She means business: Meet the women revolutionising India's Gen AI tech landscape

India is experiencing a surge in women-led entrepreneurial ventures, with a remarkable 15.7 million women-run businesses contributing to 22% of the entrepreneurial landscape, according to Bain & Co. These enterprises employ over 27 million people, serving as powerful drivers of economic growth.

While women currently occupy only 22% of AI roles in India, the tide is turning. A growing number of female entrepreneurs are at the helm of innovative AI startups, reshaping the industry. These ventures not only contribute significantly to the economy but also excel at enhancing operational efficiency and promoting inclusivity within the technology sector.

This edition of HerStory's AWS Women in Tech Series spotlights three exceptional leaders, Priya Singh, Co-founder and Director of Chalo, Ritwika Chowdhury, Founder & CEO of Unscript, and Kausambi Manjita, co-founder and CPO of Mason, whose innovations are shaping industries and inspiring millions. Their journeys highlight the immense potential of women entrepreneurs in India and their ability to transform the business landscape.

Priya is a seasoned entrepreneur with a rich history of building successful ventures. Her expertise in startups, the internet industry, and the development sector has been instrumental in addressing critical challenges. Recognising the gaps in India's public transportation system, she co-founded Chalo Mobility with a vision to transform the commuting experience for millions.

Ritwika’s background as an ex-Research Scientist at Intel Labs and Engphile Labs, coupled with her academic foundation at IIT Kharagpur, fuels her passion for harnessing the power of artificial intelligence. At Unscript, she is empowering businesses to effortlessly create high-quality, customised videos with the help of AI with applications in customer acquisition, customer success, product marketing, stakeholder management, and many more.

Kausambi is a seasoned product leader with 18+ years of experience building and scaling products for global giants and startups. At Mason, she leads cross-functional teams to drive growth for 320+ brands, including ITC, Reliance, and M&S. A passionate advocate for emotional intelligence, Kausambi is committed to creating exceptional customer experiences. Splitting her time between Toronto and Bangalore, she is a driving force behind Mason's success.

Priya, Ritwika and Kausambi offer candid perspectives on their career paths, the values driving their decisions, and their strategies for advancing gender equality in tech. They also delve into fostering innovation and explore the transformative potential of emerging technologies.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

YourStory: Could you walk us through your entrepreneurial journey? What inspired you to found your company? Could you also elaborate on your company's unique value proposition and how it differentiates itself in the market?

Ritwika: My journey into artificial intelligence began at IIT Kharagpur, where I immersed myself in AI research and presented papers at leading conferences. An influential encounter with Ian Goodfellow, the creator of Generative Adversarial Networks, solidified my belief in AI's transformative potential.

After graduating, I joined Intel Labs as an Research Scientist, bridging the gap between theoretical advancements and practical applications. This experience revealed AI's true power in simplifying complex tasks and solving real-world problems.

Driven by this insight, I founded Unscript. Frustrated by the complexities of video production, I envisioned an AI-powered platform to democratise the process. Today, Unscript empowers businesses to create professional-quality videos efficiently and cost-effectively, regardless of technical expertise.

Kausambi: A childhood encounter with Asimov's The Bicentennial Man ignited my fascination with the intersection of technology and human emotion. This early spark has shaped my career trajectory.

Over the past 18 years, I've honed my skills at Fortune 500 companies like IBM Commerce and NCR Corp before diving into the dynamic Indian startup ecosystem with Paytm and Myntra. This corporate experience and entrepreneurial spirit blend have equipped me to co-found Mason.

Leveraging insights from both worlds, Mason focuses on developing AI-driven shopping solutions that deliver hyper-personalised online experiences. Our technology effectively captures and retains customer demand, setting us apart in the market.

