: How Great Teams Pay Off in The Knowledge Economy. He makes a strong case based by research that “increasing diversity has long been promoted as the right thing to do, but that notion could be viewed as simplistic and ignoring the deep benefits that inclusion can bring to an organization” [source]

What do you think are the biggest limiting factors for women not to advance their careers in tech? What can change?

There is no single answer to this - it is a conundrum that so many women top their classes and yet, few remain in the workforce a decade later. Is it the family support (or lack thereof) that results in women dropping out of the workforce before they reach management positions? (Something a report called the 'broken rung'), or the workforce culture. Many companies, thankfully, are taking this seriously and not attributing it to a 'pipeline problem' or considering diversity as a check box item. I am privileged to be part of an organization that considers diversity as not just the right thing to do but one that heralds us into a better future with diverse perspectives.

Leaders and organizations would thus benefit from having an open mindset and being aware of unconscious biases. Women, on the other hand, would benefit from putting themselves out there. Either in asking for help at home, keeping one-self relevant by putting their hands-up for new opportunities and most importantly having the courage and confidence to speak up for what they deserve.

How do you think corporates are moving the needle in terms of supporting more women to participate in tech building/development?

VMware’s culture is built on values of inclusivity, trust, and respect. How we work together is as important as the work we do. A respectful workplace enabled through workplace practices and training programs allows us to collectively commit towards this goal. This is reflected in our inclusive culture and opportunities I see across the company and my team – across how we hire, retain and upskill our employees.

Our VMinclusion platform focuses on global inclusion programs including the award-winning VMinclusion Taara program that targets at solving a very niche issue - helping women on a career break upskill for free so they can return to the work force. 

The goal is to upskill 15,000 Indian women who are on a career break making it one of the largest return-to-work initiatives in the country. To date, we have trained over 8,000 women in latest skills such as network virtualization, data centre virtualization, cloud management and automation as part of Taara, launched in January 2019.

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

In my opinion, the convergence of exponential technologies across AI, quantum computing, 5G, IoT networks, AR/VR, Blockchain or 3D printing will transform every industry and the way we live in the next decade or so. As Peter Diamandis calls out in his Abundance series, these coming together of technologies will disrupt every major industry across healthcare, transportation, retail, education, real estate to even how we consume technology.

Your biggest AI nightmare?

I very strongly believe that tech is not intrinsically good or bad. It is shaped by the intentions of the user. So, my nightmare is about the motives of who chooses to design our future.

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

I would recommend the 5C’s below

• Connect – It is critical to put yourself out there – showcase your capabilities and connect with others who can help charter your career path. Nurture your network – and not just when you need it.
• Constantly Learn – We live in a remote first, knowledge economy. The only way to stay relevant is to constantly work towards staying relevant. Like I read from a women leader, ‘breaking the glass ceiling is also a responsibility’. Identify your purpose and work towards staying true to it.
• Courage – There is plenty of research that talks about how women are less likely to ask for a referral or a raise. It is important to have a voice and speak up for yourself.
• Call for help – We need to ask for help and support. Build a support system at home. Reach out and get mentors. And most importantly, help other women. We need to help each other.
• Confidence to dream big and believe in yourself – Most women I speak to, do not necessarily have a skill gap but a lack of confidence to walk the path they seek - for fear of failure. Dream big, be open to fail, to learn and move ahead!