Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
About 8 years ago, I started my career as a software reliability engineer in Nutanix where I was responsible for improving the reliability of the software applications. Recognizing the importance of software reliability, I have always aspired to contribute to this field.
To scale my impact from solving a single problem to having an impact on the entire industry, I have transitioned to technical program management. In this role, I am responsible for the different programs that impact the reliability of the products. Google invented the term SRE for the software industry in 2003 and Technical program management in SRE is a great opportunity to create impact at the largest scale where billions of people use Google services. Making these services more reliable is the source of my inspiration to work hard.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
There are a lot of individuals who rely on Google services to work and use these services in their daily lives from navigation to connection with their loved ones through video calls. They can’t anticipate that the whole Google ecosystem will be turned down or impacted by some bugs. There is a lot of trust and belief from the end user.
As the leader of the technical program management, my primary responsibility is to enhance the reliability and availability of Google services. I regularly conduct postmortem reviews of past incidents and learn from them. I make sure that all the past mistakes get incorporated as improvements for our products and never get repeated in their lifetime.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Always know your strengths and weaknesses- Many individuals struggle to determine which field is best suited for them and how they should shape their careers. One should always do self-introspection to know your strengths and weaknesses. Always pick a field where you can leverage your strengths for success while getting a chance to improve your weaknesses.
- Communicate effectively: There are a lot of business problems that just get solved by effective communication. There are a lot of individuals who take this trait for granted.
- Be Grit:- there would be a lot of challenging tasks across one’s trajectory. It’s always about grit and consistency to tackle those challenges and solve them. One should be determined through difficult teams and make the decisions for their business
Let’s now move to the main point of our discussion about AI. Can you explain how AI is disrupting your industry? Is this disruption hurting or helping your bottom line?
AI will have an impact on project management. It will improve the structure and efficiency of project managers. There is a lot of uncertainty if AI replaces project management. I don’t think AI can completely replace it but it will be a productivity booster so each project manager will have ample time to support more projects.
Which specific AI technology has had the most significant impact on your industry?
AI is definitely helping in better planning and forecasting.
By leveraging historical data, AI and ML can recognize patterns that will do better project planning and forecasting. This will also help in more precise estimations of project duration, costs, and resources.
Can you share a pivotal moment when you recognized the profound impact AI would have on your sector?
The evolution of transformers like ChatGTP and Bard gave us an easy way to use AI. With these models, project managers can do a lot of these tasks like communication, and planning with more efficiency.
It just opened a can of opportunities. Now, it’s up to us how we leverage the technology and increase our efficiency for a good cause.
How are you preparing your workforce for the integration of AI, and what skills do you believe will be most valuable in an AI-enhanced future?
Everyone needs to know about the recent developments in AI. We recommend that everyone do AI training so that they are well aware about the industry advancement and how they can use it in their field for betterment and advancement.
Apart from training, it’s important to integrate the basic AI workflows in our emails so that it’s more structured and communicates efficiently.
What are the biggest challenges in upskilling your workforce for an AI-centric future?
There is always a change in resistance in all human beings and Employees may resist engagement in training. However, we can do mandatory training for all employees on the application if the AI varies from one organization and job profile to another. So this training needs to be specific to the target employees
What ethical considerations does AI introduce into your industry, and how are you tackling these concerns?
AI in project management can cause concern for Bias decisions. There could be a lot of bias in making decisions and forecasting the resources. So we need to be very diligent on when and where we are using AI in our project workflow. We can’t replace project managers entirely with AI. it can only be used in some workflows under human supervision.
Good project managers need to define these workflows at the very beginning of the project.
What are your “Five Things You Need To Do, If AI Is Disrupting Your Industry”?
1 . Leverage for Good- You need to know how to leverage the AI for your good by knowing its limits and boundaries. There are ethical concerns from AI so you should know where and when to use AI and when you shouldn’t.
2 . Be vulnerable- I have seen a lot of individuals who resist AI and it may take their jobs. I would give suggestions, if you don’t know AI or don’t want to use AI while it’s a business decision then it will take your job. So always be vulnerable and open to learning and incorporating new things in your field.
3 . Open for feedback- No one knows it completely, we all need to improve with this wave of innovation. So, if you are open to feedback, it allows you to improve over time.
4 . Updated with Recent Advancement — This space is evolving at a good velocity, there a lot of companies that are constantly innovating with new developments so it’s important to keep an eye on what it can do and what are the new capabilities of the AI
5 . Learn how to use it:- There are a lot of people who know the capabilities of AI but don’t know how to use them. It’s extremely important to understand how to use this in your field of expertise so that you can disrupt it.
What are the most common misconceptions about AI within your industry, and how do you address them?
There is a common misconception that AI will eliminate project management. These AI-based models lack the human empathy and emotional intelligence to make the sound decisions that human beings can.
Also, AI will increase the productivity of project management, and we need to learn how to leverage these models for better productivity.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
Perfect is the enemy of good
We often invest significant time, resources, and energy into perfecting a product or service. However, it’s important to know the point at which further efforts don’t yield diminishing returns. We need to identify the sustainable state.
Recently with AI development, we learned that we can’t wait for the perfect time to release. We need to know what is the right state that can be released and well appreciated by the customers else we keep investing to make these models perfect while not leveraging enough returns from these AI-based models.
Off-topic, but I’m curious. As someone steering the ship, what thoughts or concerns often keep you awake at night? How do those thoughts influence your daily decision-making process?
I constantly think about how to scale over time. Whether I’m developing a prototype for Google or enhancing transparency in processes, my goal is to find ways to scale these improvements. My goal is to ensure that these improvements aren’t limited to a single company or project but can be adopted/ utilized by the broader software sector to foster innovation at a scale.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most good to people that would be to communicate freely. Miscommunication is a major cause of conflicts and poor business decisions in both the personal and professional world. We often assume that the other person knows that we are talking or take effective communication as an oversight. The bigger the organization, the harder the effective communication is. By fostering open and effective communication, we can reduce conflicts, increase right trust, and make better business decisions.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Follow me on linkedin — https://www.linkedin.com/in/karanveer/
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!