In conversation with Narendra Naidu, Chief Technology Officer – Digital, Eviden
As global leaders and businesses embrace cutting edge technologies and fast-paced developments, they are looking at artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for more streamlined operations and enhanced IT security. But, like every innovative offering, AI too has had its fair share of bouquets and brickbats.
Eviden’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) - Digital, Narendra Naidu, shares his take on how organizations can be guided towards their business goals and optimized technological advancements with seamless AI adoption.
Narendra, in the last year, AI (especially GenAI) has been met with as much criticism as laurels. What is your take on the potential of AI?
AI is recognized as an incredibly powerful tool for businesses – giving employees data-driven, tailored information and guidance instantaneously on request. When it works, it can deliver better outcomes, productivity and process efficiencies across the business. This is leading to a great deal of buzz and demand for AI.
Yet adopting it is not the same as adopting a new application. And we need to be wary of that. In fact, Gartner had cautioned us that “by 2025, growth in 90% of enterprise deployments of GenAI will slow as costs exceed value”.
And why is that?
Because AI needs a strategy and deployment that recognizes the ethical, human, process and data elements, as well as the technology. Enterprises may struggle to identify and prioritize the right high-value, differentiating GenAI use cases that provide a competitive advantage and justify the investment costs. But given that AI-enabled businesses are likely to seize significant commercial and competitive advantages, it’s understandable there is pressure to begin adopting AI quickly.
In your experience, what are some of the best practices when adopting AI?
AI is part of a broader transformational continuum and can help you on your modernization and transformation journey with AI embedded into your plans strategically and pragmatically - so you can experience the benefits now and well into the future.
Here are the top three best practices I recommend:
- Start getting data-ready. Unstructured, widely distributed data is one of the biggest challenges to full-scale AI adoption. And it’s a big challenge that is going to take time to address, and you want people with a range of skills-sets and the experience to work out the best way forward. Building a strong scalable data foundation is imperative to succeed in the AI space. Start now!
- Get past the hype and secure real business benefits. When it comes to GenAI tools for specific IT functions, we have discovered through the numerous GenAI use cases we have delivered to more than one hundred customers, the standout benefit is improved quality of the end-product delivered to customers. Hence having a customer centric mindset is crucial to deliver the requisite ROI.
- Partner with a digital transformation leader to deploy AI tools that deliver value to people and empower employees. Did you know that Eviden partners with Microsoft to deploy and adopt a variety of Microsoft tools for global clients? In fact, Eviden provides end-to-end services for all of Microsoft’s cloud-based business solutions including Office 365, Dynamics 365, SharePoint, Outlook, Windows, Teams, and Power Platform, which itself includes Power BI, Power Apps, AI Builder, and other tools. All these now incorporate Microsoft Copilot, delivering AI-powered insights, advice and automation to employees’ fingertips across a range of use cases.
Wow! That’s an impressive partnership with exciting business benefits for clients. But the first step is always the toughest. Data can be an overwhelming obstacle.
True, but there are a variety of tools and assessments to map your current situation and data landscape.
Eviden leverages Microsoft Azure Data, AI, and Cybersecurity services to help you get control of your data.
Then we begin work alongside your data teams to develop a roadmap and solution that will help achieve your data specific goals. Automated, AI-enabled data collection, consolidation, analysis, and remediation/augmentation is handled as required, as is designing and modernizing your data infrastructure. With our deep knowledge of Azure, we can seamlessly migrate data and speed a path to AI adoption so you can access new, advanced analytics capabilities to reveal hidden patterns and zoom in on key insights as your business requirements demand.
We’ll also ensure you meet regulatory requirements and your own governance principles. Azure sites worldwide support local data regulation, giving you a choice of data locations. And Eviden’s end-to-end framework for AI/ML development and deployment incorporates company ethics, compliance requirements, and automation for a complete, holistic solution.
You have also mentioned that organizations should look to secure real business benefits. How can they do this?
All organizations have their short-term goals and long-term ones, supported by robust business strategies. In both cases, the secret lies in securing tangible and sustainable business benefits, not just now but for generations to come. So how can they do this? By delivering more business value for their end-users.
Rather than just ‘create more’, GenAI helps businesses create new services, that are more effective, targeted, secure and have regulatory requirements built in as needed. Some of these improvements may include an accelerated code development, faster test automation and improved product quality, enhanced ITOps and services, and game-changing industry-specific use cases.
Alternatively, organizations can appoint an expert IT consultant and systems integration partner who can help them realize their AI expectations, take it to the next level, and achieve their business and IT goals faster and seamlessly.
How can Eviden help in this?
Eviden has extensive experience across the spectrum of AI, ML, Gen AI, and automation. We can devise an approach that considers where it is best to apply AI and our transformation, cloud, and MS Azure expertise, plus accelerators and technologies deliver end-to-end services. We can maximize the value of any transformation, and with solutions pre-built using Azure’s advanced capabilities and OpenAI, client organizations get a low risk, fast adoption of AI, Gen AI and cognitive services that deliver measurable and meaningful improvements.
And with Eviden and Microsoft’s approach, ethical considerations, data protection and management are taken into consideration to ensure guardrails are in place at all times.