Microsoft India’s newly appointed president, Puneet Chandok, is driving the company’s cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives in the country with an ambitious goal of conducting 100 client meetings within three months. Chandok outlined the plan, stating, “The statement of purpose is to unlock AI for India and South Asia’s potential.” Emphasizing India’s significance to Microsoft, he stressed the need to simplify AI, making it more accessible for widespread adoption.
In his first media interview since joining Microsoft in September, Chandok highlighted the importance of achieving ‘AI fluency’ as the primary objective. He expressed Microsoft’s commitment to demystifying AI and clarified, “The plan in the next 90 days is to do 100 boardroom conversations with top enterprises in India and demystify AI.” Chandok has already engaged with 100 customers in the initial 100 days of his tenure.
Acknowledging the critical role of cloud and data in tandem with AI, Chandok emphasized their joint significance. He outlined Microsoft’s collaborative efforts with the government to train 3 million government officers in AI fluency in India by 2024.
The approach to AI adoption in India, as outlined by Chandok, involves addressing productivity use cases in various industries, including manufacturing, finance, service organizations, and internet businesses. Simultaneously, Microsoft aims to build large language models (LLMs) tailored to India’s language, culture, and context, leveraging AI infrastructure.
Chandok’s vision for Microsoft in India revolves around bringing clarity to AI utilization, fostering industry-specific use cases, and collaborating with the government to drive AI fluency. His proactive strategy aligns with Microsoft’s broader goal of advancing digital transformation and accelerating AI adoption to meet evolving customer needs.
