Hyderabad: Kore.ai, a Florida-based company, with a research and development unit in Hyderabad, has plans to double its strength in Hyderabad from the current 650 in a year or so, according to Prasanna Kumar, chief technology officer, Kore.ai. It is into providing enterprises with AI-first virtual assistants and automation solutions. In an interaction with Deccan Chronicle, he talked about market trends and its own plans in the segment.
Excerpts:
On company activities
Kore.ai was founded in 2013 and has been working on conversational artificial intelligence. With generative artificial intelligence gaining currency, we are now riveting our focus on the emerging artificial intelligence trend. We now have about 950 people, including 650 in Hyderabad. We are now planning to double the strength in Hyderabad in a year or so. We are now the largest research and development team in this segment. We will also expand in the US as well.
On growth drivers
Generative artificial intelligence is now in the boardroom. There is discussion among enterprises to use it to ease several pain points. Many are investing in this segment seeing the new possibilities.
On AI potential
The generative artificial intelligence segment is growing at around 40% on an annual basis. The potential is huge. ChatGpt, the widely used interface, has recreated a strong buzz about potential and the possibilities of using generative artificial intelligence. The current awareness about the technology is huge. However, several companies have been working on it for some time now. We are a product company and have built products that help enterprises to be more productive and efficient.
On use cases
For instance, in the banking and finance segments, there will be a need to cull out information from multiple sources and reports. Generative AI will sift through various documents and give information in a refined format. It will aid in automating operations, both voice and text. Banks, IT desks, large data handling agencies, service companies and others stand to benefit with the use of artificial intelligence. The cost benefit will be huge with respect to the investments made.
On clients
We are serving BFSI, retail, e-commerce, retail, technology, wealth management, media, airlines and hospitality segments. We offer industry and function specific solutions such as SmartAssist, AgentAssist, BankAssist, HealthAssist, SearchAssist, WorkAssist, HR Assist and IT Assist to address specific enterprise needs. Kore.ai also offers a no-code platform, known as the Kore.ai Experience Optimization (XO) platform. This enables organisations to design, build, test and deploy conversational user interfaces, virtual assistants and process apps. This approach reduces clients’ reliance on technical experts, accelerates implementation and improves efficiency. The platform uses deep neural networks (DNN), natural language processing (NLP) and conversational intelligence capabilities among others to recognise speech and text inputs and enable machines to process, understand and respond to chat or human voice.
On Hyderabad evolving as an AI capital
The infrastructure and ecosystem are in place in Hyderabad. Several players have made significant investments. Also, there are many startups that are working in this segment. Talent is available here. It was a challenge a few years to find trained hands but now that is not an issue at all. The overall interest is good.
On what students should focus on
Students should not worry too much about the emerging trends. Technology keeps changing frequently. They, however, should focus on fundamentals. They are the foundations for all emerging technologies. AI has been there for some time. What we are seeing now is just some new iteration. One should look to master at least two languages. These will be core and will aid in a smooth transition if they were to migrate to evolving trends.
