Co-founder and CEO
USEReady
As artificial intelligence reshapes the business landscape, a new paradigm is emerging that challenges the traditional cost structures of enterprise analytics. Uday Hegde, Co-founder and CEO of USEReady, talks about “zero-cost intelligence”—a transformation where AI makes business insights a natural byproduct of operations. In this exclusive conversation, he explains how the evolution from legacy BI systems to AI-driven platforms is not just a technological upgrade, but a strategic rethink. We explore how this shift could fundamentally alter the economics of business intelligence, creating new opportunities for organizations to optimize their analytics investments while scaling smarter.
CIO & Leader: Let’s begin with the concept of “zero-cost intelligence.” How exactly do you see this making a substantial impact in the enterprise analytics space?
Uday Hegde: To establish the concept of cost of intelligence, we need to recognize that the demand for intelligence has been increasing for decades. Intelligence here means machines that can think, operate, perform, analyze, recommend, and predict. As demand increased, businesses recognized they needed to invest in it, and money followed. As demand for intelligence increased, so did the cost of intelligence.
Two decades ago, we were paying phenomenal amounts for BI platforms like Cognos, Business Objects, and Hyperion. A rough estimate shows that the industry was willing to pay $50 to $75 per report when all costs are added up, including infrastructure, human capital, and data preparation. Businesses typically consume thousands of these reports, so basic math tells you they are spending enormous amounts on reporting infrastructure.
The next evolution introduced self-service tools like Tableau and Power BI, which significantly lowered costs (approximately 5 to 10 times lower), reducing the $50-75 per report cost to around $5-7. Now, with AI, we’re asking: Can you drive that cost to zero?
CIO&Leader: That’s a compelling cost progression. What are the core mechanisms that make zero-cost intelligence possible?
Uday Hegde: The argument is this: if machines can synthesize data, perform analysis, and deliver insights without requiring human intervention, which ChatGPT already proves – why can’t we provide intelligence as a byproduct of business processes rather than an outcome?
In previous generations, BI platforms were fit-to-purpose. Organizations spent millions buying them, assembling teams, structuring data, and feeding it to platforms. Seeing that chart or graph was the outcome. But that’s no longer the case.
Today, AI can generate analytics instantly. Ask a simple question about historical performance or trends, and AI can respond in plain English in seconds. If that’s the case, then it’s a byproduct. BI, as a specialized industry, is likely to merge into a broader aspect of computing, just as computers have replaced typewriters, making document creation a byproduct.
CIO & Leader: In many of our conversations with CIOs and technology leaders, we’ve found that cost is a primary factor in scaling AI infrastructure, alongside security. Can you share some real-world examples of how this translates into actual cost savings?
Uday Hegde: We work extensively in regulated markets – banking, financial services, insurance, and healthcare. Let’s take the example of a bank in the Philippines with which we worked. The bank is required to produce and distribute monthly statements, as mandated by regulation. To do this, they were using legacy technology from two decades ago. They were using Crystal Reports to generate monthly bank statements, following the $50-75 per report cost structure I mentioned. Even when they transitioned to self-service BI tools like Tableau, this particular reporting need persisted with outdated technology because self-service tools often struggle to handle regulated reporting requirements effectively.
We implemented our solution, which delivers the same capability through a modern stack, where the cost of generating statements is a fraction of what it used to be. With AI, you can drive this capability without requiring any BI platform or data engine, delivering it through a chat experience or modern interface.
CIO&Leader: How do you address the fundamental challenge of convincing CFOs and boards about ROI, especially when modernizing existing BI platforms?
Uday Hegde: What we always suggest is to start with the CFO in the room. Previously, CFOs weren’t involved in technology decisions, but our recommendation is to involve them from the outset. Once they’re in the room, talk about what we call FinOps – financial operations.
We have a 4R Framework, i.e., Reduce, Reconcile, Refactor, Reimagine. You have to reduce, reconcile, refactor, and reimagine something. When you segment your current spend by these categories, it provides clarity about what can be optimized.
AI is typically in the reimagined category, but when you look at reduce, that’s where legacy platforms sit. We have automation tools that help understand current consumption patterns of reporting investments. You cannot ask individuals in a 10,000 or 100,000-employee company if they’re using specific platforms; you need automation to understand actual usage patterns.
We can quickly identify unused platforms and eliminate them, immediately recouping the money. Those cost-reduction funds will support future AI investments.
CIO&Leader: Which sectors are being most aggressive in modernizing their analytics infrastructure?
Uday Hegde: There are two aspects: willingness to transform and ability to transform. Almost all industries are willing to transform. They understand they need to do this, but their ability and affordability vary.
Early adopters are typically e-commerce and digital companies, but they’re not necessarily the biggest spenders. The big spenders are banks with IT budgets in billions of dollars. This pattern is consistent with the adoption of any technology. The first wave of spenders consists of early adopters, innovative, and modern companies. The second wave is big-pocketed spenders from regulated markets who have both the willingness and financial capacity for large-scale transformation.
CIO&Leader: Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, what are the key trends you foresee in the BI space?
Uday Hegde: So inside USEReady, we have what we call the USEReady Alphabet: A for AI, B for BI, C for Cloud, and D for Data. The major shift is that BI can no longer operate independently of these other elements. Almost every CIO or decision maker has to handle these four components together; you cannot approach them separately.
AI is the engine that will drive the other three. However, a fundamental shift is underway: we’re transitioning from Business Intelligence to Business Insights. The difference is significant. When you produce intelligence, you’re letting humans decide what should happen. With insights, the information comes with reasoning already built in. All you have to do is ask in natural language, just as we’re interacting right now, and the computer does the rest.
CIO&Leader: What are the primary challenges CIOs will face in implementing these transformations?
Uday Hegde: The cost of intelligence remains a big challenge, as we discussed. However, there are other significant hurdles: breaking down organizational silos, as CIOs often lack the same level of influence as business leaders who drive their IT initiatives.
Digitizing processes and data is critical. You may not believe it, but many companies still lack digital presence in every facet of their business. At USEReady, until very recently, we didn’t have our sales interactions digitized. Today, we have over 25,000 sales calls recorded and analyzed using AI. Our training now happens through a bot because it knows more about our business than we do.
That’s the reality we’re heading toward. AI will know more about businesses than the business owners themselves. This intelligence will enhance every part of the business, and the cost of accessing it is rapidly approaching zero.