e4m MarTech webinar: Spends will shift to data, AI & analytics: Karan Bajwa, Google Cloud

“Technology has been an enabler of businesses for a long time, but COVID-19 will make it a driving force,” said Karan Bajwa - MD, Google Cloud, during a webinar as part of exchange4media's ongoing MarTech League Leadership series.

Bajwa was deliberating on ‘Technology leadership in Covid-19 times’ during a conversation with Dr Annurag Batra - Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, exchange4media & BW Business World. According to Bajwa, the Covid-19 crisis is getting personal as many known lives are in danger or have been lost.

He also noted that despite everything, the productivity of people is at an all-time high. “We have a wonderful tool at Google, where we can track the productivity that we have on a weekly basis. It is mind boggling. People have time at hand. The ability to reach customers is easier. A digital forum reduces so much logistical capacity," he explained.

Not everyone was engineered to work remotely, he added, and so organizations that were providers of technology also got challenged because no one was prepared to work from home for such a long time. Yet, people's ability and appetite to learn has significantly increased with tech playing a massive role in increasing productivity, Bajwa said.

Talking about how adoption of technology has changed over time, he observed that technology adoption has a fragmented history. "Twenty years ago, when you sent an email to a CEO, it would immediately be sent off to the IT department. The CEO never engaged in any kind of technology. Then came a point where CEOs got interested and wanted to understand technology. Gradually integration started happening and we saw outsourcing,” Bajwa said.

According to Bajwa, when COVID-19 hit us, we were migrating from a phase when people were comfortable buying fragmented technology to a phase in which the consumption model of technology was coming into play.

"The consumption model provides a massive tail-width to Cloud and Saas companies. It will fundamentally change the entire face of Cloud," he explained.

When asked about the future trends in the market, the Google Cloud MD pointed out five major changes in technology adoption.

As per Bajwa, one major trend would be that the Covid-19 crisis will provide businesses an opportunity to reinvent the way they work. Organizations in future will increase WFH infrastructure. “Workplace should look different from the time we entered this crisis. Ability to work from home has opened people’s eyes about what can be done.”

He also cited the example of an IT company which announced that by 2025, they’ll only have 25 per cent of workforce sitting in physical offices. “People are making bold statements. That fundamentally changes how workplaces look like. This will change many dynamics of businesses with their partners like tech providers and real estate.”

Bajwa further noted with the footprint of digitization increasing there is an increasing demand for security and privacy. Another trend according to him would be “security serving as foundation element in innovations like AI and Big Data on Cloud”.

The third trend will be that the consumption model of technology will change from Capex-driven to Opex-driven. “People will conserve capital and use it for their core business, where as they’ll adopt technology more boldly through Opex. It allows businesses to lower the entry barrier for user technology,” he observed.

Another trend, according to Bajwa, will be mainstreaming of AI and ML. "AI and ML will be used more. Smarter ones will innovate faster and grow on scale. India has been called the graveyard of pilots. It's important for traditional organizations to include modernization," he said.

According to the MD, traditional organization will need to modernize legacy to support outward looking digitization in future. "The fact that technology adoption will increase is very given. If you go back to the old way of buying technology, that's tough because you're taking precious capital away from your organization".

Bajwa explained that the maturity of Cloud and Saas based models have reached a point where people have tasted the early success. About 20% of workloads have moved to the Cloud. “People know how to migrate and know the nuances. People have tasted success at the question of scaling," he said.

It will be a waste of opportunity if organizations work the same way as before, despite having known the new way of working, Bajwa noted. According to him CEOs have a massive opportunity to reinvent themselves.

"If you go back to office, set your table and see that you're doing the same thing you did before COVID-19, you need to ask yourself if you've been inventive enough. One needs to grow out of this situation," said Bajwa.

On the question of what are the news technologies that the companies will spend on, the Google Cloud MD explained that with the power of data clearly established in people’s minds “spends now will shift to data, AI and analytics, which has high business impact,” he said.

Bajwa also advocated the importance of democratization of access to technology during the course of the webinar. He advised, "In the past, technology had an elitist access. But today everyone needs same access. We need to democratize it and give access to everyone in organization. Put capability in the hands of the people. Don't go all out, but do give a chance."

Adding further on democratization of technology, Bajwa said: "The Indian customer pyramid consists of 500-600 regular customers like any other country. Then the real India comes in form of MSME, that consists of about 50 million companies. These companies can use the power of technology to do anything. They need it.”

He explained that empowerment is the key. All roles in a company - from CEO to CTO - need to be empowered.

Taking about technology's role in MarTech he said, "MarTech is a provider to deal with challenges with integrated marketing tools to build excellent frameworks to execute solutions. Marketers have used technology and much more that can be done. That’s where we are seeing convergence of media and technology. Media companies will be pushed by customers to have a strong technology edge and merge.”

When asked if the government will invest more operations to Cloud, Bajwa said he couldn’t predict but it should happen. "The government now has the responsibility to rekindle India. Value equation is changing and disruption continues. It should invest deeply in AI, ML, Cloud and Security,” he said.

COVID-19 is an opportunity for the government to invest in these capabilities to create an ecosystem to transform the industry, Bajwa opined. “A few billion dollars can transform governance as well as cutting edge tech. Idea is to build capabilities on a massive scale.”

The managing director concluded the session by using the platform to call out to the government and ask them to leverage the model between partnership v/s procurement. They can help reinvent the technology ecosystem in the country.