Mumbai: Technology and business must go hand in hand for any venture to truly self-sustain and scale, Shreeram Iyer, chairman and Group CEO of Prisma AI, told students during The Times of India’s ‘Leaders on Campus’ interactive forum held recently at Vivekananda Education Society Institute of Technology (VESIT).Shifting focus away from corporate histories, Iyer dove straight into how machine learning evolved from early projects, such as a massive German govt initiative that deployed early optical character recognition algorithms to archive thousands of bags of hand-shredded and machine-shredded historical letters. He detailed how these foundational concepts expanded into advanced computer vision applications used by global enterprises and authorities, noting that “if you go to airports like Dubai, China or Malaysia airports right now,” camera systems are intelligent enough to track unattended luggage left for more than 30 minutes and instantly alert security officers if a passenger exits the building.Explaining the operational differences between modern technologies, Iyer pointed out that “ChatGPT asks questions,” whereas “in computer vision you don’t ask questions; it has to see by itself, understand it, reference, index it, and take a decision.”He also discussed industrial applications where camera systems prevent millions of euros in assembly-line losses for automotive manufacturers like BMW by detecting dropped parts and tracking components in real time.Gresha Bhatia, dean of academics at VESIT, said, “AI has been transforming the way we think, the way we create, the way we lead,” but emphasised that “unless and until the humans don’t think, don’t take crucial responsibility, don’t create things which are actually required, don’t think anything constructive, AI is going to be destructive”.Concluding the interactive session, Iyer encouraged students interested in technology entrepreneurship to focus on solving end-user problems and understanding how to build practical, revenue-generating solutions.
