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Ankur Gupta
AI and automation solutions expert on cloud
Ankur Gupta is a Technical Consultant at AnswerWise, where he has been working since January 2019. In this role, he focuses on developing and managing a conversational AI platform aimed at enhancing customer service through automation. His responsibilities include leading a distributed team of engineers, overseeing the development and operations of the platform, and implementing advanced AI solutions to improve customer support efficiency, achieving significant reductions in handling time and ticket deflection rates.
Prior to his position at AnswerWise, Ankur was a co-founder of VioletStreet.com, a social shopping platform, and has extensive experience in consulting on AI solutions, cloud migration, and enterprise software implementation through his role as a Designated Partner at Bluetick Consultants since November 2017. He holds a degree from the Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology and is based in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.1
Highlights
Overcoming the fear of AI
As an AI enthusiast and software engineer myself, I totally get the concerns some of my fellow devs have about AI. I mean, it can feel a bit unsettling to think about these advanced technologies potentially taking over our jobs or our brain "stop working." I've definitely had those fears myself at times.
But you know what? I've come to see AI as more of a powerful tool than a threat. It's all about shifting your mindset. Think about it this way - calculators didn't make mathematicians obsolete, they just gave them a way to crunch complex numbers faster, Pilots still fly planes, even with all the autopilot tech and carpenters still build amazing stuff with the help of power tools.
AI is the next step in the evolution of technology. Just like how humans have always used new tools to enhance our abilities, AI is here to help us level up our skills as software engineers. It's a collaborative partner, not a competitor.Let me give you a few more analogies to help you see the benefits:
AI as a Co-Pilot in Aviation Pilots use autopilot systems to handle the routine aspects of flying, allowing them to focus on critical decision-making and navigation. Similarly, AI can manage mundane programming tasks, freeing up your mental energy for the really innovative and strategic parts of development.
AI as an Advanced Power Tool Carpenters use power tools to boost their efficiency and precision, without losing their craftsmanship skills. AI can do the same for your coding - enhancing your productivity and accuracy, while preserving and even enhancing your expertise.
AI as a Car's Cruise Control Cruise control takes over the repetitive task of maintaining speed, letting drivers focus on navigation and situational awareness. AI can handle repetitive coding tasks, so you can concentrate on more complex and creative challenges.
Few suggestions to embrace AI as a software engineer
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View AI as a collaborative partner that can augment your capabilities. Let it help with debugging, code optimization, even generating boilerplate code so you can focus on the really meaty stuff.
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Delegate routine tasks to AI so you can invest more time in creative problem-solving, designing user-centric solutions, and making ethical decisions - things AI still struggles with compared to humans.
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Use AI-driven tools for code review, automated testing, performance monitoring. They can provide insights to help you improve your coding and learn new techniques.
Encourage a culture of collaboration where AI tools are integrated into the dev process. This can lead to more efficient workflows, better software quality, and a more enjoyable work environment. Teams can achieve more by working together with AI.
Rather than threat, AI can be a powerful ally that enhances your productivity, creativity, and problem-solving skills as a software engineer. Embrace it, learn it, and watch your career soar to new heights in the age of artificial intelligence.
GPT-4o is outstanding. The multimodal of audio, vision and text together feels like AGI.
Call centers with human-heavy (& legacy rule-based agents) ops would phase out in couple of years. AI agents will replace human agents that are economical, accurate & scalable.
We'll finally get rid of "Press 1 for X, Press 9 for Y" type painful agents.
