In October last year, Walmart revealed its plans around AI, AR, and immersive commerce experiences. This led to the introduction of Wallaby, a collection of retail-focused LLMs designed to enhance customer interactions. 

Built on decades of Walmart data, Wallaby allows the company to integrate it with other LLMs, generating highly contextual responses tailored to its ecosystem. At the centre of this evolution is Sriprabha Gopalan, director of engineering at Walmart Global Tech, whose team is driving innovations in generative AI, conversational AI, and retail-specific LLMs. 

“The best thing about Wallaby LLMs is that we’ve trained them in a way that they can speak in a very natural tone that complies with Walmart’s code of conduct,” Gopalan, who has over eight years of experience at the company,  told AIM.

What makes Wallaby particularly powerful is its ability to integrate with other LLMs, allowing for enhanced performance across multiple retail applications. By combining proprietary AI models with external innovations, Walmart ensures its AI systems stay ahead of the curve.

Beyond LLMs, Walmart is also pioneering conversational AI, which enables natural, free-flowing interactions between customers and digital assistants. The company has successfully implemented a GenAI-based shopping assistant that acts as a real-time advisor, helping customers discover and select products tailored to their needs.

“This AI-powered assistant enables customers to engage in a natural conversation and decide on the best products for their unique needs,” Gopalan said. The assistant is designed to mimic an in-store experience, making online shopping more interactive and personalised.

The AI at Walmart

Customer support has also seen significant advancements with generative AI. Walmart integrated AI into its customer support assistant, which now understands customer intent and takes direct actions, such as managing orders and processing returns. 

“The effectiveness of our customer support workflows has doubled since integrating GenAI,” noted Gopalan, highlighting a significant reduction in issue resolution time.

AI at Walmart isn’t just enhancing customer experience, it’s also transforming how developers and engineers work. The company has built several AI-powered tools to boost productivity and efficiency, and streamline engineering workflows. 

One such tool is DX AI Assistant, an internal marketplace of generative AI chatbots that helps developers discover and utilise AI solutions for various engineering tasks. Another tool, My Assistant, launched 18 months ago, assists with drafting, summarising documentation, and retrieving concise technical information, saving developers significant time on routine tasks.

“These tools allow our developers to focus on high-impact areas, such as ideation, creativity, and strategy, rather than repetitive tasks,” explained Gopalan. 

The rise of AI-powered coding assistants has sparked debates in the engineering community. Some argue that these tools make junior developers overly dependent on AI, while others believe they enhance productivity. Addressing this concern, Gopalan remains optimistic. 

“We see AI as a powerful enabler rather than a replacement for human expertise. These tools help engineers focus on complex problem-solving instead of repetitive coding tasks. The real innovation comes from combining AI’s efficiency with human ingenuity,” she said.

The India Factor

While Walmart operates as a unified global entity, its Indian tech teams have played a crucial role in driving AI innovations. In addition to their contributions to Wallaby LLMs and conversational AI, they have worked on Converse, an in-house conversational AI platform designed for internal and customer-facing applications.

Moreover, Walmart has expanded its research partnerships, most notably through the Walmart Centre for Excellence in collaboration with IIT Madras.

“We don’t distinguish between locations; our focus is on collaboration and delivering value to customers,” Gopalan said. This philosophy has enabled Walmart’s global tech teams, including those in India, to contribute to groundbreaking advancements, such as Wallaby LLMs and AI-driven shopping assistants.

Looking ahead, Gopalan said that she is exploring AI agents that could further automate shopping, customer support, and even supply chain operations. With AI advancements enabling greater autonomy and intelligence, there is potential for fully AI-driven shopping experiences where customers can place orders via voice commands with minimal manual input.

Additionally, Walmart is investing in geospatial technology to optimise delivery networks. By using AI-driven demand forecasting, slot availability, and store capacity data, Walmart has enhanced its last-mile delivery efficiency, ensuring faster and more reliable deliveries.

“We believe that AI, combined with human expertise, is the key to driving the next wave of retail innovation,” Gopalan said. 

Sauce Labs Inc, a leading provider of software testing solutions, has appointed Prince Kohli as its new CEO. Kohli, an expert in AI-driven solutions and cloud computing, joins Sauce Labs with nearly 30 years of experience in technology and software development. 

He previously served as chief technology officer at Automation Anywhere and held senior leadership roles at ThoughtSpot and Ericsson.

Kohli said that Sauce Labs’ AI-driven testing and software monitoring platform offers valuable insights, ensuring the smooth and secure delivery of essential, revenue-boosting experiences for some of the world’s biggest companies. 

“As enterprises accelerate software development to meet the demands of today’s customers, the importance of Sauce Labs’ continuous testing capabilities will only grow. I am thrilled to join the team as we develop industry-leading solutions that allow our customers to deliver enhanced digital experiences,” he said.

Sauce Labs provides software testing solutions that help businesses ensure their digital platforms run smoothly. It supports a comprehensive list of browsers and operating systems, mobile emulators and simulators and mobile devices, and at the speed that its users need to test their apps. It also claims to be the world’s largest continuous testing cloud, that offers over 800 browser and operating system combinations, 200 mobile emulators and simulators and thousands of real devices.

Companies such as Bank of America, SAP, Walmart, Verizon Media, and Microsoft rely on its platform for automated testing, reducing the time spent on manual checks. The company supports a global community of software experts focused on improving digital experiences.

Walmart, the world’s largest omnichannel retailer, has announced pilot projects with three Indian startups—KBCols Sciences, GreenPod Labs, and Cropin—to enhance its US supply chain and sourcing operations. 

These collaborations aim to improve product quality, reduce waste, and promote sustainability.

These startups, selected during last year’s Walmart Growth Summit in India, offer unique innovations. Their solutions are expected to benefit Walmart’s global supply chain while ensuring fresher and more sustainable products for consumers.

Highlighting this commitment, Kyle Carlyle, Walmart’s vice president of sourcing innovation and surety of supply, said, “By collaborating with global innovators, we’re leveraging fresh ideas to build a more resilient supply network.”

Pune-based KBCols Sciences is among the selected startups. It produces natural, non-GMO textile dyes from agricultural waste. These dyes require less water and energy during production and offer an eco-friendly alternative to the synthetic ones. The pilot will specifically test these dyes on fabrics like woven materials and cotton. 

“This project reflects our shared commitment to addressing environmental challenges while delivering high-quality, more responsibly-produced products,” said Vaishali Kulkarni, CEO of KBCols Sciences.

Similarly, GreenPod Labs, a Chennai-based startup, creates sachets filled with plant extracts that slow down the ripening of fruits and vegetables by mimicking their natural defences. These sachets extend the freshness of produce, enabling cost-effective shipping and reducing waste. 

To test this innovation, Walmart is collaborating with UC Davis. GreenPod Labs CEO Deepak Rajmohan expressed his excitement, saying, “Working with a global player like Walmart revalidates the importance of our work in reducing post-harvest losses and improving quality.”

The third on the list is Cropin, a Bengaluru-based startup that offers an AI-driven platform designed to improve crop yield predictions, optimise resources, and ensure consistent harvests. Walmart plans to leverage this technology to gain deeper insights into crop health, yield estimations, and seasonal transitions. 

Cropin CEO Krishna Kumar highlighted the potential impact of this collaboration, saying, “By working with Walmart, we aim to build resilient and sustainable food systems.”

The Walmart Growth Summit, part of a series held in countries such as India, Mexico, and Chile, connects entrepreneurs with Walmart’s extensive supply chain network. These latest pilots build on Walmart’s ongoing work with innovators such as Agritask, unspun, and Rubi Laboratories.

Last year, Walmart partnered with IIT Madras to launch the Walmart Centre for Tech Excellence. The centre aims to empower MSMEs in the manufacturing and retail sectors by developing AI and digitisation solutions to drive operational efficiency and profitability and upskill them.
Moreover, the company is looking to triple its sourcing from India to $10 billion annually by 2027 as part of its commitment to supporting Indian MSMEs and fostering job creation while leveraging initiatives like Walmart Vriddhi to modernise local suppliers and expand its global supply chain.

Before ChatGPT revolutionised AI conversations, one of the largest home improvement retailers in the world, Lowe’s, had already teamed up with OpenAI to enhance its AI capabilities. 

“We were partnering with them on our AI efforts even before ChatGPT,” shared Amit Kapur, VP of AI and data analytics at Lowe’s. “When it launched, our collaboration deepened, focusing on enhancing product data quality.”

The collaboration addressed a critical challenge – ensuring accurate product data for over 16 million weekly customer transactions. Accurate product descriptions not only reduce errors but also enhance inventory planning and customer satisfaction. Lowe’s used OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 model for prompt engineering and fine-tuning, resulting in improved search accuracy and a 60% increase in error detection.

Nishant Gupta, senior director of data, analytics, and computational intelligence, said, “Excitement in the team was palpable when we saw results from fine-tuning GPT-3.5 on our product data, and we knew we had a winner on our hands!”

Even numbers back this success. By fine-tuning GPT-3.5, Lowe’s achieved a 20% boost in accuracy and streamlined operations by reducing associates’ workloads for error vetting. These advancements have directly impacted Lowe’s e-commerce growth, making product searches more reliable and customer experiences smoother.

Early Adopter of GenAI in Retail

In the competitive landscape, Lowe’s stands out not just for its early adoption of generative AI but for its strategic use of partnerships and in-house innovation. While companies like Wayfair focus on multimodal models for product matching and recommendations, Lowe’s has built a robust AI ecosystem by using NVIDIA’s computer vision tools and Google’s analytics.

Fiona Tan, CTO at Wayfair, while talking about the evolving AI landscape, stated, “Generative AI enables personalised shopping journeys for each customer every time they click.” Yet, Lowe’s has set itself apart by seamlessly integrating OpenAI’s models into its operational backbone.

