Human intelligence-like software’, or agentic software, is the core focus of our development: Rajan Nagina, Head- AI Practice at Newgen Software

In this exclusive interview, Rajan Nagina, Head- AI Practice at Newgen Software, shares his insights on how the company is leveraging artificial intelligence to address the key challenges faced by industries such as insurance, banking, and healthcare. He discusses how AI technologies, including Large Language Models, machine learning, and generative AI, are transforming customer experience, operational efficiency, and decision-making. Rajan also highlights Newgen’s vision for a future where AI seamlessly integrates with human intelligence, creating powerful, scalable solutions for businesses.

Considering your extensive experience with customers beginning their digital transformation journey, could you share some of the common hurdles they encounter or relevant industry challenges in that regard?

All of our business clients belong to enterprises of various sizes and we specifically target insurance companies and banking institutions as well as healthcare organisations. Every segment of our customer organisation faces three fundamental challenges. Every business dedicates attention to enhance their customer experience levels. Customers desire specific instructions about using technology to build superior end-user experiences throughout their customer journeys. Customers actively pursue enhanced operational effectiveness as their second main need. The urgent requirement to shorten response times stands as the most critical need because operational speed has a direct effect on customer satisfaction. Customers need to both redesign their operational flow and minimise all business processes to achieve maximum efficiency. The explainability and auditability of AI decisions together with their biases represent major concerns among customers regarding data and AI especially. AI tools require established trust from users before organisations can successfully use them. The protection of end-user privacy stands as a fundamental concern for most clients who work with their customers because their business model depends on direct customer interactions.

Which AI technologies do you believe are most impactful for Newgen Software’s product offerings?

Our core strategy revolves around leveraging technology, particularly AI, to develop solutions for the customer challenges I previously mentioned. We believe technology is a tool, not the ultimate goal. While we are a technology company, our primary focus is delivering effective solutions.

We are particularly excited about the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) and generative AI. We see numerous applications for these technologies in creating more human-like interactions with software. Imagine software that can converse with you, make informed decisions, and even explain its reasoning. We are deeply invested in exploring and implementing these capabilities.

In addition to LLMs, we are heavily invested in machine learning. Machine learning provides the reliability needed for critical decision-making, especially in contrast to the “hallucinations” sometimes observed in purely generative AI models like ChatGPT. Businesses require dependable decision-making, and machine learning helps ensure accuracy and trustworthiness in AI-powered solutions.

Our approach to AI involves a holistic view, starting with data organisation and leveraging that data for deeper insights through machine learning. Finally, we use LLMs to create a human-like interface and intuitive interactions within the software. By combining these elements, we aim to build powerful and reliable solutions for our customers.

Can you share an example of an AI project that had a measurable impact on a client’s operations?

A healthcare and wellness company employs Newgen software to analyse interactions from their call centre, which typically involve two parties: the customer making the call and the agent receiving it. Imagine a five-minute audio call packed with valuable information through natural conversation.

This software analyses these calls to understand customer needs. For a business making hundreds of calls daily for appointment setting, cross-selling, and more, understanding customer desires is paramount. Ideally, management would listen to every call to grasp the nuances. This Newgen software, powered by an AI agent called Harper, essentially does just that.

Harper acts as a reasoning agent, not just a conversational one. Users can query Harper, and it will analyse the audio calls to provide answers and insights into customer preferences. This is a phenomenal advancement and, in my opinion, represents the future of software interaction and development. It truly feels like software is evolving into an intelligent entity, capable of understanding and responding to complex information.

Do you believe that AI will completely eliminate the human element in the future?

My experience suggests that growth is exponential. It’s a chain reaction: one event triggers another, and the difference between each iteration is vast, like the shift from computers to mobile phones. Mobile technology, for example, enabled far more business opportunities than computers ever did. While some older opportunities may disappear with each innovation, the overall effect is the creation of even more possibilities for human involvement and engagement.

How do you ensure that AI solutions remain scalable and adaptable as business needs evolve?

Newgen Trust AI is a software solution designed to guarantee four key principles. First and foremost, it ensures absolute data privacy and security. Sensitive data remains within your system, a critical requirement for our clients in highly regulated sectors like banking and insurance, where stringent data protection rules are paramount. Second, the software provides explainability and transparency, clearly outlining the reasoning behind every decision made by the AI. This leads to the third key principle, auditability. Users can trace back the decision-making process, understand why a particular outcome was reached, and identify any potential biases. Finally, this inherent transparency fosters adaptability. By understanding and trusting the data-driven decisions made by the system, users recognise the value and positive impact on their end customers’ experience, leading to increased investment and integration of AI-powered solutions.

What excites you the most about the future of AI, and how do you see it evolving at Newgen Software?

We believe the future of AI lies in seamlessly integrating process automation with decision-making, mirroring the operational structure of large organisations and banks. These organisations are essentially built around customer journeys, which are punctuated by numerous decision points. Our vision is to fuse these two worlds, using AI to unify and optimise these journeys through what we call “agentic workspaces.” These workspaces empower users to rapidly design and deploy end-to-end workflows, with AI assistance at every stage. This dramatically reduces workflow development time and delivers a frictionless customer experience. Achieving this requires leveraging technologies like generative AI, LLMs, and machine learning. Ultimately, we are moving toward “human intelligence-like software,” or agentic software, which is the core focus of our development at Newgen.