Enterprise AI Adoption: Operating System for Real Results | Siddharth Bohra | S1E8

Speaker A: So we are entering an era where strategic insight is no longer just crafted by people, it is being generated by systems. Welcome to Org Consulting Conversations. This is where we explore how strategy, innovation and advisory models are being reshaped by AI. Now in each of this episode, as you have heard previously, we unpack how leaders who are building and buying these new systems are thinking about key aspects like trust adoption and the future of strategic decision making. My guest today is Siddharth Bora, the founder of Turmeric, an AI platform purpose built for technology teams and CIO organizations. Before Turmeric, Siddharth led LTI Mindpree's digital business globally with full PNL responsibility across a variety of areas like cloud infrastructure, security, uh, data services, interactive and CRM. He has incubated multiple new businesses, launched data products, public cloud platforms and built high growth practices across sectors. Before lti he was nearly for a decade at Infosys leading their high tech business unit. And earlier in his career he was also an entrepreneur in e commerce domain and worked as a sales leader in PepsiCo. So a diverse range of experience. An alumnus of IIM UM Calcutta and a member of MIT CISR's Analytics Advisory Board. So is this. Siddharth is based out of Silicon Valley. So Siddharth, thank you so much for spending time with me today.

Speaker B: Hey utsav, thanks for having me. Very excited to be being part of this conversation.

Speaker A: So from your vantage point, how is strategy consulting changing with the rise of AI? What parts of consulting engagement do you see is now getting automated or fundamentally reshaped?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I think that's uh, a, that's a great question. And I'm sure there are lots of views on this topic and each one of them correct. From the vantage point of the, you know, the person who has the view. I've seen two worlds. The world that you just described, I came from, which are the world of consulting. Very, very, you know, working with some of the largest enterprises in the world on some of their most mission critical initiatives. And the other vantage point which is of Turmeric where we again are partnering with some of the largest enterprises in the world. But we're building a product which is uh, AI native or intelligence native, so to say. Um, and the way I would look at how strategy consulting or consulting for that matter would evolve is I would say the bar for what represents good consulting output is definitely going to go up because intelligent systems will begin to organize a lot of the learnings and the experiences of every organization into some sort of a knowledge fabric. Which means that organizations which traditionally lost knowledge to attrition or to tribal ways of working will see a uh, systemic approach or a systemic intervention where that knowledge will not exactly be lost. So I think the role of consulting, strategy consulting will need to evolve. It'll still be pretty pertinent, I would say, but I would say the days of

Speaker A: um,

Speaker B: consulting, which is not genuinely value adding, uh, are kind of on their taper down. So I would say it'll raise the bar a lot for the consulting stream in general. Uh, and the guys who get on the right side of it, the guys who truly reimagine consulting and output of consulting with AI will do get disproportionate benefit from it.

Speaker A: Right. And you're sort of leading that entire trend with turmeric, a very fundamentally, uh, different way of thinking about how CIOs could operate. So maybe a quick brief on what turmeric is for people who uh, yet don't know about it.

Speaker B: Sure, absolutely. So, uh, you know, Turmeric, essentially we call ourselves as a uh, enterprise transformation os. And if I have to unpack what that means, if you look at most enterprises, uh, and especially the technology functions in the enterprise, they have two primary roles. One is to keep the business running, keep the systems running, keep your applications, infrastructure, all of that. And the second part is to help that enterprise transform continuously. Uh, earlier it was cloud, then it was data, uh, before that was erp, now it's genai. Every enterprise needs to stay for them to stay competitively strong, needs to is embracing technology to kind of stay ahead. We are that system for all things change. Right? So we bring the flow of work, of change, the resources associated to change and the outcomes that change produces all on one platform. Uh, the other way to look at it is we kind of collapsed this gap between business strategy and tech execution. Uh, and you've been in the strategy world long enough utsav to know that the best of strategy eventually gets into some sort of a ppt. That PPT then gets into some documents to get fleshed out into digital initiatives and then it gets somewhere into some execution mode. So the distance between what was thought to be done and what is actually getting done is very wide. It's very fragmented and we are using AI to kind of collapse that gap so that they live on the same plane.