Competitors like IKEA have introduced AI tools such as IKEA Kreativ for 3D space visualisation, and Target and Walmart have adapted AI for better inventory and customer experiences. 

However, Lowe’s internal developments, such as omnichannel order management systems and self-checkout terminals, underline its commitment towards scalable and reusable solutions. 

“We conceptualise reusable components so our solutions evolve with business and technology needs,” Kapur further said.

Bengaluru: The Backbone of Lowe’s AI Evolution

Lowe’s Bengaluru team has been a critical driver of its AI journey and has played a critical role in developing and deploying cutting-edge solutions. 

“Many of our core systems, including the omnichannel order management and self-checkout terminals, were built from the ground up by our engineers in Bengaluru. These solutions have provided us with unmatched scalability and flexibility,” Kapur pointed out. 

The Bengaluru team’s efforts include designing the cart and checkout engines for Lowe’s stores, integrating AI-powered tools, and creating microservices-based architectures. “We build components like a Lego block framework…allowing us to replace or upgrade functionalities without disrupting the entire system.”

Moreover, the team has been instrumental in implementing AI-driven product tagging solutions fine-tuned with OpenAI models. “The innovations from our Bengaluru team have not only improved efficiency but also enhanced the shopping experience for millions of customers per week,” Kapur noted. 

This Indian hub also leads AI advancements in areas like inventory optimisation and predictive analytics, which in turn shapes Lowe’s strategy of becoming an evolving omnichannel retailer. The team in Bengaluru has prioritised reusability, scalability, and customer-centric innovation to allow Lowe’s to stay ahead in the AI game.

Looking ahead, Lowe’s plans to upgrade newer OpenAI models by focusing on the flagged errors to ensure continuous improvements in data accuracy. The retailer’s next steps include using AI for productivity initiatives and expanding its in-house AI frameworks.

Last week, Microsoft became the world’s most valuable company, with its market valuation of $2.89 trillion surpassing Apple’s $2.87 trillion. This is only the start.  Microsoft’s first major announcement for the year comes with the launch of Copilot Pro, and other features. This time, Microsoft has decided to reach every consumer possible.  

The new subscription Pro model is said to be equipped with advanced features and capabilities that look to assist people with tasks such as coding, designing, researching, and more. It looks to bring AI capabilities to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscribers who can even build Copilot GPTs : Microsoft’s big leap to catch all kinds of users. 

However, the biggest update has to be the availability of Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes, including small and medium-sized businesses, something the company had overlooked till date.

Going by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s vision, which was announced during Microsoft Ignite 2023, where he said that ‘we are the copilot company’ and that there will be a future where there will be a ‘copilot for everyone and everything you do,’ the push to create Copilot Pro might just be the beginning.  

Enabling SMBs With Copilot

Since November, Copilot availability for Microsoft 365 users has been restricted to a 300-seat minimum for commercial plans. With yesterday’s announcement, the cap is removed and Copilot will be made available for Office 365 E3 and E5 customers (different enterprise plans). The cost is fixed at $30 per person, per month. 

The decision to allow small and medium-based businesses to access Copilot, allows Microsoft to cater to a large market. As per a report by the World Bank, SMEs account for 90% of businesses worldwide. 

Microsoft’s goal of targeting businesses of all kinds doesn’t stick to Copilot alone. With an upgraded collaboration with Walmart, Microsoft made significant announcements in the retail sector as a whole, where AI-capabilities and other functions will be provided to retail companies of all sizes including 

Copilot GPT and Apps 

Microsoft Copilot, the AI assistant, that has eased the life of employees, has reached more than 5 billion chats and more than 5 billion images, and with the latest Copilot Pro, the company aims to further boost performance and productivity. 

While Copilot’s AI-features were primarily built to cater to enterprises, Microsoft is pushing it further to reach consumers of all kinds. Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions that could not access Copilot features on Word, Excel, Outlook and more will now be able to do so. By adding a $20 per person subscription, Copilot Pro can be accessed. 

Additionally, Copilot Pro users will now be able to create their own GPTs using Copilot GPT Builder. A feature to engage more user engagement. Interestingly, Microsoft also announced the Copilot mobile app. 

The latest Copilot app will allow users to access all the capabilities of Copilot via their phone. The features that are included on the PC version of Copilot such as GPT-4 and Dall-E 3, will also exist on the app, and this will be available on both Android and iOS. Some users are already finding Copilot Pro to be better than ChatGPT. 

Programmer Paul Way’s tweet. Source: X

Microsoft Emulates OpenAI

Interestingly, Microsoft’s recent Copilot developments are closely following OpenAI’s footsteps. Microsoft has wisely chosen to make Copilot available as an app in order to capture a significant mobile market share. First familiarising people with Copilot capabilities and then introducing the app version will allow large conversions. 

ChatGPT was released as a mobile application on iOS months after ChatGPT made its debut. Two months following the iOS release, the app was then made available on Android. ChatGPT ended up being the fastest app to reach 100 million users. Microsoft might be possibly trying to emanate the same. 

If you look at Copilot Pro’s features that gives priority access to its latest models such as OpenAI GPT-4 Turbo, DALL.E 3 and more, is exactly similar to the features available on the upgraded version of ChatGPT i.e. ChatGPT Plus. Furthermore, OpenAI released the GPT Store last week and in less than a week, we now have Copilot GPT. 

Interestingly, just last week, OpenAI released ChatGPT Team, which offers GPT-4 and DALL.E 3 capabilities, along with providing a collaborative workspace for teams of all sizes. 

While the OpenAI-Microsoft strategic partnership allows the latter to benefit from all the latest models OpenAI releases, Microsoft is also strategically using it to push its dominance in the SMB and direct-to-consumer market. 

With the latest partnership announcement with Vodafone , where the aim is to bring generative AI, cloud and other services to over 300 million businesses and consumers, Microsoft’s route to dominance has already begun. 

At CES 2024, where interesting partnerships between big tech companies were announced, Walmart and Microsoft’s strategic partnership to bring generative AI-powered search features on the retail giant’s platform was unveiled. 

The new features are said to enhance the digital shopping experience on the platform, something every major retail giant is increasingly looking to adopt. In the process, also allow big tech companies to win in a big way. 

Microsoft : The Solid Pillar of Walmart

Doug McMillon and Satya Nadella at CES 2024. Source: CES

Walmart CEO and President Doug McMillon invited Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella onstage at the CES event to not only talk about their new AI-enabled features but also their long-standing commitment that started in 2018. 

Six years ago, the retail giant tied up with Microsoft to make it as its preferred and strategic cloud provider. The cloud innovation projects comprised AI and ML-based data-platform solutions, and they were designed to address customer-facing services and internal business applications. 

With increasing sales through ecommerce platforms, Walmart has also been witnessing the same. In Q3 2023, Walmart’s US online sales grew 24% and global online sales grew 15%. 

Net Sales of Walmart E-commerce. Source: Statista

Microsoft Loves All Retail

Microsoft has not only partnered with Walmart but a number of retail companies to bring advanced tech capabilities to their systems. In 2018, Microsoft announced its partnership with British retail company Marks and Spencer (M&S) to test out AI capabilities in a retail environment. 

A number of consumer goods companies have partnered with Microsoft to provide innovative retail solutions. Companies such as Unilever, Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Nestle, Pepsico and many others already have a strategic collaboration with these brands. Last year, Carrefour announced their partnership with Microsoft and OpenAI to bring an AI-powered chatbot to allow a smoother customer experience. 

Retail is the second biggest industry, (after technology) that utilises Microsoft’s suite of cloud-based business applications called Dynamics 365. With ChatGPT integration increasingly going up in retail companies, for mostly building personalised chatbots, Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI service finds its dominance. 

Amazon : The Tough Challenger

With the renewed collaboration of Microsoft and Walmart to use Azure OpenAI Service, on top of proprietary data from Walmart, the newly built AI-powered features are said to enhance the search experience to provide a more personalised experience on Walmart’s platform : a feature that Amazon has already mastered. 

Amazon’s advanced features on its marketplace platform not only works towards enhancing customer experience but also improves seller experience. Retailers use Amazon Personalise to analyse customer data, purchase history, market trends and preferences for personalised product recommendations. 

With generative AI capabilities, advanced customisation is achieved, which enhances the search experience, which is also Amazon’s USP. According to a consumer report of last year, online shoppers first start their search on Amazon. Over 50% of online shoppers use Amazon as their search destination. 39% consumers use search engines such as Google and Bing, closely followed by Walmart with 34% of online shoppers. 

In addition to being the supreme king of e-commerce retail, the company’s cloud service has been implemented by a number of retail companies. AWS offers technology solutions that aid companies to help with their customer data to boost engagement, supply chain distribution and other retail functions.  

Big Tech’s Retail Efforts Continue 

While Microsoft, Amazon are established players working with retail, new partnerships with tech companies are also emerging. Recently, IBM and SAP have collaborated to build AI solutions for the consumer packaged goods and retail sector. The solution looks to help these companies with operational and logistics such as product distribution, transportation planning, automating order settlements and more. 

With the promising adoption of big tech products in retail industries, the prowess of tech giants allows them to establish dominance in the sector. Offering solutions in the form of office products, analytics, operational assistance, and many more features, Microsoft is comfortably positioned to lead in the retail sector.

While everyone is riding the generative AI wave, we might as well encash it. The ones equipped with AI skills seem to be the kings in the current genAI wave. 

With companies offering exorbitantly high salaries for AI-related roles, it’s the best place to be in. Last month, Netflix was in the limelight for offering a salary of up to $900,000 for the role of a product manager on their machine learning platform team. The news came in at a time when the Hollywood writer’s strike was ongoing. While it caused a lot of hullabaloo, Netflix is not the only one which is ready to handsomely pay for AI-related roles. A number of companies are following suit. Is the AI salary rage warranted? 

