Category: Technology

  • Running a Tesla on kerosene?

    Running a Tesla on kerosene?

    Running a Tesla on kerosene? 🚗⛽
    Streaming Netflix on dial-up? 📺🐌

    So why are you still running your business without leveraging the full power of AI?

    AI isn’t just another social media app or search engine.
    AI isn’t an experiment. It’s not a side project.
    It’s the new engine of growth, disruption, and survival.

    Here’s the hard truth:

    👉 If you’re not building an AI-first business, you’re building a museum
    👉 If you’re not redefining your industry, someone else is writing your obituary

    Digital transformed business.
    Cloud rewired it.
    AI will reinvent it.

    Every business is now an AI business.
    Every leader is now an AI leader.

    The only question is:

    🚀 Will you use AI to redefine your future—or wait until the future redefines you?

    And yes big shout to Tesla and Netflix – They aren’t just brands, they’re disruptors who redefined entire industries

    Image Credit: AI 🙂 

  • Wired for the Future: My Next Chapter with AgenticAI at WinWire

    Wired for the Future: My Next Chapter with AgenticAI at WinWire

    “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
    And today, that change is powered by Agentic AI…

    As Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI & one of the leading voices in this space, says:
    “We’re going from a world where you have to tell computers what to do, to a world where they do things for you.”

    🚀 Thrilled to announce a bold new chapter – I’ve joined the incredible world of WinWire! 
    Together, we’re going to wire the future – with purpose, with vision, and with Agentic AI at the center of it all.

    🧠 Why Agentic AI?

    The Age of Agency is upon us!

    Agentic AI is the most profound shift in technology & business since the birth of the internet. It’s reshaping how we work, innovate & lead. The future belongs to those who can harness it — boldly, responsibly & strategically.

    🔍 Why WinWire?

    When I asked myself what I truly wanted next, this was my checklist:

    ✅ A platform to build & scale
    ✅ Strategic ownership & creative freedom
    ✅ Brilliant minds to collaborate with
    ✅ The chance to shape the next frontier of AI

    🙏 And then came WinWire — the right mission, the right moment & the right people.

    “Growth comes from investing in growth. Think differently, embrace behavioral change & harness the power of AI.” — Deb Cupp, President, Microsoft Americas

    WinWire stood out as a Microsoft-first consulting leader with an authentic grasp of Agentic AI’s power. No fluff. No AI-washing. Just clarity, conviction, and cutting-edge execution.

    💡 What made me say YES?

    ✨ A culture that breathes people-first, technology leadership, and execution excellence
     ✨ Visionary & humane leadership — Absolutely loved CEO Ashu Goel’s deep thinking, candour & agility. CTO Vineet Arora’s brilliant thought process, tech understanding & humility impressed me beyond measure. 
     ✨ Passionate & compassionate team — Huge gratitude to Kalyan G, Eugene Agresta, Sujata Das, Nitin Shinde & Subba

    At WinWire, I felt immediate alignment — on values, ambition & the shared desire to build something meaningful

    🎯 My Focus at WinWire:

    🔹 Accelerate & scale our Agentic AI GTM playbook to the next level
    🔹 Drive broader adoption of lighthouse use cases & industry-focused solutions
    🔹 Amplify growth with Microsoft field teams & across key verticals
    🔹 Spark conversations, shape narratives & lead with impact

    🌎 The world is shifting. Fast. And I’m fired up to be part of this journey where strategy, innovation & purpose come together.

    If you’re curious about Agentic AI, innovation, or meaningful tech — let’s talk.

    Let’s reimagine what’s possible.

    Let’s wire the future.

    “Hazaaron khwaishein aisi, ke har khwaish pe dam nikle
    Bohat niklay mere armaan, lekin phir bhi kam nikle.”
    — Mirza Ghalib

  • The Incredible Sixteen-Year Journey @ Infostretch & Apexon

    The Incredible Sixteen-Year Journey @ Infostretch & Apexon

    Today marks the end of one of the most defining chapters in my journey.

