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Imagine being an IT pro so stuck in your ways that you refused to buy into those new-fangled smartphones. Or who stuck with DOS rather than Windows as that’s what you grew up on. It’s a laughable thought now, but we were constantly reminded of these generational shifts when chatting to Souvik Das, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Clearwater Analytics.
“For IT professionals, the rise of GenAI might seem daunting, but it’s truly a gateway to new potential,” Souvik told us. “Tech professionals who integrate AI into their workflows will gain a notable upper hand… We’re already looking at tools that can automate coding work by as much as 10%-15%.”
But it’s not simply about working faster, he explains. While the IT team used to be seen as the equivalent of maintenance men, keeping computers and servers chugging away, the past few years has seen IT becoming a key part of a company’s strategies – technology is changing the world, creating hundreds of opportunities, and IT knowledge is now vital when shaping business strategy.
In this wide-ranging interview, however, Souvik also goes into the detail. Into why he sees Small Language Models (SLMs) as a missed opportunity, echoing thoughts from the Director of IBM Research Europe, Juan Bernabe Moreno.
So, who is Souvik Das? HIs CV includes a long list of technology focused companies, from spending a decade at PayPal to his time as CTO of Capital One Auto Finance and, more recently, as CTO at Zenefits. There’s a common thread in each of these roles, of leading product development, operations and IT.
All this experience shines through in his answers, and we recommend reading them from start to finish.
Tech leaders often get asked how people’s lives will change when a groundbreaking technology suddenly emerges. Our experience tells us that with each leap forward – like AI – we see new doors of opportunity swing wide open. AI is creating new opportunities and will undoubtedly introduce new verticals in the near future.
Of course, we don’t know for sure. But if you look back to when the Internet disrupted the world 25 years ago, now-ubiquitous companies like eBay, PayPal, Google – and later Facebook, Uber and Airbnb – came about because of it. These pioneers remind us that tech’s potential is vast and often pleasantly unpredictable. While new tech may unsettle and disrupt us in the short term, it ultimately enriches our lives, often in ways we never dreamed of.
Today, AI is reimagining every industry, elevating the role of IT from the server room to the boardroom. While tech professionals might have once been perceived as maintenance-oriented, coming in only to reboot your desktop, they’re becoming indispensable strategists and innovators. As data and digitization impact everyone in the workforce, the value of AI will become immeasurable, turning IT investments into pivotal business drivers.
We’re in an era where technology is reshaping every aspect of our work. For IT professionals, the rise of GenAI might seem daunting, but it’s truly a gateway to new potential. We’re already looking at tools that can automate coding work by as much as 10%-15%. However, these advances won’t replace the creativity and critical thinking that software engineers bring to their roles; rather, technology advances will elevate their roles, challenging them to tackle complex problems with innovative solutions and higher-level focus.
In the short- to medium-term, as businesses intensify their technology investments, the technology workforce will play an indispensable role in ensuring that capital is allocated effectively, aiming for optimal ROI. Technology professionals will play a more prominent part in the broader scope of organizational technology decision-making and change management. They will serve as strategic advisors, guiding everything from procurement to full-scale implementation, ensuring the alignment of technology with business goals.
Furthermore, as businesses increasingly depend on data-driven insights to carve out competitive advantages, the data revolution puts IT pros at the heart of business success, turning them into guardians of data integrity. They will take a hands-on role in data profiling, consistency and integrity testing, while also creating broader organizational data governance frameworks and management strategies.
Perhaps no innovation stands to drive more tangible benefits over the next ten years than AI. Global AI spending reached $55 billion in the third quarter of 2024 alone, a testament to the critical importance businesses place on this technology. In addition, 65% of organizations report regular use of GenAI in at least one aspect of their operations. Even in its nascent stages, GenAI is projected to boost worker productivity by up to 40%.
These substantial investment and adoption rates are clear indicators of where business focus and demand for technology expertise will converge in the near future. Tech professionals specializing in AI will find themselves tasked with a broad spectrum of responsibilities, from enhancing AI adoption ROI to pioneering new Small Language Models (SLMs). In the realm of AI, tech professionals will become invaluable strategic partners for business leaders, guiding the nuanced processes of GenAI adoption, deployment and integration into company workflows.
As we cast our gaze into the future, beyond the next decade, quantum computing emerges as the next profound innovation set to disrupt the enterprise.
