September 2024
Chief Technology Officer
What does your job entail within your organization?
As the Chief Technology Officer at Simpplr, I lead our engineering and technology teams to drive innovation and create more value for our customers. My role involves overseeing the development of our technology stack, ensuring that we deliver high-quality, scalable SaaS solutions that meet the evolving needs of our users. With nearly 25 years of experience in the technology industry, including my previous role as Senior Vice President of SaaS Engineering at Nutanix, I leverage my expertise to enhance Simpplr’s product offerings and streamline our engineering processes. I aim to continuously push the boundaries of what our technology can achieve, ensuring that Simpplr remains at the forefront of employee experience innovation.
What do you think are the biggest challenges your organization faces related to integrating AI into your business?
One of the biggest challenges Simpplr faces in integrating AI is ensuring that AI enhances, rather than disrupts, the human-centric employee experience we prioritize. Balancing automation with the need for authentic, meaningful communication is crucial. Additionally, integrating AI in a way that simplifies processes, fosters innovation, and maintains our high standards of excellence requires careful strategy and execution. Last but not the least all of this has to be done in such a way that we address data security, privacy, and trust issues as we incorporate AI into our solutions.
Why must organizations prioritize responsible AI governance and systems in their business?
Organizations must prioritize responsible AI governance because it’s not just about technology—it’s about trust. Our work at Simpplr centers on helping organizations build that trust with their employees. Adhering to ethical standards like those from the Responsible AI Institute ensures that AI enhances transparency, fairness, and accountability. This commitment extends beyond AI to everything we do, reinforcing employees’ trust in their organizations. When trust is strong, innovation flourishes, and employees feel empowered to engage and contribute meaningfully. Responsible AI isn’t just a tech imperative; it’s a trust imperative.
What’s a lesson you’ve learned that has shaped your work in responsible AI? Why is this work important to you?
One key lesson I’ve learned in responsible AI is that while it’s relatively easy to develop proofs-of-concept (POCs) and take an idea from 0 to 1, scaling a solution from 1 to 10 while ensuring it meets ethical and responsible AI standards is far more complex. It requires a careful balance of innovation, fairness, transparency, and user experience. This work is important to me because it’s not just about creating advanced technology but about doing so in a way that positively impacts our customers while maintaining trust and integrity. Responsible AI must prioritize long-term impact over short-term wins.
About Simpplr
Simpplr is the modern intranet that transforms the work experience for all employees—wherever and however they work. Simpplr is the only platform that unifies employee engagement, enablement, and services, leveraging state-of-the-art AI models to deliver a seamless, cohesive, and personalized employee experience. Trusted by over 1,000 global brands, including Moderna, Snowflake, Splunk, Penske, Eurostar, and AAA, Simpplr customers see significant improvements in employee productivity, retention, and overall satisfaction. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, CA, Simpplr is backed by Norwest Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Tola Capital, and Still Venture Capital.
About the Responsible AI Institute
Founded in 2016, Responsible AI Institute (RAI Institute) is a global and member-driven non-profit dedicated to enabling successful responsible AI efforts in organizations. We accelerate and simplify responsible AI adoption by providing our members with AI conformity assessments, benchmarks and certifications that are closely aligned with global standards and emerging regulations.
Members include leading companies such as Amazon Web Services, Boston Consulting Group, KPMG, ATB Financial and many others dedicated to bringing responsible AI to all industry sectors.
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