    After 16 incredible years at Apexon (formerly Infostretch), I sign off with a heart full of gratitude, pride, and purpose.

    In 2009, I walked into the Infostretch office with curiosity, energy, and ideas. The reception desk bore a powerful message by Mahatma Gandhi—“Be the change you wish to see in the world”—and I knew I was at the right place. That message became my mantra.

    Over the years, what followed was nothing short of extraordinary—a journey across continents, business verticals, strategic pivots, and cultural transformation. From startup energy to scaled enterprise; from late-night brainstorms to global partnerships—I’ve had the privilege of helping build something meaningful.

    Infostretch Founders Rutesh Shah & Manish Mathuria gave me complete freedom and encouragement.  With their intellectual humility and supreme trust, they inspired beyond measure. The company was being built with great alignment of vision, mission and values. As Infostretch moved from one orbit to another, I relished the opportunity to take multiple challenges and make a difference. The Infostretch story reached a new peak with the investment backing of Goldman Sachs and Everstone Group to create a strong platform called Apexon, which unlocked a new level of learnings and opportunities.

    Beyond all of these, I am really proud of Infostretch and Apexon for creating the amazing culture, ownership of executing customer’s business vision, winning the customer trust and confidence, and learning from best and brightest minds.

    🔑 5 Timeless Lessons I Carry Forward:

    1. Entrepreneurship = Ownership: Act like an owner, think like a founder.
    2. Excellence is a Habit: Relentlessly chase excellence—success will follow.
    3. Culture Wins: Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner—but when they align, magic happens.
    4. Leadership Multiplies: Leaders create more leaders. True leaders are humble, secure and rise by lifting others. They elevate, empower and energise people!
    5. Learn. Unlearn. Relearn: Technology business keeps changing and only curious minds with passion for continuous learning thrive successfully. Be lifelong learners! Stay curious, stay humble.

    💡 Highlights & Memories That Shaped Me:

    • Annual planning offsites, night long brainstorming, animated discussions & Bollywood stories
    • Designing new business models for Indian telcos
    • Mobile app development and certification business
    • The making of the Infostretch house
    • European expansion
    • Leading key deals in fintech, payments, and healthcare
    • Building the Global Alliances
    • Spearheading Ignite program: Global giving back & philanthropy program
    • Hosting events like Mobile Monday, Koffee with Karania, Hot Seat, Filmy Fridays, and our legendary Sales Super Saturdays
    • Winning trust, building culture, and co-creating lasting impact with an amazing team

    These are not just career milestones—they’re life moments. They shaped the leader I am today.

    🙏 A Thank You Note From The Heart:

    To all my customers, partners, colleagues and friends – they are the reason that each day of the sixteen years journey was filled with purpose, energy and joy!

    Rutesh Shah for being one of the biggest cheer leaders for me – While he has led with example, showcased passion with compassion and treated everyone with respect, he has been an amazing mentor and guiding light to me.

    Apexon Leaders—Sumitra, Somesh, Sriniketh, Vamsi, Sandeep, Anil, Anand, Vinu—your leadership sharpened mine.

    To my early crew at Infostretch—Manish, Shalin, Pinakin, Avery, Siva, Vipul, Palvinder, Leila, Anil, Padmini, Michael, Kanhai, Deven, Kinjan—we built something beautiful.

    Awesome Champions: Jay, Gaurav, Vaibhavi, Rajesh, Rupal, Chinar, Niraj, Anushree, Bhavana, Aris, Brijal, Avani, Harish, Yatendra, Ankit, Sheetal, Murali, Chetan and others who made this journey joyful!

    Alliance Rockstars: Rama, Adarsh, Kavita, Geetanjali, Prashant, Viveck for creating amazing impact with frugal resources

    Amazing Ignite Team: Geetanjali, Zil, Heli, Pravin, Kashish, Charu and local leaders Krunal, Jankit, Sejal, Anand, who work for a cause and not applause!