Advanced robotics, genAI and sophisticated data analytics have transformed how virtually every industry operates and delivers value, from finance to transportation and logistics.
In complex fields like healthcare, we see massive advancements as professionals unlock greater pathological insights. Within the next three to four years, healthcare will benefit from these tech breakthroughs, directly impacting consumers. We expect breakthroughs such as the early detection of diseases and in-depth analysis of genetic markers, paving the way for novel treatments. With the power of AI, such medical innovations become plausible and increasingly attainable. Moreover, these advancements are set to become more broadly accessible, offering their life-changing potential to a wider demographic.
The most exciting change will be the level of access global communities could have to these paradigm-shifting tools. As technology costs come down, we expect a surge in the adoption of Wi-Fi, digital cloud technologies and streaming services, reaching even the most remote communities. This expansion promises a greater democratization of knowledge and resources, particularly benefitting traditionally underserved communities and demographics.
For instance, digital education platforms are reshaping the distribution of knowledge, while fintech solutions are expanding economic empowerment to the underbanked and unbanked populations. It’s hard to think of an industry that won’t experience positive change by the tech industry over the next 5-10 years.
In the near future, adaptability, curiosity and a relentless pursuit of knowledge will become indispensable for tech professionals. The good news is that these qualities are deeply part of the tech sector’s culture and workforce.
From establishing ARPANET less than six decades ago to the emergence of microprocessors and the creation of email, the tech sector has navigated a continuous wave of disruptive innovations. Throughout these developments, tech professionals have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to adapt, learn new technologies, and evolve alongside them.
In today’s tech world, adaptability, curiosity and lifelong learning are essential as the water we drink. The ever-accelerating pace of technological change requires that tech professionals transition from the “old way of doing things” to the forefront of cutting-edge practices. Those who can readily adapt and expand their skillsets will navigate the learning curve more easily and become more skilled and marketable within their fields.
Consider the realm of AI as an example. Tech professionals who integrate AI into their workflows, capitalizing on its benefits to enhance their initiatives, will gain a notable upper hand over those hesitant or slow to adapt to this powerful technology.
Over the next decade, GenAI will almost certainly become the focal point of innovation. Nonetheless, along with its boundless potential to disrupt, GenAI carries a series of inevitable challenges. In the GenAI space, this takes the form of “agentic AI”.
Agentic AI is the next frontier in the GenAI revolution, promising a more intuitive, autonomous, and specific level of performance. A hugely ambitious undertaking, agentic AI requires that tech professionals oversee the intricate tasks of integrating multi-faceted systems. The goal is to enable autonomous functionality that eclipses the capabilities of current GenAI applications – including everything from resetting passwords to sophisticated portfolio management and analysis.
To realize the ambitious vision of GenAI, new levels of collaboration and teamwork will be critical across tech teams and their organizations. Agents can be trained with incredible specificity while operating in accordance with data governance, security, and accuracy standards. This process will present layers of challenges; however, overcoming these challenges will position tech professionals as leaders in one of the most transformative technology breakthroughs of our time.
Often overshadowed by large language models, SLMs are an underappreciated area in today’s technology conversations.
While Large Language Models (LLMs), powered by billions of parameters, are known for their impressive broad-based results, they come with significant drawbacks. They require a tremendous amount of training and energy consumption that often result in prohibitive costs for many businesses, and they may lack the precision specific use cases require.
SLMs provide a compelling solution to these challenges, allowing tech professionals to build tools tailored to more targeted and nuanced data sets. By doing so, businesses can leverage genAI in ways that are more finely tuned and directly applicable to their unique needs.
For ambitious tech professionals looking to carve out a new lane for themselves, there’s a golden opportunity to deepen their domain expertise to complement their technical capabilities. Especially in heavily regulated industries like finance and healthcare, where complex GenAI applications are at play, there is a growing need for specialists – such as dedicated prompt analysts – who excel at evaluating model responses. These experts are crucial for fine-tuning prompts to ensure accurate and relevant results.
As the trend toward agentic AI gains massive momentum, SLMs also represent a strategic bridge for tech teams, enabling them to gain practical, needed experience with the level of specificity increasingly sought by the market. Tech innovators who can master and support these sophisticated systems stand to play key roles in driving innovation and scaling operations. Embracing SLMs now will help tech professionals thrive in an era where tailored genAI solutions become the norm.