According to Indeed, there are multiple generative AI roles offered by big tech companies including Meta, NVIDIA, Anthropic, Microsoft, Adobe and many others, where the salaries offered go up to as high as half a million dollars. A technical product manager in AI safety, in Anthropic, is being offered salaries of up to $520,000, and a principal engineer AI in HubSpot, gets $427,000. 

It’s not only tech or AI companies that are offering such excessively high salaries. Consumer and services companies that are implementing AI to transform their products are willing to pay high salaries too. Dating app Hinge was looking to hire a VP for AI to oversee their app’s AI strategy, for a salary of $398,000. The role will entail leading a team of data scientists, and ML engineers to develop AI features. Retail corporation Walmart was also looking to hire a senior manager for its conversational AI platform for a salary of up to $252,000 a year. 

All In One

With generative AI taking centre-stage, the influence on the job market is evident. As per AIM Research, the generative AI job market has witnessed a steady growth from January to June of this year. There are over 4200+ generative AI-related jobs in the US and it has risen by 20% in May. Furthermore, job roles have been modified to suit the current trend. The role of a generative AI engineer that did not exist earlier will now require the competencies of that of a deep learning, ML, NL, and software engineer. 

Almost like a mandatory need, the multiple roles are now a necessity. The amalgamation of multiple roles has been descriptively placed under ‘qualifications section’ for these open job roles that are offering huge salaries. For instance, the role of ‘Senior Research Scientist-generative AI’ in NVIDIA, that offers a salary of up to $414,000 a year, a candidate should not only possess a thorough knowledge of python/C++ programming skills, but also an excellent knowledge of theory and practice of deep learning, computervision, natural language processing or computer graphics. The candidate should also be a Ph.D holder in Computer Science/Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or any related field. 

Similarly, a ‘Product Technical Program Manager-generative AI’ for Meta, with a salary package of up to $297,000, requires technical and leadership experience. The candidate must have experience developing large-scale ML/AI platforms such as dataset generation, feature development, model testing and support the development of AI-powered product experiences such as NLP, computer-vision, ranking and personalisation. 

The Layoffs-Hiring Balance

Interestingly, the large layoffs that happened across big tech at the start of the year, seems to have minimal impact with the way things are unfolding now. Scale AI, a data platform for AI that provides training data for ML teams, had laid off 20% of their workforce in January. However, last month, ScaleAI posted a job opening in Indeed for a ‘software engineer- generative AI’ offering up to $215,000 in salary. 

There are even companies that have laid off employees owing to AI chatbots and efficient processes with generative AI implementation. In May, executive outplacement and career consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, attributed 4000 job losses to artificial intelligence, making it the first time for the company to mention AI as a cause of job loss. Indian ecomm platform, for merchants, Dukaan recently laid off 90% of their support staff replacing them with their new AI chatbot. 

Though big tech layoffs have occurred owing to recession or automation, it doesn’t seem to throw cold water over the ambitious hiring process that companies have started. While it looks promising at the moment, it is to be seen how long the generative AI hiring wave will remain. 

Industries spanning finance, healthcare, e-commerce, and marketing are harnessing the power of data science to boost growth, efficiency, and innovation, making it a lucrative field to be in. As the demand for data scientists continues to soar, this may be the right time for those seeking a profitable career shift. So if you are a budding or a seasoned data scientist looking for a job change, we have got you covered. 

JP Morgan & Chase 

Role: Associate Sr – Data Science

JP Morgan & Chase is seeking individuals for the position of Associate Sr – Data Science who is passionate about converting data into valuable insights and empowering breakthroughs in business. They will analyse customer behaviours and predict financial needs to optimise sales performance and develop self-serve tools for real-time information and identify potential attrition events for effective counteraction.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree in quantitative analytics fields with over seven years of data science experience
• Proficient in SAS/Python programming, data wrangling, and complex SQL scripting
• Skilled in solving business problems with fact-based and scientific analytics

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with financial services, consulting, or marketing agency insights functions
• Experience in workforce analytics, sales performance analytics, or sales science organisation
• Expertise in big data disciplines, Agile methodologies, and new technologies

Click here to apply. 

Read more: Data Science Hiring Process at Pepperfry

Bosch

Role: Data Scientist

As a data scientist in the Bosch global team, you’ll provide AI and ML solutions and collaborate with other departments, enhance existing cloud-based solutions, and explore new use cases. 

Minimum Qualifications: 

• The ideal candidate must have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in software engineering, computer science, mathematics, or a similar field. 
• At least two years of experience in professional data science. 
• The candidate must possess extensive knowledge of Python (with knowledge of R being a plus), as well as object-oriented programming languages with a strong emphasis on clean code. They must have a proven track record in areas such as ML, neural networks, pattern analysis, time series forecasting, data analysis, and data-pipeline technologies (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, NoSQL databases, Workflow-Engine). 
• A strong understanding of statistics is necessary, and knowledge of cloud technologies (ideally Microsoft Azure) and SQL would also be needed.

Click here to learn more about it.

PayPal

Role: Manager – Data Science

As a Manager -Decision Science, you will lead and develop a team of skilled decision scientists, providing them with daily guidance to ensure exceptional results and also oversee key metrics and make changes when necessary to improve performance. 

Minimum Qualifications:

• Experience as either a manager or Lead Decision Scientist / Lead Data Scientist / Analytics roles
• The ideal candidates must have excellent analytical skills, including expertise in SQL and data visualisation. 
• They should also have experience in leading cross-functional collaborations and managing relationships with multiple stakeholders. 
• The ability to effectively lead a team and promote teamwork is also essential. 
• The company recognises that some candidates may lack confidence due to imposter syndrome and encourages them to apply regardless.

Apply here.

LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group)

Role: Data Scientist

The role of a data scientist involves data handling, programming, and developing automated solutions for sourcing information. It includes analysing content, building models, and using machine learning to improve core processes. Collaboration with various teams is required to tackle large-scale analytics issues and create visualisations and pipeline tools. 

Minimum Qualifications:

• Higher education in statistics, mathematics or engineering in computer science with data science certification.
• Proficiency in developing and delivering automation using Python and R. Additionally, they should be skilled in utilising one or more technologies such as VBA, SQL, JAVA, and RPA to drive improvements in business processes. 
• Strong understanding of data science principles and have experience managing financial content. 
• Adaptable to new technologies and can provide guidance to team members.

Preferred Qualifications:

• The desired skills for this role include data mining, data sourcing, NLP, unsupervised and deep learning, and predictive modelling. 
• They should also be experienced in using AWS and other cloud-based tools that facilitate the onboarding of Python codes.

Check out their careers page now.

PwC

Role: Senior Manager – Data Science

The role involves collaborating with US-based consultants and clients, and working closely with the business analytics teams in India. The main responsibilities will include leading high-level analytics consulting projects and providing sound business advice to project teams.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• The candidate should be experienced in managing and deploying ML models on cloud environments, with a strong understanding of supervised and unsupervised ML algorithms, statistics, and data analysis. 
• The candidate also has extensive experience working with various ML frameworks and tools such as scikit-learn, mlr, caret, H2O, TensorFlow, Pytorch, and MLlib. 
• They must have advanced-level programming skills in SQL and Python/Pyspark, which enables them to guide teams. In addition, the candidate is proficient in using visualisation tools such as Tableau, PowerBI, and AWS QuickSight to convey information to stakeholders.

Apply here. 

Walmart Global Tech

Role: Senior Data Scientist

As a senior data scientist, you’ll solve complex problems by analysing terabytes of data using data science tools and techniques. You’ll also be involved in developing PoCs and presenting them to the product team, then work with ML and software engineering teams to deploy solutions as APIs or pipelines. You’ll stay updated with the latest tech and mentor junior associates in providing robust data science solutions.

Minimum Qualifications:

The candidate either needs to have a bachelor’s degree in a related field such as statistics, economics, analytics, mathematics, computer science, or information technology, along with at least three years of experience in an analytics-related field or have a master’s degree in one of the mentioned fields with at least one year of experience in an analytics-related field or have a minimum of five years of experience in an analytics or related field.

Click here to apply.

Read more: Decoding the Stephen Wolfram Enigma

Oracle recently announced new AI and automation capabilities on its Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite for accelerating supply chain planning, improving operational efficiency, and increasing financial accuracy for its customers. This is similar to IBM, Microsoft, and SAP leveraging AI within their supply chain management systems. 

Numerous companies face difficulties with disparate systems that demand intricate and expensive integrations, leading to sluggish business procedures and affecting financial precision and profitability. To overcome these obstacles and enhance the promptness and precision of analysis, an integrated framework is required that allows the integration of AI and automation into supply chain operations. And cloud and business intelligence providers have recognised that. 

In November last year, Microsoft announced its Supply Chain Platform, which would leverage low-code and AI-enabled applications for maximising supply chain data estate investment. Same month, SAP also announced that it is working on business AI including custom apps for supply chain management. The next month, AWS also announced their foray into supply chain management dubbed as AWS Supply Chain.

In a recent interaction with AIM, Balu Chaturvedula, vice president-technology, supply chain, US omni tech, Walmart, said that the retail giant is also investing heavily in automation and AI-driven algorithms for streamlining its supply chain, inventory management, and personalised customer experiences. The company has been competing with Oracle, Microsoft, AWS, and SAP in the cloud battle.

The question is whether Walmart would open up its services for enterprise use, the one that according to the retail giant saved it 18% on cloud expenditures. But building an automated system like Walmart is, for managing their regular supply chain is not a task that can be done by every business individually as it requires a huge amount of investment in hardware, software, and infrastructure. 