Speaker A: Right. And that's like you uh, know it's a very specific problem, a problem which has been known for years and there's so many projects which are uh, again re sanctioned to figure out how Do I convert this PPT deck into something real and do the execution? So when you sort of have this value proposition for C suite leaders and you talk to them, even after sort of understanding what kind of problem you solve and how AI plugs that, what do they hesitate about in terms of initially thinking about taking such a tool in their system? What are their fears? What is the excitement that you hear from them?

Speaker B: That's an awesome question. Well, I feel that, um, there are a host of considerations that enterprises have when they buy any software, and specifically in our case, um, I'd say the first one is the ability to embrace change. Right. Not every enterprise is at a point in time where they want to go through, uh, uh, a change like this. This is a fairly significant change in kind of ways of working. So enterprises are always sizing up in terms of are we ready? We believe they're ready. Every enterprise is ready. But they have to be in the right frame of mind, the right point in time to feel like that. Uh, and I'm talking about the concerns that they typically have. I would say the second concern that is often cited is who within my organization is going to own this? Right? And if they don't find the right owner who was going to be able to dedicate the right time and effort, then they will kind of push it out to a point because this, again, because it's changed. You don't want to just for it to be, you know, lost. Uh, in translation, I would say those are the two. I mean, I can go on, but I would say those are the two reasons. There, there is always an inherent concern about AI and what will do to roles. But when people see our product and the way we built it out, it's, it's genuinely amplifies human potential. So I think that fear goes away rather very quickly. So I would say those are the top two issues which remain concerns in terms of getting started on turmeric, what excites them on the other side is the, um. And I think you, you know, before we, you know, started this conversation, you were talking about this embedding AI into workflows, which means it is native AI, not just superimposed AI. So they like the fact how we've reimagined their day in life, the processes they execute day in, day out. For example, if you're, you know, they're planning a strategic initiative. Right. Uh, typically that initiative planning took many conversations, took forms, took PPTs, took spreadsheets, what have you. And what we've been able to do is to reimagine that whole mishmash of experience into a very conversational, agentic, knowledge rich, memory rich conversation that many people can come together on. And AI acts like one of the participants to the process and say, hey, listen, if you're looking to do this, here are some considerations you want to keep in mind. Here's what success would look like. Here are some past challenges you faced in similar programs. Here's the time and effort that it's likely to take. Now, they like the fact that somebody is bringing rich insights to this and facilitating the process and not trying to eliminate the guy who's trying to conceive the whole initiative. So I think they get very excited by the very practical embedding of AI in the right places for the right insights, the right actions. I think people are really troubled by wasted time. There's just zero to one reinvention happens at every level, is just a massive waste of time. And I think AI cuts that out in a very, very material way. I would say that excites them. And the fact that today, um, one of our customers said that she's a chief transformation officer, she said, everybody in my team finds a higher sense of purpose because now they can see which business strategy are they moving the needle on. So I think finding that purpose and not being lost in a technology project is a pretty cool thing. So I would say those are the three things that excite.

Speaker A: Interesting, interesting. So in the book I have, uh, mentioned an archetype for strategy consulting. One of them is strategy as a product. So a lot of companies trying to solve this problem by creating a product with AI within it. Some of them might have a layer of service on top of it, and some are pure play product companies. So now if you sort of think about all the conversations you have had in the last couple of years with executives who have evaluated Turmeric, have had deep conversations on this and finally made the decision to either go with Turmeric or take an addition to say, pause and okay, we'll come back after a couple of quarters. They are essentially making a trade off, uh, in terms of what they have right now versus, uh, the promise that they have been told the tool will offer. So if you think about purely trade offs, what are the key elements on which they are making a decision and say, okay, what, These are great points. And hence I am going with Turmeric. Is it elements like speed, cost, depth, rigor, trust, higher level of purpose that my team might get. So practically when they take that decision and after three months, when you have the conversation with them. What was that? Couple of things which made them switch.