Priya: I began my career in the development sector with organisations like UN Care, PSI, and the MP government. Following this, during my stint at CarWale, India’s leading automotive portal, I saw the impact that private vehicles have on our roads and the environment. I often wondered why public transport is not the default mode of travel for people in the country. This was the inspiration to start Chalo. With Chalo, we set out to address the issue of unreliability in public transport and to make bus travel better for millions of people.

Chalo uses cutting-edge technology to show the live location and crowd-levels in the bus. We also offer digital payment solutions in buses that make travel convenient. Aside from our consumer proposition, we have a full-stack solution for bus operators to digitise their bus operations. Combined with data-driven insights, this technology boosts efficiency and starts a virtuous circle of investment, resulting in better service for commuters.

YS: As a woman in a company's leadership position in the cutting-edge field of Generative AI, have you encountered instances where your gender or the novelty of the technology itself posed challenges? How did you navigate those situations?

Ritwika: Navigating the Generative AI field as a woman has presented unique challenges. Early in my career, I often found myself the sole female on research teams, creating isolation. The scarcity of women in leadership roles was discouraging. However, a positive shift is under way, with growing support groups and mentorship programs empowering women in tech.

At Unscript, we're committed to fostering diversity. Our inclusive hiring practices and emphasis on diverse perspectives have proven invaluable for innovation. While challenges persist in recruiting women for tech roles, we're determined to contribute to a more equitable industry.

The rapid evolution of AI demands constant learning. Staying updated on the latest trends is both exhilarating and exhausting. It's a dynamic field that requires unwavering dedication.

Kausambi: Navigating the nascent field of Generative AI presents unique challenges for all, regardless of gender. As a frontier technology, we continually uncover its implications, from ethical considerations to the complex interplay between AI and humanity. Notably, discussions around skills traditionally seen as "feminine" are gaining prominence, offering new opportunities for women in tech.

The critical question is how to effectively educate everyone about this shift, leverage diverse perspectives, and create more robust AI solutions. My approach emphasises competence, collaboration, and impact. I focus on building products that solve real-world problems and fostering an inclusive culture where ideas and results speak louder than gender.

Priya: Given that the field of transport technology is primarily male-dominated, I've encountered the occasional gender-based skepticism. My approach has always been straightforward - to let the results speak for themselves. Having said that, as a woman, I feel I am more equipped to have a diverse and inclusive perspective towards the problems we are trying to solve - this only helps us build better products.

However, more than gender, it is the novelty of the technology that has posed a challenge for me, since public-transport as an industry has not been digital-centric. Passengers were accustomed to unreliable service, while operators were satisfied with the status quo. By introducing live bus tracking and digital ticketing, we have demonstrated the tangible benefits of digitisation. Once the impact was clear, resistance dwindled, and we gained traction for further innovations.

YS: Could you share insights into how you approach upskilling yourself and your team in a rapidly changing tech landscape? Are there strategies or practices you find effective for keeping technical skills sharp?

Ritwika: The first step in upskilling is to identify the knowledge gap. One way to do this is to review job descriptions for your desired positions and figure out which required skills you currently lack. Following relevant and latest research papers on your topic of interest and examining similar products are some practices that I've found beneficial. When upskilling your team, understand their motivations and interests to guide their development. Discipline is crucial for sustained skill enhancement.

Kausambi: In a field as dynamic as AI, continuous learning is non-negotiable. At Mason, we foster a culture of self-paced learning, keeping our team closely connected to customers and market trends. We empower individuals through exposure to open-source communities and relevant programs to drive personal growth.

I thrive on engaging with thought leaders, whether hosting my podcast or participating in others. Consuming diverse content, from technology to history, fuels my learning. I believe in the power of conversations, so travelling to meet industry experts is essential. This enriches my knowledge and allows me to combine my passions for exploration and human connection.

Priya: The tech landscape is in a state of constant evolution, with innovations emerging rapidly across industries. As a tech-driven company focused on enhancing public transportation, staying at the forefront of technological advancements is paramount.

