EP 45 – How Artificial Intelligence Drives Real Business Growth – Malay Parekh – Unico Connect

Read the best-effort transcript below (This technology is still not as good as they say it is…):

Michael Waitze 0:00
Hi, my name is Michael Waitze and we are back on India GameChanger. Today we have Malay Parekh the CEO at Unico Connect, it’s great to have you on the show. And before we get into the main part of this conversation, can you give our listeners a little bit of your background for some context?

Malay Parekh 0:19
Hi Michael, you know, very excited to be part of the show and, you know, obviously heard great things. You know, they’re trying, you know, catch up with these podcasts that happen and, you know, what you’re doing is really exciting and, you know, just wonderful, you know, to be part of this. Short so, you know, just to give some background, you know, I serve as the CEO of Unico Connect. Unico Connect is a software development agency based out of Mumbai, India. And, you know, we specialize on building custom software solutions for clients in India as well as overseas. Right. And, you know, also, you know, I would like to talk about a bit about myself, please, and, you know, you know, how, you know, my journey has been to obviously, to unico connect, I have, you know, always been, you know, enchanted by, you know, how things work, right. So, science, technology, engineering, you know, all of this, you know, really excited me, you know, right, from the early days, we got computers, you know, in the mid 90s, late 90s, in India, and, you know, obviously, I got my first computer was very excited. And, you know, always very curious to learn things, right.

Michael Waitze 1:28
Do you remember what your first computer was?

Malay Parekh 1:31
I believe it was a Pentium one. Okay, that’s cool Pentium one with you know, maybe GB of storage, baby. Yeah,

Michael Waitze 1:43
go ahead. Sorry. That’s cool. And,

Malay Parekh 1:45
and then, of course, you know, eventually, we got the internet connection, which was a dial up modem, right, you know, you had to wait for this long beefs, you know, connect and stuff like that. So, that was really exciting. I was very curious to see, you know, how things work, always, you know, ready to explore new things. And, you know, I obviously, you know, really got acquainted with the way, you know, things work, how computers work. You know, I sort of even became popular around school, because I was kind of the guy who knew, you know, how stuff works. And, you know, people would reach out to me, can you help us, you know, we’re doing this and we’re doing that, or, you know, I would have friends come over, to actually use the computer to, you know, use the internet. So, yeah, that’s how we learned, obviously, the installation was always there, you know, to do something associated with computers?

Michael Waitze 2:34
Did you get a sense when you got your first computer? And then when you first got connected to the internet, through what was probably a 14k, or 56k. modem, which was my first connection to the internet, but did you get a sense that there was now just going to be this radical change because of this connectivity? Or did that happen to you over time?

Malay Parekh 2:51
You know, obviously, we realized that in hindsight, you know, we obviously got familiar with the internet, you know, we had the ability to actually get information access to information, right. Well, obviously, prior to this, you know, the only means what that, you know, we talked, spoke to people had, you know, publications, media, and, you know, getting that sort of getting it that way. So this, you know, obviously opened up new doors, being able to access information on the fly, somebody sitting in the US, and you know, we were able to read something up there. I mean, it was amazing to have access like that on the fly. So, how, you know, obviously, this could you know, what this could transcend into? We obviously didn’t realize that at that point of time. But, you know, I think it was really amazing of, you know, what we were able to do at that point of time.

Michael Waitze 3:42
Yeah, I mean, I remember when I had this 56k modem, and then I started working at Morgan Stanley and I started supporting a floor of like, 100, Sun workstations, and one of the things we wanted to do was give our, our traders connectivity from home. A, we gave them 260 4k, ISDN lines, and it felt like we’d entered the future. It was so fast, right? We gave them some workstations at home. And once I saw that, my whole perspective on where like the internet was going to work and activity was going changed. But like you said, I couldn’t have imagined today, were just the equipment that you and I have today is like what Morgan Stanley probably had in their entire building when I first joined in 1987. Right? And it’s just like one or two machines. It’s been amazing. Anyway, tell me more about your journey.