Speaker B: Yeah, I feel that different stakeholders respond to different vectors of value, if I may say so. Um, and maybe I'll share the top two or three. Uh, and maybe there is an overlap with the previous point as well. But first one would be this whole combination of being practically be able to use AI and not use AI because everybody's going to say use AI but so practically use AI and be able to do their day job better. And I just gave that planning example. I can give more, but it is real. It's not like I'm just trying to write a better email. Uh, I am prioritizing the right project and deprioritizing a project that doesn't have ROI is a very material implication transaction that you can do with AI and that would do with Turmeric. So this combination of hey, I am AI aware and AI user, uh, and using it in a very material way truly appeals to people. The second theme that comes up is which I had said that there's a lot of waste of time, incredible amount of waste of time. That uh, uh, intelligent system can eliminate reports, ad hoc requests looking for information that that's like 30 to 50% of a day of a manager. Right. And if you can say you just don't need to do all this and you can stay on top of it. So this, this prospect of doing more with their time and doing things that they really think will add more value is very appealing to our uh, users. And I'd say third is this, it makes my team, my organization look good. Uh, get ahead, get ahead and stay more competitive. Because again transformation is a space which is the strategy to execution thing where I can go in front of a lot of our customers are technology people now they are far more business aware because that's how we build the product. So I can have an equal conversation with my functional business partners and say, hey, this is what you should be doing, this is what you may not be doing. Makes you, makes you and your team look good. So I think those are some massively attractive points. That's what I would say is it eventually gets personal as well in a lot of these conversations.

Speaker A: Right. And it's also a very interesting way to keep the organizational knowledge not in a knowledge management system which might be outdated, but something which lives as a memory and everyone can start using when it goes. So you know, when, as in when you start analyzing a lot of uh, data and generating this AI based, uh, insights for clients in this, in this mix, where do you see the role of human advisors creating that irreplaceable value because there's still a role for them to play in this, which you think AI may not, should not touch at this point of time because it is something which is truly different.

Speaker B: Yeah, I feel that, um, I genuinely feel that. And I can speak more for Turmeric. I'm not generalizing AI because people have different versions of what AI should do. People talk about elimination of jobs and we are not into that gig. I feel the role of humans is to, is two or three folds. Firstly, I think to truly understand how AI can augment and amplify their role, many a times that understanding remains very superficial. And it's like any other change, right? If you just don't understand a uh, technology theme, something new, and you kind of operate on the surface, surface, you, you may not get the best value from it. So I, I feel the one, the one big thing is to genuinely understand that hey, here's what's in front of me, but what can I really do with it? Because that power of a, ah, knowledge fabric, the power of telemetry, of connected views of the world, the power of what agents can do is immense. And it's only as good as what humans put it to use for in many ways. Right? So I think that's, that's one big thing in the role of humans. That was your question. I, I think the other piece that becomes very important is uh, now the connected tissue of the organization is just not a slack channel, right? A system is learned, is learning from the behavior of everybody using the system. So I think the humans can, what they can do is kind of amplify the experiences they are having with an intelligent system so that everybody else can have a similar good experience or everybody else can prevent a, uh, not so good experience. So I think getting together and saying here, here's what. So I would say that's the, that's the second piece. And in third piece is really you. I feel human discretion, human experience, human decision making is still quite amazing, right? Uh, and yes, AI can dish out a whole bunch of options for you, but you can constantly be raising the bar. How do we look at a product? A product is getting constantly more and more intelligent. The reason it's getting more and more intelligent is because we're pushing our brains and saying, okay, what more can we do? What more can we do? And similarly, the users of AI technologies can really do a lot more with their work, a lot more with what they're doing, the organizations are expecting them to do so it's to constantly reimagine what more can they do with their job. So I would say that's the trifecta of what know what AI can do. Well, spread that knowledge, spread that experience because as an organization then everybody's benefiting from it. And thirdly is spend the mind to think. If a lot of my work is getting automated, what do I do with my time? What more can I do? And then that's um, a very, very cool thing to think about.

Speaker A: Uh, that's an interesting way to put it. So be aware what it can do. Spread the knowledge so that others can take advantage of it and then with the balanced time that you have, I think work on those higher order aspects which you'd never got time to think about because you're just busy running the wheels of the company. So you know, you've been like two years in this journey to two and a half years building uh, Turmeric and you're working closely with clients, onboarding new clients every month. So when you are sort of advising anyone who is now creating an AI native product, you know, grounds up, what learnings would you want to share?

