Why data and process expertise define the future of AI outcomes

Hyland empowers organisations with unified content, process and application intelligence solutions, unlocking profound insights that fuel innovations. Trusted by thousands of organisations worldwide, including many in the Fortune 100, Hyland’s solutions fundamentally redefine how teams operate and engage with those they serve.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz, Jitesh Ghai, CEO, Hyland, decodes Hyland's unique model, their Kolkata and India expansion plans and much more

How do you describe Hyland? What does it do?

Let’s talk about Hyland. What do we do? We are approximately over $1.2 billion in revenue globally. We're an enterprise software leader in the market of enterprise content management.

I emphasise enterprise software leader because there are many technology companies, some are B2C, business-to-consumer—Netflix is an example. We are enterprise. Our technologies sit inside organisations to help them manage their content.

What do I mean by content? It depends on industry—documents, in healthcare, images, X-rays, colonoscopies, mammographies, etc.—really important, mission-critical, unstructured data.

Many organisations talk about data, but there is structured data that sits in databases, and then there is unstructured data, like PDF and Word documents.

We are focused on delivering value from unstructured data, and I’ll explain later why it’s very exciting for us as the largest enterprise software leader focused on this market with artificial intelligence. Because, artificial intelligence is as good as your data.

And unstructured data is 80 per cent of an enterprise’s organisation. Previously, before large language models, you could do very little to unlock value from unstructured data. Now, we are innovating to unlock lots of value.

So you deal with documents, images?

That’s right. So, over 1.2 billion in revenue, approximately 4,000 people globally, of which approximately 700 are in India today. We see incredible opportunity to deliver real AI value to our 14,000 customers globally.

So what is unique about Hyland?

What is unique about Hyland is we don’t just store documents. We automate mission-critical business processes within an organisation with their documents.

We serve mission-critical industries. Our largest industries are healthcare, insurance, banking, higher education—universities, colleges—as well as the government sector at both federal and state levels.

So, mostly diagnostics in healthcare?

You can imagine, everything—administrative to clinical. Let me give you a few examples. Maybe insurance is a quick one, but let’s start with banking. You want to apply for a mortgage. You need to submit a credit report, which is a document.

You need to show bank statements, savings account statements, retirement account statements, to give the bank a full view of your assets so they can assess whether to approve the mortgage or not, based on a certain risk profile.

All of those documents are stored in Hyland technologies. Then what we do is automate the business process for claims processing. The right analyst, using our technology, is notified: “Please look at the credit report. Please look at these assets. Please approve, decline, or request more information.”

That’s mortgage approvals. Same thing for small, medium business or enterprise loan approvals. Same for insurance claims when there’s an accident or property damage—all require assessments and documents.

We store the documents, manage them, make them easy, and also automate the processes.

So, you build statistical models on the basis of the data?

We give the content to actuaries that make the models. But what we do is make sure they are able to get the content and unstructured data they need. In healthcare, we’re storing patient records—prescriptions, tests, lab results, patient identification, insurance details.

We automate processes like assigning patients to beds, processing referrals from primary care physicians to specialists—all of this, again, is document-driven. We take the documents, store them, and automate the processes. Very unique to Hyland in this space is process automation and content management together.

So, analysis is also done by you, or you just help?

Historically, an analyst had to look at the credit report, bank statements, and make a determination: approve, decline, or request more information.

That had to be done by a human. The analyst extracted the credit score, checked assets, matched against the mortgage amount, and then decided. But now, with artificial intelligence—tell me if I’m getting too technical, I’m an engineer by training—in Q4 of 2022, it was very hard to work with these documents.

But large language models can now give structure to unstructured data. They can tell you: this is a credit report, this is the score.

Using LLMs and GPU compute, if we can do that with a credit report, we can also do it with retirement statements, savings accounts, checking accounts. We can assemble all the information and give it to a predictive or generative model to approve, decline, or request more information. That’s what’s really exciting.

So, yes—we classify documents, tell you what they are, what’s inside, and answer questions. For example, “This is a purchase order. These are the products. This is the discount. This is the price.”

Previously, someone had to manually enter this into an ERP system. Now you can get it directly from unstructured data.

Previously, an analyst had to review multiple documents and make a decision. Now, the model can make the decision. If you look at our scale—we manage unstructured data in mission-critical industries globally. It sits in Hyland technologies. We are custodians of this data. We automate processes with this data.

Now, if we AI-enable the content and the processes, we can achieve remarkable productivity.