Malay Parekh 4:33
Alright, so that was amazing. You know, I mean, and then of course, we had mobile phones that came in, right. Again, they were basic phones, but you know, we were able to make calls and you know, access data on the fly. And, of course, we started off with all the phones, you know, there were like bricks back in the day. But you know, again, it was so exciting, right to, you know, understand, you know how stuff works, to be able to come Back to people. And then of course, gradually, you know, we had these smartphones that came in, right, which allowed people to do you know, a lot more than just simply making calls, access their emails get work done. Yeah.

Michael Waitze 5:13
Do you remember? I think it was about Macworld. Right, where Steve Jobs gave the presentation to the iPhone. Do you remember watching that?

Malay Parekh 5:21
I do. I do. And very interesting, also, right, because this is where sort of, you know, things change. So, you know, obviously, I went into pursue my engineering degree back home and decided to also pursue my master’s degree. And I traveled to the US, I was at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. And not too far from, you know, where obviously, Apple was based out of Yeah. And I was there in 2007. The, that’s when the iPhone was launched in 2007. So it was really exciting right away, to have that smartphone to have that touch experience. I think I was really, really tired, you know, by all of that.

Michael Waitze 6:06
Yeah. Sometimes I go back. And I watched that that portion of that Macworld Expo, I think it was where Steve Jobs was on stage magnet thing. And he said, you know, he went through that whole concept of in your life, if you could just create one new innovation, you’ve done something amazing, and an apple, we did the mouse, we did the graphical user interface. And then I forget, there was one other thing and he said today, I want to announce three new innovations. Right. One of them was the internet communicator. The other one was like a mobile phone. And then the other one was, I can’t remember so comunidad, yeah. Yeah. And he was like, yeah. And then he was like, Are you getting it? It’s not three separate things. And I just remember watching this and just be like, Wow, right. Yeah, there’s a lot of WoW, moments in the history of the development of technology Anyway, go ahead.

Malay Parekh 6:52
Absolutely. So that’s why, you know, they obviously launched the iPhone, it, you know, definitely revolutionized everything after that. Yeah, absolutely. And then, you know, it opened up a whole new avenue, right, for people to actually create software, which could be used on the iPhone, and 2008 is when they, you know, launched the Apple App Store. Yeah, where, where, you know, obviously, others could create applications, and you sell their applications on the store. I was, you know, fortunate enough to be in a part of the school where, you know, the school, and, you know, laboratory dedicated to, you know, innovative stuff, right, so gaming is something that they used to do. And after the launch of the iPhone and the App Store, you know, they came up with a whole mobile development program. Yeah. And that was the first time they launched it. And, you know, I was fortunate to be part of that program went on to, you know, learn about developing game in for the iPhone. And, of course, you know, back then, you know, it was quite rudimentary, right? I mean, you had to write 1000s of lines of code, you know, get some simple things done, which obviously saw at once now, today, but that’s where, you know, I started and since then, you know, there’s been no looking back, right? I mean, technology has, you know, just taken, you know, great leaps forward.

Michael Waitze 8:19
So two quick questions for you. Where did you get your engineering degree in India?

Malay Parekh 8:24
It was here in Mumbai. So University of Mumbai is where I got my degree,

Michael Waitze 8:28
but then you went overseas to get your master’s degrees? Master’s degree in what you get a master’s? In what computer science or

Malay Parekh 8:34
in computer science? Wow, why did you go to the US

Michael Waitze 8:37
to do that, as opposed to doing it in India? And then the real, the real question for me is, why did you come back? Which I think is the right idea. I’m just curious, why.

Malay Parekh 8:47
Right. So education in India, you know, obviously has a different perspective. For sure, you know, our systems are, you know, obviously different from, you know, how the US operates. What we learned here in engineering, you know, you know, obviously, I feel is back at that time was not, you know, really practical learning, right. I mean, you know, we obviously had stuff like that, but the kind of approach that we take now, right, in terms of that analytical thinking, logical thinking, being able to design solutions come up with things, and that’s something that you know, I feel the education system in the US has always promoted right. I come from a family where, you know, education has been important. Yeah. My grandfather study in London back in the 1940s, my father and my uncle, everybody studied in the US, right, they got their master’s degree in the US. So, there was always, you know, a sort of connection about, you know, having that sort of education and that sort of learning and experience, right. So, I you know, I was also keen on you know, obviously pursuing this further, trying to you know, focus on narrow down and specialize in you know, one particular area of engineering. Right. And that’s how, you know, sort of computer science and pursuing master’s degree in the US is, you know how that decision came about?

