AI and automation will create new job opportunities for skilled professionals: Rajesh Sinha, Founder, Fulcrum Digital
Rajesh Sinha is the Founder and Chairman of Fulcrum Digital, a leading business platform and digital services organization that accelerates enterprises’ digital transformation journeys. In this interview, Rajesh Sinha sheds light on the evolution and transformation of Fulcrum Digital, their latest launch of Culinary Digital, their hiring plans, and his views on ChatGPT and its potential impact on employability. Further, despite the current challenges in the tech job market, Sinha is hiring tech talent to support their multi-year digital transformation programs across India, the US, the UK, and other new markets. Lastly, in discussing his views on ChatGPT, Sinha believes that advanced technological capabilities have profound implications for almost every industry, unlocking a universe of infinite possibilities, and ultimately leading to new and innovative applications
Some edited excerpts:
How has Fulcrum Digital evolved and transformed in the last couple of years?
Fulcrum Digital was established in 1999 as a business platform and digital services organization. With a forward-thinking vision, our primary objective was to accelerate enterprises’ digital transformation journeys, help clients navigate the emerging digital landscape, and stay ahead of the competition. Over the last few years, Fulcrum Digital has been focused on enabling digital transformation for our clients. We help them achieve digital maturity by utilizing our Digital Operating Model (DOM), which guides them through a journey from Level 1 to Level 5 of Digital Maturity. Through the DOM, our clients learn to explore new opportunities, exploit the full potential of digital technologies, and disrupt their industry by adopting innovative approaches. This has resulted in significant evolution and transformation for our clients, empowering them to thrive in the digital age and gain a competitive edge. We also help businesses optimize their processes through automation and data analytics, thereby reducing costs and improving efficiency. Through our digital platforms, we have enabled businesses to engage with customers in more meaningful ways, leverage data and insights to personalize the customer experience and build lasting relationships.
Our USP is the impact we’re trying to create through the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model and is not limited to businesses alone. Our technology solutions and services also transform lives by improving access to healthcare, education, financial services, food services, e-commerce, logistics, manufacturing, and retail. By leveraging digital platforms and advanced technologies, we also help communities gain digital access to essential services and resources.
Over the years, we have grown exponentially and are now recognized as a leading business platform company. Currently, we have a global presence with facilities located in the US, LATAM, Europe, India, and APAC, and our dedicated workforce of 1200 + professionals supporting over 100 clients worldwide.
Could you shed some light on your latest launch – Culinary Digital? How has the market response been so far?
Culinary Digital is a platform designed to streamline end-to-end business operations for food service providers, with the aim of reducing food waste and the total cost of ownership. The platform enhances supply chain management for farm-to-table restaurants, enabling them to manage online orders, track inventory, and optimize menu offerings based on the availability of fresh ingredients. Its analytics capabilities provide insights into customer behavior and preferences, enabling tailored offerings and marketing efforts. Additionally, by sourcing locally, the platform supports local farmers and promotes sustainability while driving efficiency and enhancing the end customer’s experience. With Culinary Digital, we provide accurate nutritional information and allergy details, while also enhancing transparency throughout the process. Our platform is not limited to restaurants – we also cater to a wider market, including K-12 education systems, higher education, healthcare and assisted living, and other industries that offer food service. In the post-pandemic world, many businesses are looking to go touch-free. Our digital signage and cloud-based product provide an effortless solution to help businesses achieve this goal.
The launch of Culinary Digital services in India aligns with the broader efforts of the government and various health organizations to promote efficient and sustainable food practices. The platform is delivered as a secure, robust, and highly-available software service, accessible through the web and mobile. It offers a high degree of customization and integration to cater to diverse business requirements. The deployment of Culinary Digital solutions in the Indian market has received an overwhelming response, with proven features successfully implemented.
Since Fulcrum Digital is expanding across geographies, what are your hiring plans – especially in the current tech layoff scenario?
We’re dedicated to strengthening our India Global Delivery Center (GDC) as a part of our expansion strategy. Our Pune GDC offers global clients an array of services, including business platform engineering and implementation, digital engineering, cloud integration, consultancy, and managed engineering services. By expanding our India operations, we aim to be a key player in supporting our clients’ growth strategies by delivering top-quality technology services worldwide.
As a 100% digitally-native company, Fulcrum Digital has a constantly- growing demand for talent, particularly in the non-engineering and food sectors, despite the current challenges in the tech job market. To meet our growing business needs, we’re hiring tech talents in various positions such as data engineers, reliability engineers, full-stack developers, Adobe/Magento developers, solution architects, business analysts, and program managers. These resources will support our multi-year digital transformation programs with marquee customers across India, the US, the UK, and other new markets.
Our hiring plans demonstrate our company’s ongoing growth and unwavering commitment to delivering excellent services to our clients. We’re optimistic with our expertise in digital transformation and cutting-edge technologies, and we’ll continue being a leading player in the business platform and digital services industry.
What are your views on ChatGPT, is it going to impact employability?
In my recently-launched book, Digital Operating Model: The Future of Business, I briefly discussed the evolution of conversational AI and natural language processing models. Open AI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard AI are currently leaders in this space, and there is a race to build even larger language models. This requires more training data, computing power, and learning parameters. The future of language models, however, will not only be about the speed of the execution, but also about unlocking a universe of infinite possibilities. This has profound implications for almost every industry, and as we continue to experiment, we will discover new and innovative applications.
Regarding the impact of ChatGPT on employability, I believe these advanced technological capabilities are designed to augment human efficiency rather than replace it.
While it may bring changes to the job market and require new skills from professionals, it also creates opportunities for innovation and value creation for customers. As businesses evolve and adopt digital accelerators and augmenters, it’s important to think creatively and strategically to leverage the benefits of AI and ensure employability in the changing landscape. While it is true in some cases, AI may be able to perform certain knowledge-based activities more efficiently than humans, such as research, content creation, and report writing, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on employability.
On the contrary, AI and automation may create new job opportunities for skilled professionals, particularly in domains related to AI development and implementation. Therefore, it is essential to view these technologies as tools that can enhance human productivity and performance, rather than as a threat to job security.
How do you stay ahead of the curve in terms of technology trends and emerging innovations?
At Fulcrum Digital, we are committed to staying at the forefront of technology trends and emerging innovations. With our Fulcrum One platform, we continuously evolve and improve our services, leveraging the latest advancements in AI and data science, cloud infrastructure, and other cutting-edge technologies. Our Innovation Lab is dedicated to exploring and experimenting with new ideas, drawing on our diverse expertise and experience across industries. Through our verticalized Centers of Excellence, we help our clients apply these technologies in new and creative ways, empowering them to stay ahead of digital disruption and drive growth in the rapidly-changing digital landscape. Our agile work culture and innovative approach ensure we develop “future-proof” solutions.
Aside from this, we invest heavily in our resources and top talent in areas like data science and software engineering, as these are crucial to stay competitive. At Fulcrum Digital, we are staying updated with the latest trends, attend industry events, experiment with emerging technologies, and design solutions that meet our clients’ demands. We also collaborate with other industry players to gain valuable insights. Our commitment to these principles sets us apart and drives our success.
