Beyond AI infra, India should focus on exporting consumer experiences: BharatPe CPO Rohan Khara

BharatPe's newly-appointed chief product officer (CPO) Rohan Khara said he's bullish on India leading the world in the development of generative artificial intelligence, especially given the large and diverse amount of data present here.

The next step in this journey, however, should be focussing on exporting more AI-driven consumer experiences, he opines, just like India did with UPI.

Khara was speaking at YourStory's India Tech Leaders' Conclave, 2024, in Bengaluru, where generative AI and the many ways in which it could be leveraged to put the country on the map was the flavour of the day.

Khara, who has led pivotal product development cycles at fintech companies like GoJek and FairMoney India, said that India has already been making a lot of progress on the gen AI front.

"I spend a lot of my time thinking about lending at BharatPe. The real business in lending is collections. And lending is one of those products where, early on, you can use AI-based technologies to better get a sense of the potential of borrowers, their willingness and ability to repay," he said, speaking about how AI has been shaping fintech.

"It's the intersection of these two characteristics which make a big difference to who you lend to, so that you get a better chance of whom you will collect money from," he added.

Another useful application for AI in fintech is risk and fraud mitigation, where companies can, in real time, create rules for transactions that should be blocked, reported, or need further action on, says Khara.

Beyond fintech, he called out healthcare and education as two sectors in India where gen AI can make a world of a difference.

When asked what has been holding India back in becoming an important leader in the space, Khara said it's the lack of funding.

"Where I feel we're lagging is funding. We do raise a lot of money in this country, but we're still behind versus the West."

Also, hardware advancements to support complex software don't quite happen at a notable clip in India, he added.

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AI in product development

For someone who breathes product development and consumer research every day, Khara said he disagrees with the notion that a product absolutely must have AI integration.

In his opinion, AI should be part of the product; the product shouldn't be led by it.

"Figure out your end target segment and what their problems are. Validate the problems you want to solve, as opposed to falling in love with the solution and then hunting for a problem."

"Once you've done that, see where AI can fit in," he recommended, adding, "Slightly more tasteful integration of AI is the need of the hour."

AI aside, spatial computing via augmented reality and virtual reality is something that excites him, he said. Another, slightly obtuse tech that has caught his eye is developer experience.

"It's about making life simple for them by giving them better tools and training. Just shipping the code is not enough, that’s just the output. But thinking all the way through in terms of the outcome and how it manifests for the user is quite interesting."