With the IT sector witnessing tremendous disruption owing to rapidly changing technologies, organizations and professionals are struggling to keep up with the new customer demands and skills sets. Elaborating more on the issue, Ramathreya Krishnamurthi, Business Head, TechGig and TimesJobs in an exclusive interaction with SME Channels spoke on how IT stakeholders can actually turn around their fortunes leveraging these changes.
What changes are technologies like Automation and AI bringing about in the segment?
What has happened ten years ago at the time in early 2000s there was a big wave of people have to be prepared for changes. If you are a company leveraging a set of technology to cater a segment of clients then you have to gear up for the upcoming change. People need to spend good time and energy in upgrading themselves. While across different economies daily jobs are being replaced by robotics and AI, they are also creating more jobs at a higher level so any tech will only add new jobs.
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“Unlike large corporate, SMBs can’t invest huge in technologies, they can significantly profit by staying vigil and learning new technology platforms which could take their business to whole new levels.”
Ramathreya Krishnamurthi
Business Head
TechGig and TimesJobs
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How does the Indian technology landscape fare in comparison to countries like US and China when it comes to AI and ML?
We are far behind. There are two aspects: one is software and the other is hardware, so there is a lot of AI being used today in graphics. In medical science you can run nice software around MRI detailing about the diseases. So for high end graphics you need high end GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) which is where China is investing heavily. So India needs to push really hard to catch up, While US and Europe and far ahead in terms of investment but we are a young country and that’s the biggest advantage we have.
Which new technologies were showcased in the recently held TechGig Code Gladiators 2018?
We used components of AI, ML and Blockchain. The themes used in the event were quite relevant to the tech industry. We also utilized Amazon Alexa at the event which is breakthrough in the tech domain.
How do you think do events like Code Gladiators usher in a new era in the coding segment particularly when it comes to using new technologies?
There are two aspects to it. Code Gladiators as a platform witnessed the presence of top IT companies including Mindtree and Wipro. We also brought in top consulting firms like Deloitte to the event and top companies from the telecom sector including Jio, all of which hired the top coders from across the country. We got top clients from across the globe.
We focus on quality participation at the event. This year we did the event at Jio campus at a grand scale. This is the fifth consecutive year of the event and going forward in the coming years the event will only get better with more quality participants.
What are your views on Blockchain’s potential?
Blockchain possesses immense potential but it all depends how you utilize the technology as recently blockchain was in the news for wrong reasons including cybercrime. The technology authenticates transaction between two individuals using computing power and if the entire world starts transacting using this technology it would be wonderful.
What changes will these disruptive technologies bring to the SMB segment?
SMBs should start investing in learning these new technologies so for example while SMBs were hit hard post demonetization, many small businesses stayed in the game leveraging apps like PayTM. So while unlike large corporate, SMBs can’t invest huge in technologies, they can significantly profit by staying vigil and learning new technology platforms which could take their business to whole new level.
What is your message to the young coders in the country?
Young coders should live to code rather coding to live so they should do it with full passion. Today you need to have some tech skill to excel in business or a job similar to communication or interpersonal skills. Young professionals should also be prepared for taking risks without the fear of failure. Technologies is changing so rapidly these days that in college they might not be aware of the changing landscape of tech.
