T.N. Startup Summit| ‘Spend time on cross skilling or upskilling people to bring in change’

Learn how AI can revolutionize industries and education, upskilling individuals for future job opportunities, as discussed at a summit.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged in industries, colleges or schools. Individuals can learn AI, apply it in their jobs and upskill themselves to find a next job , said Ashwin Desikan, co founder, CTO Atsuya Technologies, at the Tamil Nadu Startup Summit in Chennai on Thursday.

Speaking about how AI and digitalisation will bring in disruption, he said, “Look at how we waste resources today. We believe that labour is cheap. It is not. Rather, we could spend that time in cross skilling or upskilling them and that would bring in the change. Today the power of AI is such that you can have full conversations with it. “

He was speaking in a panel discussion on ‘Digital Transformation: Startup as a Catalyst for Change’ moderated by Kunal Shankar, Deputy Business Editor, The Hindu.

Talking about the challenges that they faced, Mr. Desikan drew the example of emergency management system of Greater Chennai Corporation and said, “In the initial stages, it used to be the cloud when we approached customer as we are a cloud-only platform. The whole perception that cloud is bad in many cases or not very secure sometimes puts fundamental blocks in company’s mind. So winning trust over the customer with what they are observing was key.”

Highlighting the need for a feedback loop, Tamizh Inian, founder, CEO, Frigate Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd. said: “I believe in taking MSMEs global. You have to become a global vendor so that their margins can raise. If they do operation efficiency using digital there would be a lot of benefit for them. Even if you implement any policy, we also need to be able to get feedback. There has to be a feedback loop from the MSMEs. There has to be a structured format of policy for every sector based on their revenue. That’s how all the players would benefit.”

Pointing to the range anxiety that people might feel when they own an electric vehicle, as one of the challenges in the sector, Phunith Kumar V., CPO, co-founder Raptee HV said: “The best way to solve it is by having a better charging infrastructure or better energy density technology than making a vehicle run longer on a single charge. Putting on bigger battery pads is not going to solve it. These are the things we need to work on.”