Michael Waitze 10:08
Well, I mean, USC is an incredible place to go and going to university in California, particularly when you were there was just insanely great, right? So a killer experience, but I’m always I’m always interested in why the diaspora comes home. Right. I’ve been living outside of the United States since I was 24 years old. So I never went home. And that’s why I always like to know why.

Malay Parekh 10:30
Right? I think that also has to do with bringing, and, you know, the family traditions, and values and thoughts are things right, and my mind was always pretty sad that, you know, I want to go there, I want to study, I also want to probably work for a bit, you know, get that sort of exposure and experience, right. And having the family back home, you know, was also important to me, so the decision was always there to, you know, come back. And I would say also, what contributed to that was sort of fast track, that decision to come back was, you know, the bubble burst that happened in 2008 2009, right, I remember, where there was a financial crisis. And, you know, suddenly, all of a sudden, you know, where there was a lot of jobs available, you know, this became difficult to come by, yeah. You know, even internships and things, you know, people were not ready to, you know, sponsor your visa was. So it was a difficult period, to actually graduate. However, you know, I was fortunate enough to, you know, what, with a startup in Los Angeles, very small team, wonderful people. Our CEO was the CTO of Blackboard, Blackboard, again, was a big name in education. We had, you know, a couple of developers working on, you know, mobile applications back end, and, you know, doing those sorts of things. So, you know, I had the opportunity to work with this small team, to build out applications. And I think that was, you know, really useful for me to also, you know, bring back, you know, that experience, you know, do something back home,

Michael Waitze 12:09
talk to me about Unicode. Why, like, what its story is how that got started, and what it does differently.

Malay Parekh 12:17
Right. So Unicode connect was founded by Mr. portail, who’s our founder, you know, I obviously came on board to go much later. Prior to that, you know, I have my own services business again, because, you know, I came from a mobile application background, you know, that’s something I always wanted to do. The founder, and I, you know, we work closely together a lot process, and unico was, you know, at a point where, you know, obviously, they were looking to, you know, take things to the next level. Having this working relationship with the founder, you know, we thought, you know, there were a lot of synergy between us, and makes sense for us to, you know, actually join hands and, you know, take on this journey of taking things to the next level. Alright, so that’s how I sort of came on board.

Michael Waitze 13:05
I want to get to artificial intelligence in a bit, because I really want to dig deeply into this right. But before we get there, I’ve always been a bit of a no code, low code skeptic. But if you’re using it internally, right, so for developers to use it, that’s a different story. So can you tell me why it’s so significant? Where’s the best use case for it? And then you can move into how all this stuff, including artificial intelligence, isn’t just good for like, MLMs, but actually drives real business growth?

Malay Parekh 13:35
Absolutely. So I’ll, you know, I would like to, you know, just mention about our first interaction with low code, no code, please. That was back in 2021. Okay, you know, we had a chance to interact with, you know, one of the low code platforms call center, you know, we met with the founding team, you know, they told us about what the platform does. And, you know, we were all, you know, obviously, skeptical, right, coming from, you know, the background of, you know, hardcore programming and coding. You know, we were like, Okay, fine, you know, let’s check it out and see, you know, what we can do with it. And, you know, we had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with it. And, you know, I mean, we were just blown away by what you know, we could do and how quickly, you know, something as basic as you know, creating authentication that takes probably a day or more. And with, you know, no code platform like this, you know, we could do it in a couple of hours.

Michael Waitze 14:33
And this is componentize stuff, right? Low code stuff, or no code stuff so that developers can use so if they want to create something. They don’t have to recreate the wheel. But this is not for me. Like I don’t I mean, this is for developers to be able to use this type of platform. Yeah.

Malay Parekh 14:46
Yeah. So I think that’s where, you know, different sort of comes in, right. I mean, while local no code is accessible to everybody, having that development, background and experience becomes important, right? Because Have you create yourself shins, you know, have you built it in the best way for the system to you know, operate effectively? That experience becomes important. Yeah, low code, no code has, you know, obviously help not have intrapreneurs, you know, build things out themselves. But, you know, obviously, when you’re looking to, you know, build something more robust, more scalable. That’s where, you know, having that sort of experience in using these tools, you know, really helps you to, you know, take things to the next level.