That is why, a lot of these business intelligence providers are shifting their focus on introducing AI into their systems for automating a lot of tasks like monitoring, planning, and responding. This will enable the companies to automate their tasks using the technology provided by these cloud providers. But for these companies, it is just a battle.

Oracle Leads the Arena

According to the Decision Dilemma study by Oracle, 97% of Indians believe that a company that uses data-driven decision-making technology is more trustworthy. About 87% of Indian business leaders and 82% of employees would prefer to have a robot make decisions for them. Clearly, a greater number of business leaders in India say they would be fine with relying on AI.

Introduced in 2021, Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications Suite provides customers of Oracle Cloud with enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise performance management (EPM), supply chain management and manufacturing (SCM), human capital management (HCM), and customer experience (CX). Since then, the company has been introducing AI/ML capabilities. For instance, in 2021 the company started using machine learning for predicting supply chain issues.

Oracle claimed that the company started integrating AI within its SCM system before Microsoft, IBM, and SAP and has been the leader in this space for a long time.

Steve Miranda, executive vice president of Oracle applications product development, said that companies struggle with workforce planning, transparency, and changing business needs. “You might go from a single source in a single location to multiple, giving you the flexibility of pricing, and certainly some resiliency in terms of disruption. But then it also makes your supply chain more complicated, and this is where AI kicks in, to optimise how you do that,” Miranda told ComputerWeekly.

Kaushik Mitra, senior director of Cloud ERP at Oracle India, said that with these latest enhancements in the company’s suite of products, organisations will be able to manage supply chain data on the same platform as finance, HR, and customer experience, which will accelerate the operational process within the businesses. “This comprehensive strategy fosters an environment in which AI and automation help in allowing businesses to accomplish more with less and drive operational efficiencies,” said Mitra. 

“Oracle is well-positioned to help businesses in this area through the data management capabilities built into our solution offerings including our cloud services”, Shailender Kumar, senior vice president and regional managing director, Oracle India and NetSuite JAPAC, told AIM.

Optimistic Approach

Oracle stepping up its AI-based cloud race and adding more capabilities within supply chain management is definitely a smart move at the moment, with being just a few months behind its rivals. Moreover, its customers have a lot of good things to say about Oracle anyway.

Sai Satheesh Sadgopan, Chief Technology Officer, myTVS told AIM that, “We are already seeing numerous benefits including streamlined inventory planning, faster and more accurate accounting book closing, and report generation for our stakeholders. Overall, we have been able to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.” myTVS is an auto parts and accessories company that recently partnered with Oracle for integrating its AI-based supply chain management system. 

Similarly, when Accenture acquired Inspirage, an Oracle Cloud-based firm, Renato Scaff, North America lead of Accenture Supply Chain and Operations said, “In a time of unprecedented disruption and supply constraints, companies need to reimagine, build, and operate supply chain networks that orchestrate change, simplify people’s lives and positively impact business, society and the planet.”

AI SCM Prowess

Business intelligence companies like IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and now Oracle, are introducing AI that helps in the automation of tasks that were being done manually even on cloud systems. According to a report from IBM in 2022, 47% of surveyed chief supply chain officers said they have introduced new automation technologies in the past two years.

A recent study by McKinsey determined that companies that are adopting AI-enabled supply chain management reduced 15% logistic costs and 35% inventory level reduction. This increased a 65% service level of the companies. Clearly, there are a number of benefits because of the increased automation in the supply chain as well.

Effective supply chain management is one of the most critical aspects of running businesses and enterprises. There are several challenges that companies face when multiple parties such as suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and logistic providers are involved in the daily functioning. Ensuring timely and accurate communication and working of the supply chain is essential for resolving issues and coordination of activities. 

Similar to how enterprises eventually have completely migrated to clouds, the integration of AI is inevitable within supply chains as well. But even then, there is still a lack of trust in AI. It would be difficult for companies to shift towards automation and rely on it for various tasks if the transition is not made easier.

[Update: 15:00 | April 26, 2023: The story has been updated to reflect that Oracle has been one of the pioneers in bringing AI capabilities to its SCM]

Walmart earns around USD 570 billion annually, making it the world’s largest company in terms of revenue. The retail giant operates more than 10,000 stores across 24 countries across the globe. Even though Walmart does not operate any direct-to-consumer physical stores in India, a major part of its tech team is based in the country.

Recently, Walmart CTO Suresh Kumar said that India is Walmart’s tech backbone and its Global Tech centre located in India is even bigger than that in the US.

At the recently held AI@Walmart event at Walmart’s Global Tech centre in Bengaluru, AIM caught up with Balu Chaturvedula, vice president-technology, supply chain, US omni tech. Balu has over 29 years of experience in the industry. He began his career at Walmart Global Tech in 2015 as a senior director. At Walmart, Balu and his team are building a next-gen e-supply chain management solution. 

“We are trying to create the next-generation retail business. Our focus on automation is big and we’re actually not just looking at only logistics and distribution. We are actually trying to look at what the next-generation Walmart store is going to look like?” Balu said.

In this exclusive interaction, he further discusses how the retail giant has invested heavily in automation, AI-driven algorithms, and other cutting-edge technologies to streamline its supply chain, optimise its inventory management, and provide personalised customer experiences. 

Leveraging  generative AI

In recent months, generative AI has gained significant momentum and presents numerous potential use cases for retailers. Balu believes the next big disruption in generative AI is going to be in the retail industry as it will change the way customers shop.

In fact, long before ChatGPT came about, Walmart has been building its own natural language understanding capability called Converse. By leveraging the GPT-3 large language model by OpenAI, and building a layer around it, Walmart has managed to customise and adapt it for the Walmart environment.

Currently, a decent part of Walmart’s customers’ responses are handled by its internal chatbot without any interventions. Further, Walmart has also launched AskSam, which Walmart associates can use to get information about anything, saving them time and increasing productivity. The NLP of AskSam too is done by Converse.

In January this year, Walmart launched text-to-shop, a feature that enables customers to use text messages to order products for pickup or delivery.

Now, Walmart is contemplating leveraging GPT-4, the most-advanced large language model so far, to enhance its text-to-shop feature. Further, since GPT-4 is multimodal, pretty soon it will be able to process images as well. This is going to be significant for Walmart to offer a better shopping experience to its customers.

Balu also believes generative AI has a wide range of use cases for Walmart, such as improving internal processes or productivity.  For example, the temperature in the grocery distribution centre could range from -18 degrees to -26 degrees, whereas the freezer section runs on a temperature as low as -40 degrees.

For Walmart associates, working in such conditions sometimes is challenging. “So I think generative AI can be so powerful if you build that cognitive learning, and then either through vision picking or voice picking, we might be able to ensure that the associates don’t have to get out of the car. You can actually give instructions and then forklifts can work, bring and then keep the requisite items. 

“However, I think we’re still in the nascent stage and we are still figuring out the right balance between leveraging what’s out there and leveraging what we have internally,” he said.

Automation

As Walmart integrates automation and expands into higher-margin businesses such as advertising, last-mile delivery, and fulfilment services, CEO Doug McMillon anticipates that the company’s profits will increase at a faster rate than its sales in the next five years.

With regard to automation, Balu said that Walmart has launched its first state-of-the-art fully automated fulfilment centre in Chicago.

“I think we are looking at 5-6x more productivity, and probably another 10x more accuracy in terms of either pick walks or inventory management,” Balu said.

In this light, last year in October, Walmart acquired e-grocery automation firm Alert Innovation. The retail giant was drawn to the custom-built inventory-handling technology developed by Alert Innovation that employs robots capable of omnidirectional movement without the need for lifts or conveyors, enabling the efficient storage, retrieval, and dispensation of orders.

Walmart is also looking to add more fully automated fulfilment centres and the next one is coming up in Indiana in the next two months or so. However, Balu revealed that automation does not always mean efficiency.

“When we are looking at the entire processes, what are the two or three important aspects that are inefficient? And how do you actually use machine intelligence to make that smarter and better? I think we actually have mixed modes. We have buildings that completely run on machine intelligence, and in some buildings, only certain processes run on machine intelligence,” he said.

A greater focus on last-mile

Over the years, Walmart has also invested heavily in improving its last mile delivery system. “We’ve launched our own last mile pickup and delivery app. We’ve massively upgraded our delivery speeds from five to seven business days to a day or two,” said Balu.

He added that Walmart has also experimented with drone delivery in many cities across the US. Currently, Walmart operates 36 drone delivery hubs across seven states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

(Source: Walmart)

Till date, the retail giant has safely completed more than 6,000 drone deliveries to customers in as little as 30 minutes. For drone delivery, Walmart has partnered with DroneUp, Flytrex and Zipline.

Amazon has been teasing its foray into the NFT world since January 2023. Claiming to have the marketplace in development stage, a new report by the Blue Whale claims that Amazon will be ready with their NFT platform by April 24 of this year. The platform is set to be available as a separate tab—‘Amazon Digital Marketplace’—at the site. It will be available in the United States first and will open to the rest of the world later. 

Since Amazon is a retail ecommerce marketplace, the introduction of NFT on its platform will be a first of its kind. As of last year, Amazon is said to have over 310 million users. With its wide reach and legacy built over the years, Amazon’s adoption of NFTs among their customers might be interesting to observe. 

It is reported that Amazon shoppers can purchase any NFT on the platform and pay through normal payment options such as credit and debit cards or through a possible crypto wallet. The new NFT marketplace will also host blockchain-based gaming for users to earn NFTs. 

The timing of the launch, however, raises a lot of uncertainty. Is the move to enter the NFT market too late for Amazon? 