Speaker B: Wow, that's a tough question because two

Speaker A: years back we were having a very different model M of ChatGPT. Now we are in a different era. So even your product building, although it's AI, is continuously sort of uh, getting updated. And I sort of know from my experience there are a couple of uh, colleagues I know in strategy consulting who created these layers on top of ChatGPT which would say, okay, write a prompt and we will give you a more curated way in which the output can be generated. Now that's not required because ChatGPT itself doing it in a way they're sort of learning from interactions and just creating layer by layer, eating uh, others market share. So from that experience, what are the learnings?

Speaker B: Yeah, maybe it's a great question. Again, as always, you ask very good questions. I'd say the first thing is you're not solving an AI problem, you're solving a, uh, customer problem with AI. And many a times you can get very confused about it, right? That a lot of this narrative was about ROI from AI. It's not ROI from AI, it's ROI from the use case that you used AI for. And there are two different things. So when, when people. And I think your example was pretty cool, you know, zoom in on real problems to solve for and you will realize that AI is only one component of Solving that problem. And so I think that's one part that look at the problem, look at it holistically and make sure you're not over indexing on AI just because you want to be an AI, uh, company. Chances are that that journey is going to be short because it's not appealing to the customer. The customer really wants to solve the problem. I would say that's one part. I think the second part is, at least I can speak for myself, is just, just be ready for all sorts of surprises, ready for unexpected responses, be ready for unexpected failures and unexpected successes. Uh, and when, when your expectation is very hard cast, then the disappointment is much higher. Uh, right. And you don't want to be. And so it's a more entrepreneurial journey kind of a thing that stay very nimble, very agile, very flexible in your expectations because uh, chances are there will be surprises out there. So I'd say just because you're doing an AI product is no guarantee for success at all. Uh, right. So that's the, and I'd say the third, third piece that we've learned is besides the obvious ones of team and other thing which is not, uh, is the fact that, and maybe it's connected to the first point is that AI can be one component but your moat, so to say your differentiation, uh, that you bring to the table, you got to look at. You have to apply systems thinking to it. You have to think about it holistically because that magic of connecting three or four layers of competitive advantages, for example, our product builds autonomously, builds a knowledge fabric. But knowledge fabric without the right workflows is not fun. If I don't embed the insight at the right point, what do I do with that fabric which is sitting somewhere else. Right. I'm in planning mode and I'm not getting anything from it. So we combine that with workflows. Now workflows are great, but I have a lot of work, so how do I do so many times. Yeah, it's a great workflow, but can I automate some of this stuff? So do you bring in agents? Okay, the agent will go do some of that stuff. So you layer these things in so that you can. So my point simply is that think holistically about your problem and apply that systems thinking approach and then build that whole total solution. This is the era of building total solutions and not piecemeal. So I'd say those three.

Speaker A: Right. One thing which I, uh, uh, always wanted to ask you is, you know, now maybe it's the right time. You have spent decades in traditional IT consulting organizations on how work was delivered, sold, uh, and then you have a very different experience now. So if I think from a perspective of a consultant who is aspiring to again, go in this field of IT and do something interesting, build a great future from your experience, what people who work in Turmeric have sort of learned or experienced very differently as compared to if they were in a, uh, traditional IT organization, you know, they would be running the motions, they'd be project managers doing projects in typical way. But now here there's a new way of thinking and as you said, there are a lot of surprises that you sort of see and you're learning constantly. So if there is any anecdote, any example of a person who has worked at Turmeric and he's like, my God, like, I never thought I would, you know, be spending time in doing this stuff or I will ever get an opportunity to work in, you know, this niche domain, trying to build skills for future. So any reflections on that? Specifically from a perspective of a fresh engineer coming out of college now, studied computer science and feeling, my God, the entire industry is going to be shaken, there's a new way of working. What should I do?