Michael Waitze 15:27
Can you talk to me a little bit about open source development as well, if you don’t mind? Because I think there’s some relationship between it goes on with some no code, low code and open source, right. And let me give you an example and see if I have this, right. A lot of the communication tools that we use are built on the same backbone, right? So like, Riverside FM, which I sometimes use to, to record video podcasts, right? It seems to me to be built on open source stuff, and they just put out, it’s too simplified to say they just put a wrapper around it, right. But they put a user interface and user experience on top of it. And then they have this entire community of open source developers that just keep adding functionality to it. How do those two things fit together? If that makes sense? And how does it make software development more efficient? Not just with no code, low code, but with all this open source stuff as well?

Malay Parekh 16:15
Right? No, that’s actually a great point, you know, a lot of these platforms are actually built on open source platforms, right, open source technologies, right. But like you said, you know, the obviously had, you know, a layer on top of it, you know, the sort of containerized things, and provide an interface for people to, you know, easily access those things, right, in a more visually effective way, rather than having to, you know, write lines of code and things like that. So, underlying, you know, we are obviously leveraging, you know, open source, and then, you know, you’re providing that comfort and convenience to users to be able to, you know, do things in a much easier way than, you know, actually than writing code.

Michael Waitze 16:57
Right? If you use open source code, to build some of your own products, or just little pieces of it, do you also encourage your developers to contribute as well?

Malay Parekh 17:10
Yes, absolutely. So, you know, there are always times you know, when we are creating something unique, something which is, you know, reusable and extensible to a lot of different things, we always believe in sharing back to the community, right? Because, you know, there are a lot of tools available out there, right, a lot of free and open source tools that, you know, at times, you know, we also like to leverage, you know, for billing solutions, and wherever possible, you know, we obviously, try and, you know, make a contribution back to your source platforms.

Michael Waitze 17:40
And now, let’s talk a little bit about artificial intelligence, just, I mean, I almost just feel like saying, Go, but it feels like a little weak way to enter the topic. Just again, talk to me about how you think artificial intelligence is really getting used in a way that’s sensible. That’s not just like, you know, writing emails for people, and then actually is being used to drive real business growth, and then what it looks like from the developer side as well, right.

Malay Parekh 18:05
All right, absolutely. So I think, you know, obviously, AI has been around for quite some time, right. But with the introduction of GPT, you know, I mean, there’s obviously been a source, there’s been a push with people, you know, actually adopting, you know, these things, because now they have these tools, which, you know, does things for them, right. Whether it’s about writing an email, or, you know, getting stuff done booking appointments, managing their calendars, even, you know, taking meeting notes, right, which they talk directly to themselves. There’s practically anything that AI can do, right? Yeah, essentially, we are working with large data sets, right, and, you know, obviously takes a lot of effort to get, you know, meaningful insights from this data. And that’s where, you know, he really is a lot of value, right? With the able with the ability to, you know, actually apply semantics to that data.

Michael Waitze 19:05
Can you give an exempt? Can you give an example that for people that don’t understand how, how semantics get applied to data and what the output is, and how that makes it better for you? Or easier for you?

Malay Parekh 19:16
Gotcha. Oh, absolutely. So it’s pretty simple, right? I mean, so if, so, if you’re, for example, you know, creating a data set, right? Maybe if you’re asking something, you know, as straightforward as, you know, okay, you know, I want to find, you know, this piece of information, right, within my data. So, if you’re going to be very specific, then, you know, obviously, you’re going to get the answers for that, right. But if you’re going to ask it in a different way, right, as you know, we humans would Converse right okay. You know, what is this supposed to mean? Or, you know, you know, how do I do something like this right? The data set is not going to understand right or be able to translate your query and relate it with the X All information is there. Yeah, that’s where, you know, semantics comes in, right? Where your actual natural language query is translated into something that you know, the data can be related to. And you’re, you’re getting a response based on that way. So being able to, you know, connect that is where, you know, obviously, is doing a fantastic job.

Michael Waitze 20:23
So can you use artificial intelligence to go back and forth between your data set, use the semantics that get created? And then use those insights to then go back into the data to get better insights?