Slow and Risky Move

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, has always had an optimistic view towards cryptocurrency. In an interview in April 2022, he said that he expects “NFTs will grow significantly”. However, this statement came at a time when the NFT craze was at its peak. It has witnessed a huge decline since. The volume of NFT sales is said to have dropped 83% year-on-year (YoY). The monthly sales had dropped from $2.8 billion in January 2022 to $492 million in January 2023. Amazon, which is looking to have “play-to-earn” NFT games on their platforms, is slow to enter this space as the NFT game sales have also dropped. NFT game sales have dropped by $326 million YoY, which is a substantial drop of 90%. This is a direct result of cryptocurrency value drop. Over $2 trillion in 2022 was lost in the crypto market, with Bitcoin losing over 60% of its value last year. 

To add to the uncertainty in cryptomarket, the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange FTX due to lack of liquidity and mismanagement of funds—to be precise, $9.3 billion in funds—has made the scenario more dicey. 

Playing Catchup

As an upcoming entrant in the NFT space, Amazon will have to compete with already established players in the marketplace. Going against players like OpenSea, Rarible, Binance, and many others who have been in the market for years, leaves Amazon behind in the race. Blur, a new NFT marketplace and aggregator, launched in October 2022, had recently surpassed ‘OpenSea’—an established NFT player—in trading volume. 

Amazon is not the only player in retail to explore the Web3 segment. Retail giant Walmart had been planning to enter the crypto space since 2022 and last month, the company filed for crypto and NFT trademarks via Sam’s Club, a membership-only retail warehouse club owned by Walmart Inc. The exact plans of the company are not concrete. 

Amazon: A Serious Blockchain Player?

Amazon’s official website mentions that developing blockchain and ledger applications is simple and efficient with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon Managed Blockchain simplifies the process of setting up blockchain networks by reducing the time required to host Hyperledger Fabric frameworks by 60%. Among all cloud vendors, AWS is the most trusted for blockchain and ledger technology workloads. Additionally, 25% of all Ethereum workloads are run on AWS. 

The company is expanding its Web3 platform and it is reported that Amazon workers have contacted blockchain companies, including blockchain gaming companies, for partnering with Web3 oriented developers.  

AWS tied up with Ava Labs, the team behind Avalanche blockchain, in January. With this partnership, Avalanche has become the first L1 blockchain to be associated with 100k partners across 150 countries. Ava Labs has also enabled “one-click node deployment” on AWS marketplace which facilitates easy deployment of NFT marketplaces. 

Walmart, the multinational retail corporation, operates a chain of stores and warehouses. However, like many large companies, it extensively uses data analytics as part of its business operations. The company deploys data analytics to improve inventory management, understand customer purchasing habits, and optimise pricing and marketing strategies. 

To learn more about the roles and responsibilities of a Walmart data analyst, AIM reached out to Srujana Kaddevarmuth, senior director, machine learning & innovation, Walmart Global Technology. 

AIM: Narrate a typical workday in your role at Walmart Global Tech.

Srujana: Walmart being a Fortune One company, serves millions of customers around the globe and has around 2.2 million associates working towards creating unique shopping experiences for our customers. The data generated is huge and runs into petabytes at any given time. This humongous data needs to be more manageable, heterogenous, and non-intuitive. This is a feast for most data scientists because they can immerse themselves in data and drive value through their work.

At Walmart, I drive the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Modelling Centre of Excellence that involves building commercial-grade data science products for our Omni retail business and new and emerging consumer tech business and data monetisation space. I get to work with and lead exceptional teams of data scientists, AI experts, and machine learning engineers focusing on building recommendation systems, personalisation systems, and voice conversational platforms at scale, using industry trending techniques of computer vision, natural language processing, deep learning, and probabilistic graphical models.

The focus of my charter is not only to drive innovation but to drive the productisation of AI at scale and generate value for our customers, associates, and company while deploying ethical and responsible AI solutions and mitigating unintended consequences.

AIM: Tell us about your prime role vis-à-vis accomplishing future goals for the company.

Srujana: Companies operating in the data space, like Walmart, are now focusing on democratising data and driving significant value for the business by productising data science. This is a journey to translate the findings from exploratory analysis into scalable models that can power products and involves learning various nuances of deploying models into production systems and scaling them effectively.

As an AI leader for the company, my focus is to build AI capabilities at enterprise scale to generate value for our customers, expedite our revenue growth and standardise our tech capabilities to achieve the long-term vision of helping the company be a thought leader in the retail and AI space and move up the automated decisioning value chain. Democratisation of insights by productising data science capabilities helps us progress in this direction. Productising data sciences allows the organisation to move up the analytics and data science value chain quickly. It can help an organisation achieve scale and automation. It enables the organisation to utilise the scarce data science resource for niche data science efforts, freeing them from mundane, repetitive tasks, thereby keeping the data scientists motivated with the work that excites them the most. This would lead to achieving efficiency in utilising human capital.

With a Fortune One company like Walmart that has humongous global operations, productising data science leads to numerous other benefits of standardisation of implementation across multiple data science teams working across different technology domains and geographies. This helps achieve effective data and model governance and enhances the interpretability and reproducibility of complex solutions, thereby achieving fairness and transparency.

AIM: How do you approach an AI/ML problem and ensure that work goes on smoothly?

Srujana: AI/ML models can be great enablers in solving various business solutions. It is essential to focus on building solutions based on functionality and usage, not just based on academic/research acumen. Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones. Sometimes most novel and complex solutions may not be computed efficiently and may also not be economically feasible; hence having a product mindset becomes imperative to succeed in the domain.

A perfect model may not exist in this universe; however, building a model viable enough to account for specific real-life considerations and scenarios without needing major architectural redesign poses a significant challenge in ML deployments. Another challenge that often surfaces in ML deployments is production system failures. Machine learning algorithms tend to get smarter over time; however, if they are not connected to new and constant data feeds, they become irrelevant and degrade in quality. To overcome these challenges, we need to build robust data wrappers around the models because the deviations caused due to broken data feed are very difficult to detect compared to application failures. One of the mistakes that some data scientists in the industry make is thinking of the technology stack after the completion of the prototype. This needs to be addressed by planning the product layout, technology stack, and compute resources from the ideation phase. This helps improve runtime performance and compute efficiencies because, in the production stage, run-time efficiencies and functionality take precedence over model accuracy.

AIM: Did you encounter the ‘glass ceiling’ on your way to reaching where you are?

Srujana: It is a fact that the technology industry is male-dominated with more than 80% of positions held by men (as per women in tech statistics 2020). Women hold only 26% of computing-related jobs, and Asian women save only 6%. So, it is evident that many women face the glass ceiling in their careers. As a woman of colour, I felt the pressure of working extra hard to prove myself and make a mark in the industry. I have been very fortunate to find great mentors and allies, both men and women, who supported and sponsored me on multiple occasions early on in my career.

Walmart is a fantastic company and values diversity and inclusion to the core. The company and ecosystem appreciate diversified perspectives and provide a more significant opportunity for meritorious professionals of varied backgrounds to thrive and grow successfully.

AIM: Being a member of the board of directors at the United Nations Association, could you tell us more about your key responsibilities?

Srujana: As a board member and secretary of the United Nations Association, I focus on using data to help progress United Nations Global Sustainable Goals. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. Through Global Pulse Policy, the United Nations is leading efforts to develop data privacy frameworks for the use of big data, to facilitate synergies for the ethical use of artificial intelligence. As a UN SF chapter board member, I focus on mobilising and educating the chapter members about the value of data and artificial intelligence technologies to create social change. We design, organise and orchestrate various events focused on using AI to achieve socio-economic impact.

Modern corporations across the world follow the legacy of the East India Company, which pioneered the modern joint-stock model of financing, as well as the trans-national systems of business administration and governance. They still work as they did back in the 1600s accepting investors’ funds in exchange for the responsibility of maximising value for investors and shareholders, strengthening centralised frameworks with top-down controlled administration. 

However, the idea of the modern blockchain-based decentralised autonomous organisation, also referred to as DAO, is set to overhaul the age-old practice of governance in an organisation.

DAOs are all about exchanging wealth and ideas. They are comparable to centralised organisations in many ways, but there are also some key differences. Most significantly, DAOs are decentralised digital organisations run by the community rather than by centralised authorities like CEOs, CFOs, or board members. Any DAO member may submit a proposal, which the other members may vote to accept or reject. This creates a completely independent and open organisation. All of its financial transactions are permanently recorded on a blockchain, and it operates independently without the need for intermediaries to handle anything on behalf of its users.

Smart contracts — self-executing programs that run when the agreed criteria are met — are the backbone of all DAOs. It means that there are neither accounts departments nor their manager approving everything. Instead, the entire operation runs on publicly verifiable codes and smart contracts. 

DAO Broken Down 

Let’s learn from a vending machine. A vending machine serves as the provider for your food cravings, and offers you a snack once you pay for it. However, even with all the cutting-edge technology, people are still required to operate this box vending machine – paying electricity bills, resupplying to cash collection, etc. So, if a vending machine were a DAO, every part of the process where a human was needed would simply be replaced with codes.

Key features of DAO

DAOs are known to be decentralised and trustless, making their position more consolidated in the present corporate system. By decentralised, we mean no single person or entity governs them. 

The DAO’s governance and operational regulations are established in smart contracts – or digital contracts – maintained in the blockchain network, which means they cannot be changed unless all DAO members agree. Each DAO organisation member has a vote, and every decision is put through a vote by all members. This is not a standard practice in organisations where a small group of people hold all decision-making powers. 

Second, DAOs are trustless. DAO participants trust the code, as opposed to typical organisations where trust serves as the main motive for bringing people together. Additionally, every action required for the organisation to operate is overseen by the code that controls the smart contract.