Speaker B: Yeah, I'd say that, Uh, my first suggestion is don't be. Really look around for opportunity. Try very hard to look for opportunities. This narrative of an industry which is slowing down and an industry which is like, you don't, you're not going to need engineers and all. I am not a big subscriber of that. Yes, engineers will produce more work than they used to, but there will be more work being produced in general because now a lot more innovation is possible. So don't subscribe. First, my suggestion is don't subscribe to this downbeat theme. Traditional avenues might be shrinking. The typical IT services companies, they're not hiring as many and all of that, but there's so many more companies coming up. I'd say the second part is, and we, a lot of our engineering team, which is not very large, by the way, you don't need too many people these days, but most of them are very young, some of them are right after college and they have demonstrated incredible hunger to learn. And by the way, this field is only three years old, isn't it? Nobody can say I'm 15 years experienced in this. Right? So a, uh, newbie's experience is only three years less than the most experienced guy in the world. Right. So to say. So you have a, uh, you don't. You're not that far behind from a very experienced guy. So I'd say that it's a great moment to be an engineer. Give it your best shot, learn, push the boundaries of what you think you're capable of doing and you will do so much more than what you ever thought you'd do in the first year of your job. Right. So your uh, engineering is a very powerful function. So I'd say that is the second piece and the third is look for an environment which is empowering, which is not finger pointing. It's not easy to find it and you know, who knows how, what's the best method. But conversations give it away. Right. So you also need an environment where you're allowed to try things out, where you're given the responsibility and not told you're one rookie and you know this is all you're going to do. So I would say firstly, feel positive about the time you're in. Secondly, and work very hard to get the right scout for the opportunities. Secondly, when you get one, give, uh, it 155% because there's just so much you will be able to do. And the third thing is, and maybe that should have been the second thing, look for an environment that enables and empowers. Because we've seen stunning success with our team and I couldn't have myself imagined this. You know, I was at a, at a large VC today and they saw what we've done and said, really? With this engineering team and that size. And I said, yeah. So I would say phenomenal time.

Speaker A: Yeah, no, absolutely. Finally, uh, the last point, uh, you got a chance to go through Alt consulting book. What ideas, if any, resonated for you?

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I think that you have taken the, almost a first step of saying that consulting as we knew know it is. Well, I won't use dire words, but legacy is to me the biggest theme there. And then what you've done with the book is you kind of unpeeled that onion and explored every aspect of what traditional consulting was and what it's going to become. So you kind of almost put a framework around the future of uh, I would say strategic advisory. I won't use the word strategic advisory because I think consulting has this slightly interesting notion of people come and go, uh, consultant will come, give some gyan and like, you know, they're off to the next engagement. A strategic advisor. I say this because you're not going to have in the future, you're not going to give the same advice to the same guy three times over. That happened in the past with intelligent systems. And I would say folks such as yourselves have to build those systems so that the customer feels I'm, um, compounding the value from the same strategic advisor. And I'm not asking them for the same, oh, shit. Now, six months ago I had the same thing. Two years ago I had the same thing. That can't happen. So I feel that what you've done is you broached a very critical topic that is on everybody's mind. You put a framework to it and uh, say this is how the future looks like. And you have anecdotes, you have examples to kind of, you sprung it all in. So I just feel that it's like a charter for the future. And uh, that's what I really like about what you've done. And you've in many ways shared your personal experience is not theoretical. Uh, so it comes from position of real life experiences, which makes it all that more powerful.

Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you so much, Siddharth. This was a lovely conversation and I think the uh, gap you're solving of uh, bridging that strategy on a PowerPoint deck to reality and powering that with AI is interesting. There are a lot of interesting takeaways from this conversation. The one that you, uh, said at the end, which was, um, you know, you are just three years old in this era and there's no one who has 15 years of experience in AI. I think it's very, uh, comforting to hear for anyone getting into this, uh, area. And it is a possibility for you to go and challenge the status quo, figure out new ways of working. And I hope, uh, Turmeric builds on that, uh, further and has, uh, very interesting conversations and uh, interesting, um, way of supporting cio. So thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I look forward to having such conversations in the future.

Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me and you know, all the best wishes for continuing to do the amazing stuff you're doing with stuff. So all the very best. Thank you. Bye.

Speaker A: Bye.