    Family & Friends: Aditya, Aangi & Komal & Friends for accepting that Apexon was the fourth family member for 16 years – the one who was part of all our vacations and weekends!

    (If I’ve missed names, forgive me—so many memories flooding in!)

    📖 As I Turn the Page…

    While the celebrated thinker Daniel Kahneman states that we only remember our most intense and concluding experiences – ‘Peak-End Theory’, I remember it all. Because Apexon wasn’t just a job—it was a mission, a family, a journey.

    I leave with no regrets—only deep gratitude, enduring friendships, and a renewed sense of purpose.

    Here’s to new beginnings. To applying everything I’ve learned to what comes next—at the intersection of technology, innovation, and impact.

    Forever a cheerleader and well-wisher of Team Apexon.

    Thank you for the 16-year magic. 🙏

  • “Silicon Valley’s Secret Timeline: Why AI Will Transform Everything by 2030

    “Silicon Valley’s Secret Timeline: Why AI Will Transform Everything by 2030

    🔮 The San Francisco Consensus: Are We Ready for a Smartest-Human-in-Your-Pocket Future?

    Eric Schmidt’s bold thesis is shaking up the global AI discourse.

    He calls it The San Francisco Consensus — a widely shared belief among Silicon Valley’s top minds that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) will emerge within the next 3–5 years, followed by Artificial Superintelligence (ASI)just a few years later.

    Let that sink in:

    • 🧠 AGI: Machines matching the brightest mathematicians, physicists, writers, and artists — by 2028–2030
    • 🚀 ASI: Machines smarter than all of humanity combined — by 2031

    This isn’t speculative sci-fi. It’s a strategic timeline being taken very seriously by the people shaping AI’s future.

    📍The three revolutions shaping this vision:

    1. Language as Interface – Natural language becomes the universal UI, making AI accessible and omnipresent.
    2. Agentic AI – Systems with memory, goals, and the ability to take autonomous actions across workflows. Think: AI agents coordinating construction, hiring, legal negotiations, and even litigation.
    3. Reasoning at Scale – AI models now rival top graduate students in mathematics and are learning through complex inference and reinforcement loops.

    🏗️ Schmidt gives a simple example:

    “I have one agent to find a plot of land, another to understand zoning rules, a third to design the building, and another to sue the contractor when it’s not built right.”
    This isn’t sci-fi. It’s business as usual — reimagined.

    This isn’t just a technological leap — it’s a societal transformation.

    💥 If this consensus holds, it will redefine work, creativity, policy, education, and governance in ways we are only beginning to grasp.

    The questions we must ask:

    • How do we stay relevant in an AGI world?
    • What happens when ASI acts independently of human control?
    • Can we align these systems with human values — before it’s too late?

    👉🏼 Agentic AI is not the end of the story. It’s the beginning of something unprecedented.

    Are we ready for the smartest-human-in-your-pocket era? Because it’s coming — faster than the next iPhone update.

    Image Credit: Declan Sun

  • The Agentic AI Reality Check: Strategy Over Spectacle

    The Agentic AI Reality Check: Strategy Over Spectacle

    💡 The Agentic AI Reality Check: Strategy Over Spectacle

    The promise of Agentic AI is powerful—but so is the risk of chasing hype.

    According to Gartner’s latest study, more than 40% of Agentic AI projects will be cancelled by 2027.

    What’s driving these project failures?
    🔻Skyrocketing costs without clear ROI
    🔻 Vague business value propositions
    🔻 Insufficient risk management frameworks

    The truth: Agentic AI is riding a wave of hype. Many initiatives are half-baked experiments with no clear ROI.

    And worse—“Agent Washing” is everywhere. Vendors are rebranding RPA, chatbots, and assistants as Agentic AI. It’s old wine in a new bottle.