Malay Parekh 20:33
Yes, absolutely. And we, in fact, you know, are building some solutions for customers, you know, in the education space, in the pharmaceutical space, with the pharmaceutical space, right, it’s an enterprise, you know, customer who has, you know, large volumes of data, they have multiple teams, you know, a lot of different people who, you know, rely on getting that information in sites, to, you know, take actionable decisions. And for them, you know, to be able to, you know, ask something as simple as, you know, what product has done? Well, in the past three months, right, right, simple query like that, you know, it spits out information with, you know, all the top items that have done with, you know, all the metrics and things for them to actually make a decision. Okay, you know, what’s working? Well, what’s not working? Well, right, as simple as that. Being able to do that, you know, so easily. So, you know, quickly, is where, you know, AI is actually providing to value.

Michael Waitze 21:33
Yeah, it must be as a software development company, right? You always want to be innovating helping your clients innovate. And there’s this constant stream of global emerging technologies, new technology, skis, you can pick whatever word you want. But you can always, you can always end up at some point chasing your tail, right? Because if someone says, you know, there’s this shiny new blockchain thing over here is their shiny new AI thing over here. How do you stay up to date, but just try to ensure that you’re using the right technology for the right product, as opposed to just kind of jam something into I mean, like, if we were having this conversation, I’d say four or five years ago, we couldn’t finish it without talking about blockchain. And today, I don’t feel like talking about it at all, to a certain extent, right. But I don’t feel like artificial intelligence, the artificial intelligence conversation is something that we’re not going to be having in five years, I believe strongly that AI is the future of software development in software platforms. Like that’s something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about. How do you make a decision internally, when all this new tech is happening, that, you know, this is actually going to be significant? And we need to know how to do this better than anybody?

Malay Parekh 22:46
So I think it’s about, you know, obviously staying up to date on, you know, what is happening, right? What are the new standards? You know, what are the new technologies are being introduced? Blockchain, obviously, a few years back, and when it came, you know, there was a password. And the same was the case with, you know, augmented reality, you know, VR, and, you know, stuff like that. Right. And, you know, obviously, you as a software developer, you know, you obviously want to get your hands dirty, you know, experience those things, see, you know, how it works, you know, what are the kinds of things you can achieve with it. But, you know, at the same time, it’s also important to understand, you know, what actually makes sense? For a use case, right? What is actually relevant for a use case? Maybe, you know, using Blockchain for financial application, which, you know, does even simple transactions and stuff might be an overkill, right. So it’s about being able to assess, you know, what is actually important for the use case, what you’re trying to achieve, you know, what the end goal is, you know, being pragmatic in, you know, assessing all of these things, you know, take make that decision,

Michael Waitze 23:57
how do you make sure, and maybe it’s even just about hiring, but how do you make sure that people understand that you want them to be as innovative and creative as possible at work?

Malay Parekh 24:08
So that’s something that, you know, we’ve obviously learned over the years, you know, as part of the team, you know, we provide the sort of opportunities for people to come up with ideas, right. That’s the kind of environment that we, you know, promote within the team. We’ve got a VR headset, in our office here, we’ve taught people whenever you feel like, you know, you can just put it on, you know, you can play around, you know, do stuff. And then, of course, you know, we’re also working on trying to, you know, build something with VR ourselves, right. So, you know, obviously, people, you know, they need to understand, you know, how technology works, and, you know, they need to be inclined to this kind of stuff. And, you know, that’s the kind of mindset that, you know, we’ve come up with, right, where, you know, we’re always interested in learning, you know, how these things work and how these things function. And that’s the kind of culture that we Remote with the team, right? So we also have forums where we participate in community discussions, try and reach out to people, you know, be part of webinars and things like that, you know, where they’re talking about innovation, different things. And another important thing here is our learnings, right? Because what we’ve learned the knowledge that we’ve gained, you know, the domain experience, that you know how that sort of ties into with this technology and how, you know, we can actually make things better, right, provide innovative solutions make things better in terms of reducing time costs, do things more efficiently? You know, it’s like a complete cycle. Yeah. So, yeah, we try and, you know, obviously, in short, you know, the team obviously understands all of these things,

Michael Waitze 25:49
do you have any sort of case study style examples that you want to share? That would kind of give you an overall view of all the things we’ve already discussed?

