“Microsoft Runs On Trust”

Microsoft India has broken moulds and energised its structure under the leadership of its President, Anant Maheshwari, who sees India high up on the global tech map. In this interview with Noor Fathima Warsia, Group Editorial Director, BW Businessworld, Maheshwari discusses the key trends that he believes impact the sector. Excerpts:

- Noor Fathima Warsia

It has been another busy year for the technology sector in India. We saw accelerated growth last year but now as some form of normalcy comes back, what are some of the broad trends that you think will continue to scale up digital transformation?

There is no argument about the fact that our lives are more intertwined with technology today than it ever was in the past. This is showing up in the way businesses are done as well. Many businesses who may have been very clear that digital would be a big part of their evolution had no choice but to recognise this was the only way to play in current times. This was why acceleration happened.

As we move forward, I see two mega-trends that were trend lines even earlier but have become cornerstones in accelerating and scaling digital. The first in this is data and artificial intelligence (AI) and the second is around trust and security.

Let’s first look at data and AI. I find it fascinating that almost everybody today can look at logarithmic curves in newspapers and talk predictions or other trends. There’s a lot of data and analytics that keeps coming up in media, which was not the case in the past.