To achieve this, we prioritise building solid relationships with industry experts, clients, and investors, as they provide invaluable insights into the latest trends. Additionally, we actively participate in conferences, webinars, and workshops, and explore relevant online courses to deepen our knowledge and skillset.

YS: Looking ahead, what specific applications of Generative AI do you foresee significantly impacting various industries or society as a whole? How is your company positioning itself at the forefront of these advancements?

Ritwika: The future of Generative AI is incredibly exciting. We're on the cusp of transformative applications across industries, especially in creative fields like art, music, and video. Unscript is at the forefront of AI-powered video production, revolutionising the industry by addressing costly and time-consuming challenges.

Our AI-driven platform has helped marketing teams and production agencies create studio-quality videos at a fraction of the cost. We are also helping BFSI companies to acquire and engage customers transparently by creating personalised videos of policy details for each customers instead of compelling customers to read through endless pages of policy details.

We're pushing further boundaries with agentic workflows, where AI agents collaborate to seamlessly generate, write, and edit videos.

As we scale our impact to over 50 enterprises and millions of users, ethical AI is paramount. Data security, privacy, and transparency are core to our values, and we believe all AI companies should prioritise these principles.

Kausambi: Generative AI holds transformative potential for numerous sectors, from creating hyper-personalised shopping experiences to revolutionising how we interact with digital content. AI for retail is expected to become a $72 billion industry by 2030.

At Mason, we are mainly focused on how verticalising this technology will transform online retail. We continuously experiment with AI to predict and mould online shopping trends, empowering brands and retailers to stay ahead of industry shifts.

Priya: Generative AI can revolutionise mass transit. For riders, it can optimise travel by providing real-time estimated arrival times, optimal routes, and the fastest transportation options. AI-powered chatbots can enhance customer experience by addressing inquiries promptly.

On the operational side, Generative AI can streamline workflows by automating routine tasks, freeing teams to focus on complex challenges. By breaking down silos between teams, AI empowers operations staff to independently analyse data without relying on developers or analysts.

YS: As a leader in Generative AI, how has leveraging AWS's infrastructure and services been instrumental in accelerating the development and deployment of your company's solutions?

Ritwika: Using services like SageMaker has greatly simplified deployment and provided immense flexibility in resource management, especially under varying loads. Additionally, quick access to and storage of data from S3 buckets in AWS instances has addressed one of the biggest challenges in creating powerful, robust models.

The availability of high-performance machines has enabled us to train large-scale models more efficiently, resulting in faster delivery. AWS infrastructure allows us to focus on innovation, with data, deployments, and machines managed seamlessly through their services. To top it off, the support from the AWS team has been phenomenal.

Kausambi: AWS has been a cornerstone in scaling our AI engines and platform. Their robust cloud services enable us to deploy our solutions globally with ease and agility, ensuring high performance and reliability. The AWS team is constantly looking for ways to empower their partners, which is exactly what you want in a partner as a growing tech company.

Priya: Chalo is transforming the bus commuting experience by digitising the entire journey through our mobile app. AWS has been a pivotal partner in achieving this. By leveraging services like Amazon CodeWhisperer, we've significantly enhanced developer productivity and code quality. We're also exploring Amazon QuickSight to deepen our data-driven insights and empower decision-making.

AWS has been instrumental in delivering speed, agility, and cost-efficiency. We've automated 70% of cloud operations, reducing costs by 40%. The AWS team has always offered us extensive technical support whenever needed, which has enabled a smooth transition to any new technology adoption.

Shaping India’s AI-powered tomorrow

It’s inspiring to witness the remarkable strides these pioneering women are making in integrating AI into diverse sectors. The stories of Priya Singh, Ritwika Chowdhury, and Kausambi Manjita serve as powerful reminders of the innovation and resilience women bring to the table. Through their leadership in AI and tech, they are propelling India forward on its journey to become a global AI powerhouse. More importantly, they are igniting a spark in countless young women to dream big and lead with purpose.