Operational rules are defined in the company’s code or smart contracts, both of which are publicly accessible at all times. The rules are visible, unchangeable, and openly verifiable so that anyone considering working for the DAO can review them and choose whether those are acceptable to them. Since all transactions are recorded on the blockchain, people can check if DAO is paying its current members timely or not. When DAO is operational, smart contracts also enable businessmen to engage safely with strangers anywhere without the need for middlemen to ensure that its users won’t be taken advantage of. The other benefit of transparency is that a business owner can be sure that none of the DAO members can swindle money from the company’s coffers and if they do, catching them would be incredibly easy.  

DAO: Changing approach to bottom-up  

While the blockchain elements of DAOs are certainly new, the decentralized and democratic nature of DAOs is not new at all. In fact, giving employees a voice is a practice followed since the first cooperative was founded in Rochdale, England, in 1844. 

Back home, the best example of a cooperative is Amul, which has existed for more than 75 years in India. The community model is old, and DAOs with blockchain-based smart contracts plan to revolutionise it using technology. DAOs’ distinctive organisational structure focuses on the community. It aims to promote prosperity for all rather than concentrating solely on the needs of a small number of powerful shareholders. This might have an impact on how firms operate as well as how society as a whole addresses current social issues.

Famous DAOs: Failures and successes 

Today, there are about 6,000 DAOs operational worldwide. Uniswap, Decentraland, Friends With Benefits, and Mirror, are some of the famous names in the DAO community. Uniswap is the Ethereum blockchain’s largest decentralised exchange (or DEX). It enables users anywhere in the world to trade cryptocurrency without the use of an intermediary.

Genesis DAO was the first DAO announced in May 2016. It was designed to function as an investor-directed venture capital firm and was built on the Ethereum blockchain. It was one of the first crowdfunding efforts and a high-profile project that raised $150 million in ETH. The DAO was hacked within three months of launch, and $60 million in ether was stolen. The Ethereum blockchain, on which the DAO was built, was later forked in order to restore the stolen funds, which were then returned to investors.

Since then, there has been a continuous effort to make DAO more secure. According to Snapshot Labs, DAO numbers have increased by 8.8 times, from 700 in May 2021 to 6,000 now. 

Retail giant Walmart has plans to roll out its own non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency

The retailer filed seven separate applications to the US Patent and Trademark Office on December 30, 2021. The applications indicate Walmart’s intent to make and sell virtual goods including electronics, home decorations, sporting goods, toys and personal care products. In a separate filing, the company has said it would offer users virtual currency and NFTs.

“We are continuously exploring how emerging technologies may shape future shopping experiences,” according to Walmart statement.

“We are testing new ideas all the time. Some ideas become products or services that make it to customers. And some we test, iterate, and learn from,”the statement said.

The trademark application also implies possible “physical fitness training services” and “classes in the field of health and nutrition” in VR/AR environments.

“We are testing new ideas all the time. Some ideas become products or services that make it to customers. And some we test, iterate, and learn from,” said the company.

Walmart is not the only company flirting with the idea of metaverse. Recently, Nike announced plans to introduce NFTs and virtual sneakers. Adidas sold more than USD 22 million in NFTs in December. Gap has also started selling NFTs of its logo sweatshirts. Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga have also entered the Metaverse last month.

The market for transactions in the Metaverse is expected to reach USD 6.1 billion in 2022. And companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) is betting big on VR/AR-based technology to bring immersive experiences to billions in the future. Meta has committed over USD 10 billion to build out its vision for Metaverse.

Research firm Strategy Analytics has forecasted the global Metaverse market to hit USD  42 billion by 2026.

Data is the new oil. Companies across industries realise the importance of using data to analyse performance and predict the future to ultimately ease up the decision-making process, as a result of which, data scientists have become an indispensable part of every organisation, irrespective of its industry, type and size. 

This has resulted in a spike in demand for data science jobs in the last couple of years. Data scientists are one of the highest-paid employees of most companies. According to Analytics India Magazine research, around 1,400 data science professionals working in India make more than Rs 1 crore salary. In fact, as per data available with job search and company review platform Glassdoor, the national average salary for data scientists in India is Rs 10 lakh a year. 

We have curated a list of companies offering the highest data science jobs in India.

Top 8 Companies with Highest Salaries for Data Scientists

1. Amazon

Global e-commerce giant Amazon requires data science professionals tasks ranging from supply chain optimisation, inventory and sales forecasting to detection of frauds. According to the tech giant, data scientists at Amazon form the link between business and technical sides. 

Salary: Rs 5 lakh to Rs 45.57 lakh | Rs 15.56 lakh (average) 

2. Flipkart 

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart employs data scientists across teams. Their roles vary from building Systemic Intelligence across Flipkart products to uncovering and redefining shopping trends in the country. The data science team designs capabilities and solutions across the supply chain, fintech, consumer experience, search and discovery, demand shaping, and fraud modelling. 

Salary: Rs 14.5 lakh to Rs 42 lakh | Rs 24.2 lakh (average)

Check the data science roles available at Flipkart here. 

3. Walmart 

Flipkart’s parent company Walmart has about 29 wholesale stores spread across the country under the name of ‘Best Price’. Data science professionals at Walmart find new and innovative ways of applying data across businesses while leveraging automation to improve processes. Data scientists at Walmart are responsible for mixing technology and retail. 

Salary: Rs 14.5 lakh to Rs 33.5 lakh | Rs 24.6 lakh (average) 

Check the data science roles available at Walmart here. 

4. Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, or HPE, aims to help customers manage and assess their data. It provides them with advanced tech solutions, services and consumption models to work on the available data. 

Salary: Rs 10 lakh to Rs 31 lakh | Rs 21,28,671 (average)  

5. IBM

American multinational tech company IBM was named a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for data science and machine learning platforms. Its products include the IBM Watson Studio, IBM Cloud Pak for Data, IBM Decision Optimisation and IBM SPSS Modeler– tools used by data scientists and developers. 

Salary: Rs 1 lakh to Rs 44.62 lakh | Rs 10.91 lakh (average)

Check the data science job openings at IBM here. 

6. Deloitte 

Deloitte provides end-to-end business solutions for data science practitioners. It claims that analytics is in its DNA, and thus, Deloitte’s expertise lies in providing smart insights for stronger outcomes. 

Salary: Rs 5.52 lakh to Rs 27 lakh | Rs 12.41 lakh (average)

Check the data science job openings at Deloitte here. 

7. Accenture 

Accenture has a diverse team of data scientists and AI experts to leverage the power of AI and bring in changes in companies and in society at large. Its team of data scientists apply ethical and responsible AI to measure the impact of businesses. 

Salary: Rs 1.87 lakh to Rs 31 lakh | Rs 10.20 lakh (average)

Check the data science job openings at Accenture here. 

8. [24]7.ai

Customer experience software company [24]7.ai uses AI and ML to understand and analyse customer intent. It helps companies create personalised, predictive and seamless customer experiences across channels. Data science professionals at [24]7.ai are responsible for building and defining AI models into products and offerings. 

Salary: Rs 11.27 lakh to Rs 23 lakh | Rs 19.31 lakh (average)

Check the data science roles available at [24]7.ai here. 

**Salaries as per Glassdoor reviews. 

Walmart announced that the company will make a donation of up to 20 oxygen-generating plants and 20 cryogenic containers to India. The goal of this donation is to mitigate the storage and transportation of the gas. According to sources, the company will also provide USD 2 million to non-governmental organisations to help them fight the devastating surge in coronavirus cases. 

Walmart stated in a comment, “Walmart will donate up to 20 oxygen-generating plants and 20 cryogenic containers for oxygen storage and transportation, as well as more than 3,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 oxygen cylinders for delivering oxygen therapy to patients at home or in hospital.”

The decision by the American retail giant came as India continues to witness a steep increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths due to the shortage of oxygen supply. 

As per reports, the statement also stated that Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have also committed to funding an additional 2,500 oxygen concentrators as part of the US-India Business Council and US-India Strategic Partnership Forum’s joint relief effort.

Doug McMillon, President and CEO of Walmart Inc said, “Walmart is a global family. We feel the impact of this devastating surge on our associates, families and friends across India, and it’s important that we come together to support however we can.” “We are working hard to combine Walmart’s global capabilities and Flipkart’s distribution network to ensure vital oxygen and supplies are made available to those who need them most. Our hearts are with everyone in India,” McMillon added.

A total of about USD 1 million will be allocated through the Walmart Foundation Disaster Relief Fund, a donor-advised fund. The other USD 1 million will be allocated to GIVE Foundation Inc. to support GiveIndia’s Covid response fund. Walmart Canada will also support relief efforts through the Canadian Red Cross India Covid-19 Response Appeal, funding ambulance and transport services for patients, quarantine isolation centres and other services.

After a month of pulling all tricks on either side, TikTok might have finally found a trusted partner. Among Microsoft and a handful of other suitors, Larry Ellison’s Oracle has been chosen by Chinese internet company ByteDance to anchor itself on the US soil.

Yesterday, Oracle confirmed it struck a deal with TikTok-owner Bytedance to become a “trusted technology provider” (read: not the owner). Oracle would reportedly be managing TikTok’s US data. The deal still needs approval from the US and China.

In August, the White House gave Tik Tok parent company, ByteDance a 45-day deadline to sell its US TikTok operations citing security threat.

Timeline of how the events unfolded

• Trump announces the ban of TikTok on concerns that Americans’ user data could be shared with the Chinese government.
• New announcement saying TikTok will not be banned if an American company acquires its US operations. The deadline was set to September 20th.
• Oracle and Microsoft-Walmart emerge as the leading suitors.
• China pulls its own cards. Creates roadblocks for algorithms sharing. TikTok deal gets more complicated. 
• Oracle gets picked as a trusted partner. Microsoft gets rejected by TikTok. 
• The deal is under review by the CFIUS.