Malay Parekh 25:58
Absolutely, go for it. So there is a school that we’re working with, okay, based out of Sacramento, and they are not a regular school, they are a charter school. And what I actually recently learned that, you know, they’re actually the second biggest charter school in California, right, and they cater to immigrant population, to people who have relocated from Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and you know, places like this. And people, you know, who also had, you know, personal problems, they’ve been probably involved in some, you know, criminal offenses, and these kinds of things are people who don’t have access to education. So what the school does is, you know, tries and, you know, caters to just sort of population, to help them, you know, obviously, get educated, and, you know, be able to, you know, take a basic jobs into the community. Yeah. So, so that’s what the school is trying to do, what we’ve been doing with them is, you know, we’ve helped build an entire platform for them, which helps them to manage their day to day operations. So for both staff and students, right, from the time, you know, they come onto campus, you know, they’re able to do the attendances to, you know, QR boards, to NFC through geo fencing, you know, be able to factor locations on campus, for them to, you know, manage their tasks, to attend events that are happening on campus, to be able to, you know, speak with staff and students, all of these activities are their day to day, you know, everything is managed to this platform.

Michael Waitze 27:37
Yeah. Can you talk about some of the challenges of managing a product or project remotely? I mean, Sacramento is on the other side of the world, right. And even though your developers may, some of them may be are you in Mumbai, Bangalore? Like, are you all over the country in India, but you’re in India? Right? How do you? How do you manage that with the making sure that you know, you get the right quality, the right deliverables to the people that want to use this in California?

Malay Parekh 28:02
That is one of the challenges. And, you know, I would like to just add here that, you know, in one of my previous experiences, right, where I’ve actually been involved in a lot of global projects, right, I am, I’ve been based in mobile, you know, I’ve worked with customers in the US, Australia, New Zealand, UK everywhere, right? And, you know, obviously, to my experience, you know, learn how, you know, we can be effective in working remotely, right. Communication is key to everything. Yeah. communication, understanding the expectation of the customer upfront, is very important. Yeah. Right. And once you have that alignment, right, then, you know, it’s about sort of executing things. So that’s really important. And we make sure that, you know, we spend enough time doing those things correctly. And from there on, you know, obviously, it’s about, you know, building that trust, building that confidence, and, you know, being able to deliver, you know, what the customer is expecting, so, getting those things, right, is, you know, important. And for this school in particular, right, it’s going to be two years, we’ve been working with them. What started off, as you know, in a small scale engagement has now obviously grown like three times in size, you know, a combination of all of these things coming together. Yeah. And, you know, working effectively, is important. One more

Michael Waitze 29:26
thing, I’ll ask you, and then I’ll let you go. The work that you’re doing for the school is more than just building software. Right, and building a platform. It sounds like you’re also having impact, particularly because of the community that you’re addressing is important. Is it important for you as an individual and also for the company to not just develop great software, but also in some cases to have real impact particularly on the communities with which you’re working?

Malay Parekh 29:52
Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, you I think you’ve got that portal is not only about building and delivering software, right? For us, it is about having, you know, these partnerships, where, you know, we’re building something really exciting and great. And at the same time, you know, that is actually having an impact on people’s lives. Right, and the kind of feedback that we’ve had from the school, right, because these guys, you know, obviously come from difficult backgrounds, difficult situations, and for them to, you know, have access to the sort of information and being able to, you know, get things done matters in their day to day lives, right. It helps them in, you know, achieving things in their life move forward. You know, you know, obviously, really, you know, we take pride in, you know, being associated with something like this, where, you know, what we’re building is really not working for the school, but you know, it is actually helping people to, you know, you know, add meaning and, you know, add value to you know, what they’re doing so, yeah, I mean, that’s something that at the end of the day, you know, that matters for us. That sort of value that we create for people, you know, obviously gives us satisfaction and obviously, drives us to, you know, do better things.

Michael Waitze 31:06
Malay Parekh. I just want to thank you so much for doing this the CEO at Unico Connect. That was a really awesome discussion. I’ve learned something we’ll have to have you back on again. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

Speaker 2 31:18
Thank you so much, Michael. It was wonderful speaking to you and once again, fantastic opportunity to be part of this.

 

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