    🧠 But here’s the real insight for strategic leaders:
    Gartner’s latest poll shows:
    ✅ 33% of enterprise apps will embed Agentic AI by 2028
    ✅ 15%+ of daily decisions will be autonomously made
    ✅ Only 130 vendors qualify as truly Agentic AI solution providers

    🚀 The future is bright—for those who invest wisely.

    Focus on business outcomes:
    ✅ Improved customer experience
    ✅ Operational scalability
    ✅ Agile decision-making
    ✅ Cost optimization

    🔍 The smart play?
    Avoid the Agentic hype trap. Cut through the noise. Choose business driven use cases. Curate & collaborate with authentic players.

    Make it strategic. Make it real.

    Gartner Research: Anushree Verma

    Image Credit: The Kirby Foundation

  • Adolescence Review: An Impeccable Masterpiece – Mandatory Watch!

    Adolescence Review: An Impeccable Masterpiece – Mandatory Watch!

    Adolescence Review: An Impeccable Masterpiece – Mandatory Watch!

    Adolescence is a gripping top notch layered roller coaster dealing with the highly relevant themes of adulting, impact of influencers, teenage insecurities, social media indoctrination, deep misogyny, and parenting challenges in modern world! A catastrophic, horrific and moving experience!

    Just watch it! Every parent, every educator and every teenager should watch it!

    Spoilers ahead, if you continue to read!

    Adolescence is about how an incident changes the lives of a family. A 13 year young boy is accused of a murder and arrested from his home. The four episodes cover different perspectives – first episode is a police procedural dealing with arrest in the police station, the second episode showcases the behaviour of teens in contemporary device loaded school, the third episode is the closed door hard hitting interaction of psychologist with the accused and the final episode is the impact on family and life after the event in the home and town.

    The show is a masterclass – the amazing idea of a single shot take for the entire episode creates a great impact – like watching live theatrical purpose! Episode 3 will remain one of the finest one hour of television in recent times! Class!

    The amazing prowess of actors is on full showcase – how the intelligent posh psychiatrist Erin Doherty engages the accused, uncovers the truth and processes her emotions – just out of this world. The way Stephen Graham as father deals with the situation is exemplary – straddling shock, concern, anger and regret!  His facial emotions say what words cannot ever say – when the child is stripped – pure genius at work. And the debutant 15-year-old Owen Cooper as the central character slays it – from a pant-wetting boy to smart

    conversationalist to angry male – he is rocking!

    Adolescence is the best of television for you!

    “I should’ve done better”

    I do not think any closing lines have created such a thought-provoking deep impact in recent times as these ones in the Adolescence! Totally Devastating!

    (Casablanca, Gone With The Wind and Silence Of The Lambs are my all-time favourites for beautiful ending one liners!)

    Do you like me?

    Do you think I am ugly?

    Are we safe in our homes?

    The mental repercussion of thoughts like these emerge in a Netflix redeeming spectacular show!

    And more questions emerge!

    How can we do a good parenting job?

    Can good produce evil?

    How can kids deal with social media?

    How much technology is good?

    Adolescence is the perfect mix of gut-wrenching contemporary premise, dazzling performances, technical impeccability and devastating impact that calls for action and conversations!

    Ladies and gentlemen, watch the finest piece of artistic work today!

    #adolescence #adolescencereview #netflix #netflixandchill #misogyny #thriller #crimethriller #murdermystery #weekendwatch #mustwatch

  • Data-ISM: The New Religion Of Digital & AI-Enabled World!

    Data-ISM: The New Religion Of Digital & AI-Enabled World!

    Data-ISM: The New Religion Of Digital & AI-Enabled World!

    Data-Driven culture is at the heart of success for actualization of business vision!

    Dr. Ashok Karania & Mr Murali Kotagiri, senior leaders of Apexon, participated in the Nasscom Technology Confluence Roadshow at Ahmedabad – An eclectic mix of exhilarating topics and amazing speakers at the thoughtfully curated event.