The TikTok ordeal happens to be one of the many power plays by the US in its trade war against China, which has been alleged for technology espionage and other security lapses. But, the race for TikTok ownership hints at something else — a cloud war. The whole deal has turned out to be a new turf for the American cloud providers to take another shot at dominance. AWS is the undisputed cloud leader. Azure had already bagged a $10 billion contract from the Pentagon. Oracle, a relatively obscure name in the cloud markets might finally get to enter the trillion-dollar club.

What Oracle Stands To Gain From This

Currently, Google hosts TikTok data. According to The Information, TikTok signed a three-year agreement worth $800 million with Google Cloud.  TikTok’s cloud spending clearly indicates the interest in the high-stakes courtship for the viral video app among the biggest enterprise tech companies. 

The reports suggest that the Oracle’s deal to act as TikTok’s new “trusted technology partner” could be even worth more than $1 billion in potential revenue annually for Oracle’s cloud business in the coming years. With this deal, Oracle will possibly get a stake in TikTok’s US assets, likely meaning that TikTok will be moving its data to Oracle’s cloud. Oracle could also get TikTok to use its marketing software for ads. Chinese internet giant ByteDance too won’t have any qualms about moving away from Google cloud given the latter’s decision to shut down its cloud services in China.

Since the late 70s, Oracle has been selling its software services across the world. It also provides cloud services, which are obscured due to the presence of behemoths like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure. 

Oracle had already been pipped by Azure in the race to grab Pentagon’s $10 billion contract last year; Oracle even filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense, which it lost. Now, it is Oracle’s turn to return the favor. Microsoft brought Walmart alongside this deal. However TikTok’s parent company Bytedance chose to stay with Oracle. 

By housing TikTok’s data on its servers, Oracle would provide a major lift to its otherwise unpopular cloud services. And, by losing this deal, Microsoft’s ambitious attempts to have their own YouTube-like product have been thwarted. 

Will This Deal Go Through

The deal is currently under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which includes officials from the Treasury, State, Commerce and other departments.

Earlier Trump has insisted the only way TikTok can avoid getting banned is a sale to a US company. But, this isn’t an acquisition by Oracle. So, will this deal go through? Well, it might; because:

• It will bring 1000s of jobs to the American soil as TikTok gets a US HQ.
• President Trump will play it safe with the American tik tokers with elections around the corner.
• Oracle’s founder Larry Ellison has a good rapport with Trump.

Earlier this year, in April, Oracle cloud services were also picked by Zoom, whose traffic increased dramatically during the pandemic. Now with the TikTok partnership, Oracle is finally beginning to warm up to the vast customer base, which was ruled by the likes of AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. If not for Oracle, this deal certainly is a good bargain for TikTok as it gets to keep its 100 million monthly active American users without giving up ownership of its business.

A document published by the Competition Commission of India stated its ongoing investigation on the allegations made by a New Delhi trade group — Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh, on Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart of giving preferential treatment to a few sellers on their online marketplaces.

As per CCI report, its informant members comprise many micro, small and medium enterprises traders who rely on the trade of smartphones and related accessories. And, many of such traders list their smartphones for sale on online marketplaces, regularly, to take the benefit of online distribution channels. 

What Are The Alleged Antitrust Issues?

As per the document, there are several reported instances of vertical agreements between the platforms and the preferred sellers. And this has led to a disadvantageous situation for other non-preferred traders or sellers, who alleged that the majority of preferred sellers are influenced by Flipkart or Amazon, either directly or indirectly, which is a violation of the India’s Antitrust Act. 

Further, these platforms are also alleged of influencing the prices by providing several discounts as well as inventory (in the form of private labels for the B2B sector) to the sellers. The platforms also collect data on consumer preferences and allegedly use them to their advantage. 

The trade group also alleges that Amazon and Flipkart can cross-subsidise because of the huge amount of funding that was received from their investors, which has resulted in incentives that allow pricing below cost on their platforms, through their preferred sellers. This, according to the complaint, resulted in the creation of high entry barriers and high capital costs for any new entrant in the market. Resultantly, it gets difficult for the existing sellers to launch their own portals or marketplaces to compete with the giants. 

Additionally, it has been alleged that Flipkart gives deep discounts to a few particular preferred vendors, such as Omnitech Retail, which, in turn, negatively impacts non-preferred sellers. 

According to the complaint, Amazon also has preferred sellers on its platform including Cloudtail, which is a joint company between Amazon and Catamaran Ventures), and Appario Retail, which is a completely owned subsidiary of a joint venture that involves Amazon and another firm. 

Besides receiving deep discounts, it is alleged that sellers on Flipkart also receive a preferential listing on the platform, pushing the results of the non-preferred sellers further down in the search results without any reason. For example, the products sold by Cloudtail India and Appario Retail allegedly dominate the first few pages of search results whereas the products with the same ratings sold by non-preferred sellers are listed on later pages. The dual role of the platform gives rise to the concern of ranking biases that may be created by the platform as a discriminatory device. 

India Antitrust Probe: Using Data To Create Network Effects

CCI also reported that due to huge market base and market power, the web marketplaces have vast repositories of data which allow them to have targeted advertisements based on consumer preferences. This, in turn, marginalises other competitors who are unable to capture the market due to lack of access to user data analytics. This has resulted in the creation of high entry barriers on account of network effects. 

Further, it is an accepted position that strong network effects in generating a source of market power for such platforms. Large numbers of users make an e-commerce platform more valuable, which further attracts more users, platforms benefit from a ‘positive feedback loop’, which gives rise to market power. On the sellers’ side, this may allow it to use such data to introduce its private label or boost its sale or that of its ‘preferred sellers’. 

Comparison With US Antitrust Investigation

If you compare the antitrust investigations in the US against Facebook and Google vs the India’s antitrust probe, we can see that the regulators are waking up to the potential misuse of these platforms by the tech companies, for enterprise advantage over small organisations. The investigation went into action after regulators in the US received complaints of tech companies’ monopolistic actions and misuse of the platform to gather data of users for targeted advertising and manipulating search results to prioritise its subsidiaries and paid customers. In India, the issue is not on the mining of user data on platforms but more related to how smaller traders are getting impacted by giant retail platforms. 

Indian e-tailer Flipkart has reportedly quadrupled its robots or automated guided vehicles (AGVs) ahead of their flagship pre-Diwali sale called the Big Billion Day. Launched in May this year, Flipkart had started of with 100 of these robots and now plans to increase the number to 340.

The bright orange AGVs are about the size of a Roomba, and move swiftly. They’re loaded with sensors, which means that, despite there being over a hundred of them in an enclosed area, they don’t bump into each other, but rather wait as self-driving vehicles would in traffic. And they run 24/7, except when they automatically guide themselves towards designated charging points when batteries run low. From March this year, these AGVs have been working in tandem with the humans at the Flipkart facility, to process over 4,500 packages an hour. Flipkart’s robot-based sortation technology is the first in India, and among Asia’s first such deployments outside of China.

Flipkart had said that every detail in the AGV process is uniquely Indian. The mezzanine, control wiring, conveyor belts and even the chutes have all been designed locally. “People are excited to see the bots on the second floor — that is the novelty for sure. But the work from our local teams to really adapt it to our country — basically the Indianization of it all — happens on the first floor… It’s a combination of what could be delivered from China and the design inputs made in India.”

The move by Walmart is not only a way to make their processes more efficient, but to also bring about a change in the retail market. A change from siloed data collection to a more open approach for a better world.

Bringing Verifiable Trustlessness

The main problem with retail supply chains is that there is not a lot of verifiability or traceability. This is simply due to the fact that there are a high level of participants in what seems to be a simple system.

Every product goes through multiple steps and passes through multiple hands. This is especially true in the food shipping industry, as there are many processing and preprocessing steps to be undertaken, along with a high number of middlemen involved.

However, due to the aforementioned reasons, Walmart cannot respond quickly in the case of an emergency, as it takes many days to track down the origin of a unit of food.

Currently, big retailers like Walmart have systems in order to verify the provenance of each food product they have on shelves. This causes siloing of data by a single company, leading to even less transparency in the overall system.

Increasing data silo practices have already created a logistics and supply chain market that is impenetrable. Moreover, due to the different systems used by various retailers, useful data is also difficult to find.

All of these factors led to a problem that Walmart was eager to solve. The agent of this change was Frank Yiannas, Walmart’s former VP of Food Safety, who was shifted from a blockchain critic to an ardent supporter.

The Shift To A Transparent Alternative

Walmart has, in fact, been researching alternatives and improvements to their current system for many years. Their collaboration with IBM was the latest effort in improving their supply chain systems.

IBM aimed to solve Walmart’s problem using Hyperledger Fabric. This permissioned, enterprise-level blockchain seemed like a good place for Walmart to test out the applications. The execution would also be easy, with each step of the supply chain being denoted by a node in the chain.

The technology was also aimed at bringing more accountability to the chain. Where previously paper documents were required, now a simple QR scan would bring up all the documents at the ready. Keeping in mind the efficiency of the project, Walmart took up 2 different proofs-of-concept.

The first was to track pork to shelves in China. The country as a whole has a general problem with food safety, especially concerning meat items. The blockchain solution allowed participants to simply upload the certificates of authenticity directly to it. This creates an assurance of the product.

In their second PoC, they wished to track a pack of sliced mangoes from a farm in Central America. The mangoes go through multiple steps before reaching the shelves, from the farm to a packing house that preprocesses the fruits.

After reaching the US, the mangoes are then sent to Walmart’s supplier, where they are sliced and then packaged. Determined to find the source of the mangoes, Walmart found that it took almost a week to track it back using their old system. On the blockchain, however, the process was completed in 2.2 seconds.

Vision For A More Transparent World

This convinced Walmart to not only go ahead with the product but also to start a consortium of suppliers and retailers. The purpose of this group was to create a new, scalable and efficient infrastructure for food shipping and traceability.

