(This is a shorter version of our Chairman’s Letter to Shareholders from the recently published Annual Report for FY 2023-24)

In the charter for Intellect 3.0, we had identified a few key drivers for growth – Expanding into new geographies, Incubating more platforms, Establishing a strong partner network, Leveraging existing IP and Customer assets – that would guide our Business design for the next few years. It is gratifying to note that we have made significant progress on each of the above aspects in FY24.

The eMACH.ai Phenomenon

FY24 commenced soon after the launch of eMACH.ai in February 2023. eMACH.ai is the culmination of our relentless architecture focused R&D initiatives for over a decade – 16 mn person hours! – that seek to constantly calibrate ourselves against the future and retain us ahead of the Technology curve.

Applying first principles thinking, we succeeded in elementalising the seemingly complex Banking space to finite number of Events, Microservices and Application Programming Interfaces – APIs that act as connectors and successfully deployed them in live Cloud hosted installations for our customers, giving them the flexibility to design and compose their experience layers as well, while simultaneously equipping them with the power of 8 AI technologies that deliver connected Enterprise Intelligence.

From AI to Enterprise Connected Intelligence (CI)

Purple Fabric, Intellect’s AI Platform is unique in offering Enterprise grade AI that is secure, robust, accurate, explainable and traceable. As the adoption of AI proliferates to be all pervasive, we differentiate ourselves by the multiplier effect that the synthesis of the 8 technologies brings with a deep vertical context to the Banking & Financial Services space. In contrast to horizontal AI technologies that address parts of the Information value chain with selective, one-off deployments of Bots and Agents, Intellect’s holistic, Design thinking led approach ensures input quality through validated and enriched information using the first 4 technologies and subsequently attempts a close match of the consultative, self managed human decisioning process with a network of self learning Expert agents to deliver insights and recommendations. I have found a strong endorsement of this uniqueness in my meetings with Customers, Consultants and Partners over the last few months. The Industry trend is to move to more efficient vertical focused Language Models, where we have a headway.

We commenced FY25 with a global summit of our leadership team across Technology, Domain, Business Development and Enablement roles to align and converge on a shared vision for leveraging the power of this technology, translating it into Customer Impact in the areas of transformation of Enterprise, Operations, Experience or in expanding capabilities and in driving efficiencies within for greater monetisation and benefits. During the course of FY24, we had completed multiple cohorts of technology certification in the Composability platform and AI platform as well as trained our Leadership and mid Management in refresher Leadership skills. Read More

First Principles Thinking and its Importance in Technology Development

First Principles Thinking is a problem-solving approach that involves breaking down complex problems into their most basic elements and building up solutions from there. Mr Jain contrasts this with management thinking, which focuses on resource maximization and optimization. In the context of design thinking, which emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes understanding unmet needs to create opportunities, First Principles Thinking involves questioning fundamental assumptions on banking processes and user journeys, in view of the value Banks intend to provide to their end customers. This approach is vital for innovation, as it allows for a deeper understanding of the underlying principles governing a system, leading to more effective and novel solutions.

Mr Jain explains that the evolution of financial technology which has defined banking thus far-from mainframes to cloud computing-has led to an increase in complexity. Design thinking helps simplify this complexity by focusing on the core values and needs of banking systems. By distilling these values, organizing the right thinking spaces, and expanding performance frameworks, technology can more effectively impact business outcomes. This method ensures that technology development aligns with the essential functions and values that customers seek in financial services, thereby creating more intuitive and effective solutions.