    Dr. Ashok spoke about the importance of data analytics for a digital enterprise and how creating a data-driven organisation ensures innovation, efficiency and competitive advantage. He also double clicked on the choice of cloud, on-prem and hybrid data storage solution from the perspective of security and scalability. 

    Mr Murali interacted with the industry leaders and technology geeks and stressed the importance of data in regulatory industry and the overall trends in the market. 

  • CTRL: Promising Idea Gone Out Of Control

    CTRL: Promising Idea Gone Out Of Control

    CTRL: Promising Idea Gone Out Of Control

    CTRL has all the right ingredients but its a stale dish on arrival! 

    AI
    GenZ 
    Ananya Panday
    Social Media
    Talented Director

    All the above elements fail to make a compelling and refreshing story. The movie seems a packaged product designed to fill the Netflix shelves of new content. 

    Teenagers Nella and Joe are the GenZ couple living a dream life on social media. The influencers blissful life gets punctured when Joe is caught cheating – live on camera of course! 

    Nella gets Geet’s ‘Jalaa Do Saali’ inspiration from AI App where Joe’s images and videos are erased from her digital footprint and possibly life – The Eternal Sunshine of Spotless Mind!  But the AI Avatar is not a noble friend philosopher and guide – it takes over her data, privacy and soul for sinister gains. The evils of technology, data security and digital life are showcased – even prompting us to switch off our cameras and microphones. 

    Ananya is effortless in her GenZ avatar – her third outing on GenZ, social media and evils of technology after the very recent ‘Call Me Bae’ and ‘Kho Gaye Hum Kahaan’. While the movie maybe a project to showcase Ananya’s talents, it has nothing new to offer. 

    Full credit for getting the look and feel of the movie right but the impact is missing. 

    Vikramaditya Motwane is a genius but he fails to convert a good idea into a credible movie!

    #CTRL #CTRLReview #CTRLMovie #Ananypanday #Ananya #GenZ #Netflix #Netflixandchill #AI #digital #privacy #digitallife #bollywood #newreleases #hindicinema #hindimovies #weekendwatch

  • Artificial Intelligence Lipstick

    Artificial Intelligence Lipstick

    AI Lipstick

    Are You Leveraging Artificial Intelligence & GenAI To Redefine Your Business And Accelerate The Achievement Of Vision? 

    Are You Taking Bold Bets For Customer Experience, Employee Engagement & Operational Efficiency?

    Are You Redefining & Transforming Your Business?

    Or Are You Using AI & GenAI As A Lipstick – Superficial & Cosmetic Change To Just Remain In Conversation?

    Reflect, Redefine & Roar With The Power Of AI

    Image: Ashley Piszek

  • AI Business Pitches Of Young Zebar Prodigies

    AI Business Pitches Of Young Zebar Prodigies

    The future is bright!

    The future is all-right!

    When the young talented minds talk GenAI Business and present pitch decks its indeed heartening and happening!

    When the prodigies leverage Artificial Intelligence to address India’s ground challenges, Viksit Bharat (Developed India) is inevitable!

    Happy and honoured to interact with the brilliant and smart young students of Zebar School for Children. AI Summer Internship students showcased their unique and innovative AI-based business ideas. Each one was full of promise – waiting for some to actualise real soon!

    Cheers to Zebar School for providing the futuristic exposure to students and giving him an early advantage. Applause for Executive Director Mr Manan Gautam Choksi and Principal Ms Sharmistha Sinha. Special mention to BehaveNeu Team’s Mr Shyam Parmar and Mr Neel Patel for working with the kids throughout the internship and mentoring them on technology and life skills – this goes a long way!

    Apart from the great learning experience, it was wonderful to interact with UNESCO’s Ms Meenakshi Shear and NID Business Incubator NDBI CEO Mr Amit Jain

    #zebar #zebarschool #ai #genAI #artificialintelligence #startups #innovation #behaveneu #unesco #NID