The previous system maintained that everyone in the network would need to know the party in front of them and the one behind them in the chain. However, as seen before, this system is inefficient and does not work in times of emergency.

Instead, the new consortium, now known as IBM Food Trust, has brought about a new standard for the shipping industry. The consortium consists of Unilever, Nestle, Dole, and many more prominent food wholesalers and transporters.

At last count, the retailer has products in produce, meat, poultry, dairy, and even multi-ingredient products on the IBM Food Trust system. This has created a new degree of transparency on the chain, with further advancements keeping the system updated.

The blockchain upgrade also allows for a faster response in an emergency situation. If, for example, a pallet of lettuce is infected with a virus, the affected lot can be traced back to the farm to prevent further spread of the virus.

Emergency situations such as these show when fast accountability is needed. With the rise of a blockchain consortium of supply chain participants, a transparent world is all but ensured.

The application of analytics and AI in warehouse management have been in practice for quite some time now. Retail and e-commerce giants are known to leverage the technology extensively from product assortment to inventory management.

E-commerce giant, Walmart,  is among the big companies that are using analytics to ensure smooth functioning of their warehouse. The company has a presence in 27 countries and an estimated 11, 766 stores are currently operational, requiring large warehouse maintenance across these countries to ensure seamless flow of goods to the end users.

According to the company, the firm relies on big-data and real-time analytics to get real-time analytics of workflow from its distribution centre to stores and e-commerce websites. With its vast pool of data from its several online stores and websites, the company relies on data analysis to drive product assortment. This is achieved by monitoring customer preferences, shopping patterns thereby accelerating their decision making on how to stock store shelves and display merchandise. Big data also help them procure nuanced information on new items, discontinued products and about particular brands which have higher demand.

In 2018, it went a step ahead by announcing its plan to automate its fresh and frozen grocery warehouse in California. Stating that their distribution centre or warehouse to be an integral part of Walmart’s supply chain, the company in a press statement said that by optimizing its warehouse, it aims to serve its customers better.

Robotics Is Redefining The Future Of Warehouses

The futuristic warehouse, which will be operational in 2020, will leverage big data and machine learning to improve the warehousing and is expected to process 40 per cent more goods than traditional distribution system.

“Every product is measured and documented so that we know how to handle it. A computer algorithm shows all the cases ordered for a given store and determines how to palletize them to maximize the space on a pallet or trailer. It also takes into account density – what’s crushable, what’s not,” Shayne Wahlmeier, one of the engineers on the project, described.

Walmart owned Flipkart is now leveraging big data and analytics for warehouse management. The company is estimated to have over 500 plus distributors in cities across India and stocks frequently ordered items in their inventory.

In 2011, the company made its first ever investment in QuickReview, a business discovery software to track manage its large inflow of data from supply and inventory side and ever since the company has been incorporating data to scale its warehousing strategy.

Speaking about the role of analytics in driving product assortment and selection,  Ravi Vijayaraghavan, VP & Head – Analytics, Flipkart.com told a leading portal , that the company deploys machine learning to match their product assortment/selection to meet evolving consumer demand. By doing so, Flipkart aims to identify the selection gaps and provide businesses with insights to mend this divide. He added that the company relies on big data for following a data-driven approach to evaluate the product and listing quality in real time.

Recently, Flipkart made an announcement that the company has deployed close to 100 robots to its Bengaluru-based delivery hub. The 100 automated delivery vehicles (AVGs) are designed to pick products and drop them to a hubs which are assigned to a particular pin code. With the help of these robots, the company hopes to sort through 4,500 packages per hour thus improving the efficiency of product assortment and delivery. Owing to its efficiency, the company plans to deploy these robots in other delivery-hubs across the country.

“The big problem that we want to solve with automation in e-commerce is supply chain. We want to solve for precision, we want to solve for scale and we want to solve for efficiency. All of these aspects are very important for us if we want to reach the next 200 million customers,” said Krishna Raghavan, SVP of technology at eKart, the robot makers said to a leading daily.

Conversational platforms are getting popular each day and now numerous companies are venturing into voice-based assistants territory. This area is currently dominated by Apple (Siri), Amazon (Alexa) and Google Assistant. Now, a new report by a leading financial daily has suggested that Indian e-tail giant Flipkart is set to acquire artificial intelligence-based company Liv.ai, to compete with these tech giants. The newspaper also added that the talks were in the “final stage” and that the deal would be closed at around $40 million.

Liv.ai uses deep learning to develop products that can take over tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. Their website describes their vision as “to ease the tedium of daily life and create a world where people are free to devote their energy to things that matter, where their minds are free to innovate and make a real difference.”

The Bengaluru-based startup has speech recognition in all major India languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Over the years the team has created state-of-the-art speech recognition and natural language understanding system, along with voice-based keyboards, speech synthesis and language understanding.

Like Alexa and Amazon, Flipkart will probably use Liv.AI to instruct the devices to buy groceries, pay bills, or book tickets in the language users are comfortable with.

This news comes just after US retail giant Walmart announced this weekend that they had completed the $16 billion investment in Flipkart. Now, as things stand, Walmart holds a 77 percent stake in Flipkart. To achieve this, they bought out a number of prior investors in the process. Many industry insiders have suggested that this move signifies the next level of the tough competition between two retail behemoths — Amazon and Walmart.

On International Women’s Day, it is worth noting the grim picture of IT tech sector – the representation of women in tech is dismally low. There is just one woman engineer as against three men engineers. The overall representation of women in the engineering workforce of IT firms is just 34 percent. And out of 5 million developers in India, only 18 percent are women.

To eradicate the gender gap, women coders or programmers need to be encouraged to continue with their chosen career. And to increase the demand for top talent in the industry, new women programmers need to be brought into the system.

Deepa Madhavan, director, Enterprise Data Services at PayPal told Analytics India Magazine, “We cannot dispute the gender imbalance in the technology field. Even though women choose the field of technology as a career option, the attrition rate at the mid-management and senior levels are high due to both professional and personal pressures. This attrition can lead to disinterest among women towards a career in the field of technology.”

Big companies like Google, Adobe, Accenture, Walmart, among others are clamouring for better representation of women in the IT sector. Thanks, to their valuable campaign the number of women is growing in IT sector and they are coming out of the shadows to participate during the hackathons and other tech events.

Here we take a lowdown at the five interesting women-only hackathons and tech events in which coding enthusiasts can take part:

1. Wonder Coders

Walmart Labs is launching a hackfest exclusively for women, who can create and innovate through technology. Starting from April 19 to 20, women will build products under following themes: health and fitness, wearables (IOT), Travel, social, reinventing retail. So far 1,453 participants have registered for the hackathon. As it is a physical hackathon it will be conducted in Walmart Labs office premises in Bengaluru.  

Eligibility

• Both individuals and teams can compete, but they must identify as a woman. No male participants are allowed.
• No coding experience needed.
• Maximum number of participants in one team is 2 people

How To Apply

• If you are a female and you love coding, visit the website to register now. Deadline is March 21.
• You do not have to pay anyone to register yourself for the Hackathon.

Prize

• Top three teams to be awarded Rs 1,00,000/- each

2. International Women’s Hackathon 2018

HackerEarth and Schlumberger are conducting an online Hackathon targeted at women developers across the globe, with an aim to encourage them to take up programming. The hackathon is live now, it started from February 20 and will go on till March 12. Women developers will build products under any of the following four themes – women’s health and safety, economic freedom, social impact, innovation.

Eligibility

• Both individuals and teams can participate
• A maximum number of contestants in one team is 3 people
• You need not have a coding experience.

How to Apply

• Interested hackathon enthusiasts may visit the website to apply.

Prize

• Prizes include $2500 for the winning team, $1500 for the runners-up and $1000 for the second runners-up.

3. Anita’s Moonshot Codeathon

The main goal of this online codeathon is to bring women from interdisciplinary backgrounds to produce a creative solution to a socio-cultural or socio-economic problem. Simply, a diverse team is needed to solve a problem in their community with the online hackathon. Registration is now closed and the winner will be announced on March 30.

Eligibility

• Both individuals and teams can compete, but they must identify as a woman
• Maximum number of women contestants in one team is 5 people
• No coding experience necessary

Prize

• Grand prize winners get $10,500 for a team of 5 members
• Full scholarships to Grace Hopper Celebration 2018

4. Broadridge CODE-BEE 2.0

Broadridge is conducting an online hackathon challenge targeted at women. It will be 48 hours non-stop coding marathon. Before you take up the online challenge, you should participate in programming practice challenge. The sample challenge will enable you to understand how to participate in programming challenges on HackerEarth. It will give you a detailed information on how programming questions should be attempted. The sample challenge will also give you the details about the HackerEarth judge

Eligibility

Only women participants will be considered. No male contestant allowed.

How to Apply

The programming challenge will begin on March 23 and will end on March 25. Click on the website to register immediately. You will receive a reminder email 3 hours before the challenge begins only if you registered for the challenge.

To participate in this programming challenge, follow the steps:

• Register for the challenge
• Visit the challenge page on
• Click participate in the challenge

Before you attempt programming questions, you should choose a language from the list.

All inputs for the programming problems are from STDIN and output to STDOUT.

Prize

Top 3 winners will get up to Rs 100000.

5. Women Who Code

Women Who Code is the largest and most active community of engineers dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. The events are intended to inspire women to excel in technology careers. The event is scheduled for March 23.

Who Should Join?

The community is for professional women in technology careers, including software engineers, developers, UX/UI designers, data scientists, among others. Aspiring coders can also participate.

What to Expect?

The events will offer free hands-on technical events, study groups, panel discussions, lightning talks and keynotes featuring influential tech industry experts, innovators and investors. The idea is to build the skills the participants need to raise their professional profile and achieve career success.

How to Join

Visit the website, if you are interested to attend the event.