India has huge potential in AI and could become a global talent hub in the coming years

As artificial intelligence (AI) makes deep inroads into the technology world, upskilling be-comes critical. Especially, upskilling of women is vital for making them job ready in the AI world. Moreover, the importance of digital privacy and consumer protection is growing in the current AI era. ‘Women in Cloud’ is a social enterprise that enables women to upskill in critical AI skills.

Chaitra Vedullapalli, the Cofounder & President of ‘Women in Cloud’ told Bizz Buzz that the organisation is helping women professionals to be job ready through its support programmes. ‘Women in Cloud’ has collaborated with hyperscalers and edtech play-ers through which it provides job-ready skills to women professionals through giving them scholarship. In the last four and half years, it has already upskilled 6,600 women profession-als across the world.

Under her leadership, Women in Cloud has unlocked $500 million in economic opportunities, supporting over 120,000 individuals in more than 80 countries. She said that the organisation is also working in the space of advocacy for keeping the digital privacy intact. According to her, India has huge potential in terms of developing AI potential in coming years and being a talent hub for the world

Can you provide a brief overview about ‘Women in Cloud’? Also, please provide some overview about your personal journey in the technology world.

I am in the technology industry for a long time. I have worked in various positions through-out my career. My passion is on the theme of democratisation of technology so that only few people shouldn’t have access to the opportunity created through technology but the benefits should touch all classes of the society. My passion is how do we drive economic prosperity through democratisation of technology.

Currently, I am the President of ‘Women in Cloud’ where our focus is on democratising the access of technology, especially in this AI (artificial intelligence) economy. We are doing it through workforce development, economic develop-ment and storytelling work among others. And at the core of it is economic prosperity.

Right now, when AI is developing so fast, the consumer protection and civil rights are not being looked into as an area because the regulations are not able to catch up with the rolling out of technological advancements. That is also another area of focus for us.

In this context, we want to ensure that we as women are skilled, and certified. We want to ensure that women have a stable job in the AI economy. We also focus on leadership development among wom-en leaders so that they take up leadership positions and make policy & governance decisions. So, we collaborate in these aspects.

Can you throw more light on the operation of ‘Women in Cloud’?

‘Women in Cloud’ is a social enterprise. We work with many hyperscalers (like Microsoft, Google, Amazon) to drive the change. Our focus is on driving democratisation of AI and cloud technologies among masses. We want enhance individual’s ability to earn more using these technologies.

For instance, if somebody is on a $70,000 per annum job, then our focus is to increase it. We also seek to ensure high-paying jobs in the cloud and AI space across na-tions. Also, if you are a business owner, then our focus is to help them to build a successful company in collaboration with hyperscalers like creation, collaboration and co-launching.

Our aim is to provide business owners a structured, and consistent set of customers for busi-ness growth.In this process, we engage with all the hyperscalers.

What is the mission statement of ‘Women in Cloud’? Can you explain it in one line?

The mission statement is to democratise one billion dollar in economic activity for women and allies in an AI-powered economy.

What kind of work has already been done by ‘Women in Cloud’ so far? Can you provide a glimpse of the projects undertaken so far?

Let’s begin with workforce development. Within workforce development, we ensure that women have access to industry certifications. So, we provide them with skilling tools, we provide them with Coursera infrastructure, Microsoft vouchers, and other supports.

Then, we make them ready for job readiness. In this process, we make sure that their resumes, inter-views and related aspects are ready for the job world. And once they are placed in the jobs, then help them to tell their stories to others for inspiration.

Under this initiative, we also work on leadership development among women. In our iconic leadership programme, we train them in public speaking, leadership gravitas and soft skills among others. In terms of economic development, we help many women entrepreneurs.

We help founders in product development, offer positioning, go to market strategy and other strategies. We help them to have a very strong relationship with hyperscalers.

In India, if a woman technology professional wants to be upskilled in new age technology ar-eas, it could cost her around Rs1 lakh to Rs2.5 lakh depending on the certifications. When you add job readiness and recruitment-related support, this cost can go up to Rs5 lakh.

That is the space, we support women professionals. We underwrite that amount so that they can be part of workforce as quickly as possible. In the last four and half years, we have done around 6,600 AI, cloud and cybersecurity certifications.

Our intent is to take this number to 10,000 by 2027. We are also supporting the government initiative – Mission AI-Saksham- for certifying and building credentials of 1 million people in AI skills in India.

Which other geographies are you focussing on apart from India?

This is a global initiative. India, of course, is a key market. We focus on the US, Canada, In-dia, Africa and Europe for making professionals ready for the job market in the AI-powered world.

As far as India is concerned, the market is expanding for AI and cloud. The country is required to have more women in the workforce and increase their contribution to the GDP.

Can you throw some light on the kind of work being done on the consumer protection and privacy areas in the context of AI?

Digital privacy and identity protection are critical in the AI era. Everyone deserves the right of have control over his/her data. Similarly, algorithm biasness is an area which should be watched keenly to ensure that systematic biasness is not amplified.

Human well-being pro-tection is another area which is critical in the digital era. In the AI world, ethics and stand-ards need to be maintained as the new technology performs critical tasks across sectors. We are working in all areas through active advocacy and deep engagement with stakeholders.