Many are talking about AI agents, but without the data and without deep process understanding, they fail to deliver outcomes. We have both—the data and the processes.

So, with AI, we can free loan analysts from routine reviews so they focus on tough loans. Free insurance analysts to handle complex claims. AI can handle 80–90% of simple tasks, leaving humans for exceptions.

That’s why organisations struggle with AI outcomes today—they don’t have the right combination of data and process expertise.

Hyland has been building this for three decades, with 14,000 customers, hundreds of petabytes of data, over half a billion human decisions orchestrated annually using our technologies. Now, by adding AI, we can deliver exponential productivity. The cloud accelerates delivery of new innovations for us and for our customers.

When did you start your Indian operation?

We started in 2017 through the acquisition of Perceptive Software. That was our footprint in India. Around 2018, we had about 100 employees. Today, we’re almost 700, with 600 in Kolkata. So, from 2018 to 2025, we’ve grown six times in Kolkata.

We’re proud of that. We did this because Kolkata has incredible, talented people.

Uniquely, as a billion-dollar enterprise software company, we’re not services-based like many local IT firms. We’re building cloud products, and now cloud and AI services for content management and business automation.

In June 2025, we announced opening our Hyderabad office. Early days, but the goal is to find talent quickly wherever possible. Kolkata is already scaled, and we’ll continue to invest in university relations and recruitment there. Hyderabad is starting, but we’ll invest there too.

India has always been an innovation centre for me personally. I’ve created multiple new products and markets from talent in India. Now, at Hyland, we’re doing it in content, automation, and AI.

What headcount are you looking at in 2–3 years?

Market dependent, innovation dependent, but I see no reason why India cannot be a multi-thousand-person presence for Hyland. How much in Kolkata, how much in Hyderabad—we’ll see. But India is a key innovation centre for us.

And investment scale?

We are private, so I can’t share region-specific numbers. But globally, we invest close to $200 million annually in innovation—cloud, unstructured data, AI. That’s the scale we operate at with $1.2 billion revenue.

Do Indian operations have global claims also, or only Indian?

This is an innovation centre—a product development centre first. Products are developed here for global use. In Kolkata, we already have professional services, finance, product management, design, engineering, customer support, and customer success.

We’ll continue to scale these functions in Kolkata and Hyderabad. So, it’s not just local—our products and services benefit customers globally.

Mostly healthcare and services sector—do you have manufacturing applications?

Yes, some manufacturing customers, notably in the US. But we’re focused on highly regulated industries where data is sensitive and mission-critical—healthcare, banking, insurance, etc. Content must be governed and compliant. That’s our strength.

That said, our technologies are horizontal. We also have customers in manufacturing, retail, and other sectors, though our packaged solutions are strongest in regulated industries.

Other than the US and India, which are your key markets globally?

We have customers in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, the Americas, and the Middle East.

The Middle East is exciting because of investments in digital transformation, AI, and data. We already have customers there, but we recently appointed a Managing Director dedicated to the region.

Have you been affected by current structural developments in the US?

We are technologists. We build software and innovations for global markets. That’s our focus and how we operate.

Any new areas you are looking at?

As the largest player of our scale focused solely on this, with such opportunity to realise AI outcomes in mission-critical industries, we don’t need to chase new areas.

We just need to unlock value from the investments our 14,000 customers have already made. Of course, we’ll keep gaining new customers and logos, and we’ll revisit regional investments, like the Middle East example, as needed.

What is your talent acquisition strategy?

A: Twofold—universities and experienced professionals. Kolkata has been a rich source because we offer enterprise software innovation, not just IT services, making us attractive for career growth.

We want the best, and to keep the best, you must invest in them—give challenging work and leading-edge technologies. That’s why we’ve grown six times here in recent years.

So, retention is as important as acquisition?

A: 100 per cent. Retention is about giving the most exciting, rewarding work. Innovation leaders retain talent by making them proud of what they build. Of course, competitive pay and benefits also matter.

Many companies are going deeper into tier-2 or tier-3 cities. Do you have plans?

Right now, our plans are to scale Kolkata and Hyderabad. For our size—4,000 globally, 700 in India—that’s plenty. If we were 500,000 people, maybe we’d need a more complex strategy. For now, two cities are enough. Maybe in 2–3 years, I’ll have a different answer.

When you become multi-thousand headcount in India, will you also grow globally?

Yes, but I see a great opportunity to grow faster in India as an innovation leader, which is a key strategy.