“Startups are at the forefront of innovation. They are the first to experiment,” said Pandurang Nayak, head of startup solutions architects at Amazon Web Services (AWS) India. AWS, the cloud computing wing of Amazon, is playing a significant role in enabling Indian startups to leverage the power of generative AI. At present, more and more Indian startups are experimenting with generative AI for an array of enterprise applications.
During the AWS Bengaluru Summit on May 15, indianexpress.com sat down with Pandurang Nayak, head of startup solutions architects at AWS India, to understand how the present wave of generative AI is influencing Indian startups. In a wide-ranging discussion, Nayak shared his insights into the rapidly changing face of Indian startups and how AWS is supporting them in their unique journeys.
Nayak began the conversation by explaining what it means to head the startup solutions architects team at AWS. The executive said that the solutions architect team works with startups of all sizes, from those just starting with an idea to well-funded and established startups. The team enables startups in the early stages by guiding them on best practices, new technologies such as generative AI, maintaining compliance, etc. He said the team consists of technical solution architects as well as domain experts who have startup experience themselves.
Startups at the forefront
During the interaction, Nayak asserted that Indian startups have always been at the forefront of innovation, and they are quick to experiment with new technologies like generative AI. As these startups grow and scale, according to Nayak, AWS helps to architect their solutions in the right way to cater to higher traffic, data/analytics needs, and utilise the elasticity of the cloud to scale seamlessly.
He noted that AWS provides a wide range of services and programmes to assist startups at different stages of their growth. In the early stages, startups can benefit from the AWS Activate program, which offers credits to help them get started without investing too much initial capital. “AWS Activate provides a lot of credits to startups; we have provided 6 billion credits, 1 billion in APJ out of that till date, or for startups to be able to kind of start their journey without having to put too much of their initial capital into technology, but get started and ramp up quickly on technology,” Nayak revealed.
Talking about his team, Nayak explained that it consists of solution architects who are mostly technology experts. “There’s also a lot of folks who come from domain expertise; a lot of our team members are people who have been in startups themselves. I’ve been into startups in the past.”
Beyond financial and technological support, AWS also supports go-to-market strategies of startups, connecting them with enterprises and potential partners across the globe.
When it comes to embracing new technologies like generative AI, the potential challenges faced by startups include understanding the best practices, identifying viable use cases, adhering to compliances, and having a skilled workforce. Based on the conversation with Nayak, AWS seems to be aiming to support startups through their journeys with various programmes and initiatives.
Generative AI and startups
Generative AI is a particular area of focus for AWS, and Nayak shared several examples of how Indian startups are leveraging this technology. Blend.com, for instance, allows small and medium businesses to enhance their product imagery using generative AI. “They have a great use case with an app that enables small and medium businesses, as well as individual sellers or merchants on Instagram and other social media platforms, to easily take pictures. These users may not have the best setup for product photography, but they can simply click a picture, and the app performs a quick background removal. It also helps them reformat the image into various predefined templates,” he explained.
Nayak also cited Dashtoon, another startup that allows users to create comics and generate images without the need for artistic skills. Nayak revealed, “They do over 100,000 image generation every day. And they can leverage things like EC2 capacity blocks. EC2 capacity blocks give them access to GPUs, which they need to kind of train their models.” According to AWS, EC2 Capacity Blocks allow companies to get reliable access to GPU instances for machine learning.
Future trends and advice for startups
When asked about future trends that he foresees with generative AI, Nayak said that generative AI will continue to transform Indian startups, adding that AWS is committed to providing the necessary training and support. “We have committed that we will train two million people on AI skills by 2025,” he said.
Nayak advised Indian startups that are yet to embrace generative AI to be flexible, open to ideas, and willing to experiment. “Being flexible, open to ideas, and open to seeing how technology can transform and innovate. It’s like the Internet or like the cloud; this is another transformational time for technology,” he said.
Even as generative AI continues to reshape industries, Nayak shared that AWS is enabling Indian startups to stay ahead of the curve, providing them with the resources, guidance, and infrastructure to innovate and thrive.
