
Chief Technology Officer
Axis Mutual Fund
In an exclusive interaction with the CIO&Leader, Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju, Chief Technology Officer at Axis Mutual Fund, emphasizes the evolving role of CIOs, highlighting the critical need for stakeholder engagement and technical acumen. Future CIOs must adeptly navigate stakeholder communication across all levels while embracing technologies like super-app architecture, hyperscaler environments, and high-performance frameworks like Golang. Understanding the intricacies of high IO and low-latency systems becomes pivotal as businesses transition to cloud-native solutions.
Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju: underscores trends like generative AI’s transformative impact on BFSI processes, from enhancing research analysis to deploying efficient customer service copilots. He also highlights the potential of edge computing to serve Bharat-scale customers more effectively while acknowledging the promise of quantum computing. With InfoSec positioned as a cornerstone of BFSI operations, Axis Mutual Fund’s proactive 52-control SARA framework ensures robust security from project inception, reflecting a deep commitment to safeguarding financial ecosystems.
CIO&Leader: What critical skills and experiences are essential for future CIOs, and what strategies can be used to develop these qualities?
Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju: From an attitude standpoint, you know, you are looking at the ability to engage stakeholders at all levels, ranging from your CFO to CEO, all the way up to the MD and CEO. We are looking at this person who has come from a pure consulting or a product background and can adapt to stakeholder engagement to that extent and communicate at that level. That is on the attitude piece. We are increasingly moving from a monolithic single-app architecture to a super-app architecture on the pure aptitude piece. Increasingly, businesses are looking to diversify what they do, and super app architecture is fairly popular today.
Therefore, is the expectation from my CIO to be able to get to the nth grail and write the code? To appreciate what tech can give you high IO, what tech can provide you with a lower IO factor is a critical deciding factor.
The second thing is that most of these technologies are not used outside cloud environments. They are pretty much native to the cloud environments on which, you know, you are based. Most of these SDKs are natively available on a hyperscaler like Amazon or Microsoft. And therefore, the ability to run them on the hyperscaler is a critical skill set. So, if I had just to put it at 10,000 feet, I would look for technologies that let you operate from a high IO and low latency standpoint. Golang and FlatFloat are some examples that come right to the top of the mind. The second is to monitor constant stakeholder communication on the attitude side.
CIO&Leader: How do you see GenAI impacting business processes and functions in the BFSI industry?
Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju: We are moving from an era in which we used RPI for AI to classical AI and generative AI. As we go through this progression, one standout feature is that you must have an eye for a use case. For example, with all the hype aside, generative AI works best where much information can be queried in a natural language format. The research analyst of tomorrow will benefit a lot more from generative AI than yesterday’s analyst. That is an immediate use case.
The second use case is how you can deploy copilots quickly from sales to servicing. You do not want to waste time thinking through your drafts of communication or how you service a customer. Generative AI can take care of a lot of your language components. So, I closely relate to these two use cases from my industry standpoint.
CIO&Leader: How do you see the role of emerging technologies like quantum computing and edge computing evolving shortly?
Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju: Quantum computing is a great tech, but is it commoditized? Is it available at a sachet scale? I do not think so. But edge computing is relevant. As we go to the Bharat scale, moving from tier 1 to tier 2 to tier 3 to tier 4 within the country’s population, you want nodes closer to your customers, investors, and stakeholders.
Being closer to where your customer is, you know, reduces that latency in producing those artifacts. You know, edge computing is convenient in these use cases.
CIO&Leader: How do you predict the Infosec changing the BFSI industry?
Vamsi Krishna Ithamraju: If I have to look at myself in the environment that I operate in, you know, there are pros and cons too, you know, we have an unfair advantage over, you know, a singular entity. Our information security piece starts before a project even starts. So, if you look at it as a project lifecycle, my InfoSec is level 0, not level 1, level 0. There is a 52-control-based framework called SARA, which stands for security architecture and risk assessment framework. So, we go through some 52 controls before we can even say yes to starting an implementation.
Therefore, InfoSec is a precursor for me. Given the complicated regulatory regime, the risks we are prone to, and the fact that we are in the business of managing money, it is a necessary evil. That is very relevant to us, and that is where we are.