We are in AD, the ‘After DeepSeek’ era: Zoho co-founder Sridhar Vembu
Speaking at ZohoDay25, Sridhar Vembu explained how the DeepSeek model has fundamentally disrupted the past decade of AI, which was built on billions in infrastructure investments and the dominance of tech firms.
In his first public address since transitioning from his long-time CEO role, Zoho Corp Co-founder Sridhar Vembu asserted that the world has entered a new epoch of artificial intelligence, which he has dubbed the "After DeepSeek" (AD) era.
Speaking at the keynote during ZohoDay25, the company’s annual global research analyst summit held in Austin, Texas, Vembu said that the previous decade of AI development—which hugely spiralled around the billions of infrastructure investments and the dominance of tech behemoths—has now been fundamentally disrupted.
The Zoho boss specifically referred to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s recent podcast in which Nadella described OpenAI as the 'Google, Microsoft, or Meta of the current era'.
“The year 2025 feels different. It was assumed that big tech will own AI, and everyone else will pay tribute. Over $250 billion has been invested in AI infrastructure last year, and Microsoft alone put in $90 billion. In the podcast, he [Nadella] talks about how he has to run the GPU (graphic processing unit) down the balance sheet. A lot of this has been built on an assumption that it's such a big thing and that we have to jump on and conquer it,” said Vembu.
“Over one weekend, pretty much all of those assumptions got demolished. I am going to call it the BC era (Big Capex). Now, we are in AD—the 'After DeepSeek' era,” Vembu added.
When it comes to India, Vembu believes AI breakthroughs can be achieved in smaller, more focused research labs—most notably via the DeepSeek approach, which has signalled a shift from requiring larger capital-intensive infrastructure.
“The Chinese have really done some innovations in training … clearly from DeepSeek ... though some people contest this, the fact that there are 60 labs, tells you that they're not relying on the same kind of ‘more money attitude’. That’s where I think India can learn. We don't have to have more money to create these innovations," Vembu proclaimed.
Zoho recently expanded its in-house AI platform, Zia, with the debut of Zia Agents, Agent Studio, and Agent Marketplace. These new offerings will enable enterprises to access, build, and deploy intelligent, autonomous digital agents across their organisations.
Starting today, Zoho and its IT management division, ManageEngine, will preview pre-built, task-specific Zia Agents, and they will be rolled out across Zoho Corporation’s portfolio of 100+ products in the coming weeks, the company said in a statement.
Vembu, who built the SaaS giant in 1996, last month transitioned to the role of chief scientist to lead the firm’s deep R&D initiatives and pursue his personal rural development mission.
"A new chapter begins today. In view of the various challenges and opportunities facing us, including recent major developments in AI, it has been decided that it is best that I should focus full-time on R&D initiatives, along with pursuing my personal rural development mission. I will step down as CEO of Zoho Corp and take a new role as Chief Scientist, responsible for deep R&D initiatives," said Vembu in a post on X while announcing his resignation as CEO.
Edited by Kanishk Singh