AI can automate the work, human judgement makes it valuable by Vijay Potluri
AI can automate the work, human judgement makes it valuable.
What are the biggest challenges your company has faced when implementing AI technologies, and how did you overcome them?
Our biggest challenges have been around monitoring and compliance. We owe it to our customers not just to train AI models responsibly, but to ensure they execute faithfully at runtime — the two are not the same problem. This required us to build a new layer of controls to monitor model behavior in production, and to generate the evidence needed to satisfy auditors and regulators.
What skills or roles do you believe are most critical for building a strong AI-driven team, and how do you attract and retain such talent?
Hiring: We prioritize hiring multi-disciplinary problem solvers. With the rise of AI, the basic tasks have become much simplified. For example, anyone can generate code nowadays. The challenge is in visualizing where the human adds value. While anyone can generate code, there is a right way to do it using modular tools and AI native technologies. The differentiator is combining that technical fluency with a genuine understanding of the problem you’re solving. That’s how you demonstrate real value:
Retaining: We focus on giving people ownership of real problems rather than narrow, repetitive tasks. Naturally, talented people want autonomy, exposure to ambiguous problems, and the room to make judgment calls — not just execute instructions. We also invest in keeping them close to the newest tools and techniques, since that’s part of what keeps the work intellectually engaging for this kind of profile.
What emerging trends in AI are you most excited about, and how do you see them shaping your industry or business operations?
We’re particularly excited about agentic AI. We see significant value in tailoring these systems to our customers’ specific needs. Today, we’re often stuck choosing between out-of-the-box tools or investing considerable resources into custom workflows — there’s not much middle ground. With the rapid advances in agentic AI, we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to model and train these systems exactly the way we envision, without that trade-off.
Which specific skills will become essential for data practitioners in the future so that they are able to deliver maximum value to the business?
Data practitioners will need to move beyond pure technical execution because running queries or building models is increasingly automatable. They need to frame the right business problems in the first place. Strong AI/ML literacy will be essential to critically evaluate outputs, understand
failure modes, and know when to trust versus verify. Equally important is domain fluency, since generic data skills are commoditized and the real value comes from connecting data patterns to actual business decisions. As AI does the technical heavy lifting and gets more embedded into decision making, communication and storytelling will become a core differentiator. A working understanding of governance and compliance adds tremendous value.
About the author:
Seasoned security leader with deep expertise in Agentic AI security, post-quantum cryptography (PQC), and cloud infrastructure — bridging hands-on engineering with strategic leadership. Proven ability to design and deliver secure, scalable SaaS platforms while anticipating emerging threat landscapes, including leading quantum-resistant cryptographic migrations aligned with NIST PQC standards.
Leadership across cross-functional teams as a coding-fluent collaborator, combining software development depth with DevSecOps rigor. Holder of ISC2 CISSP and CCSP certifications. Adept at integrating generative AI and agentic AI security frameworks into enterprise cloud architectures across AWS, Azure, and GCP — ensuring intelligent automation never outpaces governance.
Track record of architecting resilient cloud environments with AI/ML-powered threat detection, zero-trust principles, PQC migration frameworks, and robust Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery strategies. Uniquely positioned at the intersection of cutting-edge cryptography, intelligent security automation, and enterprise-grade cloud operations.
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