Industry Talks

Topic: Exclusive Industry Talk on ‘Agentic AI Lifecycle’

Speaker:  Bharani Kumar Depuru, CEO & Founder at AiSPRY and 360DigiTMG

Date: September 12, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

 

Key takeaways:

The session explored the evolution of AI from models to agents, underscoring the need for human-in-the-loop governance, the challenges of scaling responsibly, and the broader implications for businesses and society, offering participants a comprehensive view of the opportunities and responsibilities that accompany this next phase of AI.

Topic: Strategic Leadership in the Age of Analytics

Speaker:  Vamsi Prasad, EVP - Management & Strategy

Date: August 12, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

 

As part of the Industry Talks series, Vamsi Prasad engaged with the AMPBA cohort, sharing perspectives on strategic initiatives, business growth, and transformative leadership. His session highlighted how analytics professionals can broaden their impact by complementing technical expertise with leadership and decision-making skills.

Key takeaways included:

• Success requires clarity at three levels: Industry, Organization, and Self.
• Moving beyond technical proficiency, professionals must strengthen narrative building and decision-making capabilities.
• Focus on strengths, passion, and skills, while aligning with the right mentors, enables professionals to create meaningful impact.

Topic: Data and Analytics in Business Transformation

Speaker:  Amit Sharma, Global Head of Analytics and Data at Sandoz

Date: August 09, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

 

The engaging session provided valuable perspectives on the evolving role of data and analytics in shaping business strategy and driving large-scale transformation. Drawing on his extensive global experience, Amit Sharma highlighted the scope of work in the analytics domain and the skills required for professionals to excel in this dynamic landscape.

Key takeaways included:

• Data is a critical driver of business strategy, with its influence extending across industries and functions.
• Thriving in analytics requires a blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and adaptability to change.
• Strategic digital solutions can be harnessed to achieve transformation at scale, enabling organizations to stay competitive in a fast-changing environment.

Topic: Convergence of AI and Blockchain

Speaker: Dr. Kiran K. Garimella, Assistant Professor of Instruction, University of South Florida and co- founder, Kore

Date: June 17, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

In his talk, he highlighted how blockchain is reshaping trust, transparency, and transaction infrastructure, from stablecoins, cryptographic seals, and Hyperledger Fabric to tracking diamond ownership, agriculture provenance, and rethinking double-entry bookkeeping.

He also explored the implications of quantum resilience, the divide between security and payment instruments, and why a robust buy/sell infrastructure is still missing in private markets.

Topic: The evolving world of AI

Speaker: Raghu B, Director, AWS Cloud Practice

Date: June 15, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

From large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI to AI Agents, RAG, and multimodal systems, Raghu explored the cutting edge of Machine Learning and shared how these technologies are shaping real-world applications, highlighting a banking loan approval use case among others.

Topic: Evolving Landscape in CyberSecurity

Speaker: Dr. Amir Javed - Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University

Date: June 14, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

He discussed emerging threats like phishing attacks, challenges in data procurement, and the role of machine learning in risk mitigation.

Topic: Navigating Management in the age of AI: Leading and Building AI products and businesses

Speaker: Nikhil Kumar, Principal Product Manager, Microsoft India

Date: May 21, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

As part of the AMPBA Industry Talk Series at the ISB Institute of Data Science (IIDS), Nikhil Kumar, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft, delivered a session on “Navigating Management in the Age of AI.” He shared practical insights on leading AI-driven innovation, building agile teams, and aligning product strategies with emerging AI capabilities—offering students a clear view of effective leadership in an AI-first world.

Topic: Scaling of AI Products

Speaker: Dr. Kiran K. Garimella, Assistant Professor of Instruction, University of South Florida and co- founder, Kore

Date: February 22, 2025

Location: Bengaluru

The insightful session, ‘Scaling of AI Products’, provided a compelling deep dive into the intricacies of scaling AI startups, an area that continues to pose significant challenges for businesses and developers alike. 

Key takeaways included:

• Successful scaling requires design, understanding the customer problem the offering solution with robust data infrastructure, integration, and team structure.
• AI is adaptable and optimizable, particularly in the face of evolving data and market dynamics.  
• The human side of AI scaling: the teams must have the right expertise and a clear strategy for user adoption and ethical deployment.  

Topic: Unleashing the new age with Generative AI

Speaker: Naren Kachroo, Head GTM, AI, Google Cloud, India

Date: April 14, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

Topic: Navigating AI Implementation - Lessons Learned

Speaker: Vishal Nagpal – Director, Data & AI, Bestbuy

Date: April 13, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

Mr. Nagpal shared valuable insights drawn from his extensive experience in implementing AI-driven solutions across diverse business contexts. In a very engaging session, he focused on the strategic and operational considerations critical to successful AI deployment—highlighting real-world challenges, stakeholder alignment, and the importance of organizational readiness.

Topic: How to Protect Your Organization from Generative AI/LLM’s Privacy Breaches

Speaker: Srinivasa Rao Aravilli, Senior Director – Machine Learning Engineering, Capital One

Date: March 09, 2025

Location: ISB, Hyderabad Campus

As part of the AMPBA programme, students engaged in an insightful session exploring global data privacy regulations, risks of GenAI prompts and completions, and advanced privacy-preserving techniques like federated learning, differential privacy, and ML unlearning.

Topic: Winds of Change: What AI has in store to transform Industry

Speaker: Sonal Chaturvedi, VP - Head of Industrialization & GenAI Delivery, Insights & Data at Capgemini, and Yash Sowale, VP - Architecture, India Domain Leader for AI, CTIO - I&D India at Capgemini, in Pune.

Date: March 08, 2025

Location: Pune

Their insightful session, ‘Winds of change - What AI has in store to transform industries?’, provided a comprehensive look at the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Key takeaways included:

• The Evolution of Intelligence: A fascinating journey from AI to GenAI, and now, Agentic AI.
• Industry Transformation: Deep dives into how AI agents are driving autonomy, decentralized AI, and next-gen automation.

Topic: Gen AI-Driving Transformative Experiences in the Industry

Speaker: Sandeep Alur, CTO of Microsoft Innovation Hub, India.

Date: February 22, 2025

Location: Bengaluru

The insightful session, ‘Gen AI-Driving Transformative Experiences in the Industry’ provided valuable insights into emerging technological trends and industry expectations.

Key takeaways included:

• The real-world use cases of transformation driven by Generative AI.
• A unique opportunity for participants to engage with industry leaders.
• A meaningful dialogue on the evolving landscape of technology and its impact on businesses. 

Topic: Evolving Role of Analytics in the Modern Enterprise

Speaker: Saurabh Agrawal, CEO of DAIOM

Date: January 11, 2025

Location: Gurugram

The insightful session ‘Evolving Role of Analytics in the Modern Enterprise’ explored how analytics transforms modern enterprises, reshapes strategies, and enables data-driven decision-making across industries. 

Key takeaways included:

• Valuable insight into the significance of analytics in addressing business challenges.
• Identifying opportunities in today’s dynamic landscape.