Soumya Prasada has been working on Watson AI and Hyper automation solution delivery using IBM Cloud Pak for Data & Automation for customer engagement. Her responsibilities include advising clients on strategy related to cognitive systems and conversational AI through the AI ladder approach. Advise clients on data science methodologies to identify areas of greatest return on investment. Design and implement methodologies to measure the accuracy of virtual agents as well as strategies to improve the performance of cognitive systems. Provide technical leadership throughout the AI and Automation project life cycle. Design and Implement cognitive conversational AI solutions across speech, mobile, web, and telephony (IVR) platforms.

She has contributed significantly to the IBM India university relations program by conducting technological workshops for faculty & students, technical talks, organizing hackathons, and meet-ups around AI, Automation. She has been a mentor at IBM and outside IBM on AI technology.

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

Being born & raised in a small village Ajekar (Udupi district - Karnataka), I enjoyed the simple things in life like the rain, river & friends. Since my parents were teachers, I was popular among the teacher community. My life took a dramatic turn during my graduation days when I started recognizing the necessity of migrating to a big town for bigger and better job opportunities. Bangalore was emerging as India's silicon valley and I was all set to travel. However, my parent's approval came with one condition which was to get married first and then pack my bag. So my professional life and married life started together. The first few years were hectic and I was living my dream. There was lots of travel involved for various assignments. When my son arrived, I prioritized my home over the office and I took a call to quit my high flying job to settle for a mid-size company where travel was limited and the commute to the office was minimal too. However, my fascination to work for a large organization and being a part of a transformational project led me to the question – should I be happy with what and where I am today? This question led me to recognize the fact that "Life Begins at the end of our comfort zone". My career 2.0 started when I joined IBM in 2011.

As an individual, I love building relationships and treasure all the people who have come into my life. They have contributed to making me who I am today. All through my career, the opportunities/job changes have been based on my work and recommendations from such people.

What made you interested in AI?

Throughout my career, I have been curious to learn and solve problems and I have kept myself abreast with technological trends. I have always been interested in working with software and building software applications to solve business problems. The IBM Watson SuperComputer winning Jeopardy game show against Jennings was an intriguing moment that got me interested in Data and AI. It’s fascinating how AI helps machines to look at data, understand, reason over it, and continue to learn rather than simply following rote instructions created by a programmer. For an in-depth understanding, I started reading these subjects, taking online courses on data engineering and machine learning. 

IBM is a great place that provides opportunities for those with skills and passion for their work. In 2015 I got the opportunity to move to IBM Watson Expert labs where I started working on the IBM AI Platform to build cognitive search and conversational AI for customers in the telecom, financial and healthcare domain.

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

AI is the new electricity and one of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our time. It is poised to change the way people work, how enterprises operate, and how entire industries transform. AI initiatives offer more than just cost savings, they help organizations predict and shape future outcomes; allow people to do higher-value work; provide insights for better decision making, automate processes, enrich experiences; and reimagine new business models. Ultimately, this means increased revenue. My expertise is building solutions using Natural Language processing technology helps customers find deeper insights and offer richer, tailored, more detailed recommendations from complex unstructured documents. Building conversational solutions rely on AI to understand the intent of a customer call, verify their access to the system and provide the needed information without the need to speak with a live agent

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

AI has the potential to change our world. AI applications that we see will more often augment human activity than replace it. As we continue to witness increasing computing power, in this extensively connected world practical AI applications like natural language processing, computer vision, machine learning & neural networks will proliferate and become even more useful. Explainable.ai algo developed by IBM has a far-reaching impact on the industries work. Explainable.ai project in the fashion world can now predict what is the sell-through rate and why a particular product is selling or not selling by looking at the design & merchandise attributes. Explianbale.ai algo can be implemented across all industries and it can be a true game-changer.

Doctors are using computer vision to measure and classify tumours on medical images. AI is helping doctors to predict various diseases in early stages paving the way for more effective treatments. Conservationists are using computer vision to analyze photos of animal footprints to help monitor endangered species without invasive tags. By adding AI and machine learning to existing Anti Money Laundry technology, we’ve seen a reduction of false positives by 50% to 70%. That means fewer transactions require manual intervention, leaving staff to focus on cases that are devastating to the company and its customers. A combination of sensor technology and AI helps coaches improve players' techniques. AI can provide real-time feedback to maximize the results of a workout and create personalized training regimens that busy coaches may not be able to provide. AI is transforming every industry. 

Your biggest AI nightmare?

As it was shown in the movie - 2001 Space Odyssey where a machine could think and manipulate people. If that becomes a reality that would be my nightmare. 

Any AI applications/solutions are as good as the data you feed it with including any biases brought in by its creator. Hence, it is rightly said that artificial intelligence will reflect the values of its creators. In today’s time when we are deploying data-driven assessment tools almost everywhere to help take better and faster decisions. AI systems with such inherent bias will impact decision making because the data set did not include an entire segment of the population into the system. As we progress, the need for explainability and building trust and transparency in AI will become essential. At IBM, we have already started our journey towards this mission with Watson OpenScale. 

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

  • Stay curious, stay hungry. Over-invest in learning as much as you can throughout your career. Imagine that you are preparing for a long journey – every new skill you acquire is a milestone, not the destination. Some days we win, other days we learn.
  • Life begins where fear ends. AI is all about creative imagination, therefore take the road less travelled. 
  • We all have boundless energy. Use this energy to come up with new ideas, new solutions and bring valuable skills and qualities to the table.
  • The multiple roles that women play, whether it is of mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend are affected by our state of being. So, it’s important to be compassionate to oneself. Find what makes you happy and have the courage and conviction to follow that path.
  • Reach out for support. You are not a superwoman and you don’t need to be one. Ask for help when you require it – family and friends, your peers, mentors, trusted advisors are invaluable in this regard.

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