Рубрика: AI

HCLSoftware, the software business division of HCLTech, plans to acquire two analytics-focused firms—Belgium-based AI startup Wobby and Jaspersoft, a business unit of Cloud Software Group—to bolster its data and AI offerings under the Actian portfolio.

HCLSoftware said the acquisitions are aimed at accelerating customers’ adoption of GenAI-driven analytics and expanding Actian’s capabilities across data management, business intelligence and reporting.

Actian develops technologies for data intelligence, data observability, and data management.

The company will acquire Wobby, an early-stage startup headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, that provides AI data analyst agents for data warehouses. The transaction is expected to close by February 2026.

Wobby’s technology allows users to query complex datasets using natural language and receive actionable insights in real time.

Its platform is built on a proprietary semantic layer and agentic architecture designed to interpret business context, automate workflows, and deliver analytical output at scale. HCLSoftware said these capabilities will complement the Actian Data Intelligence Platform’s knowledge graph features.

“Customers want self-service analytics with AI-driven insights that they can trust,” said Marc Potter, CEO of Actian and portfolio general manager of HCLSoftware’s data and AI division, in a statement.

“With Wobby, Actian provides LLM-powered natural-language analytics on a unified, governed semantic layer, enabling self-service analytics that deliver context-rich, accurate insights and a foundation for scaling GenAI initiatives with confidence,” he added.

Amra Dorjbayar, CEO and co-founder of Wobby, said the acquisition would offer customers a differentiated data management approach.

“Wobby is reinventing how teams do business intelligence by building AI agents that not only answer questions, but also are evolving toward proactive analytics by sharing automated insights,” Dorjbayar said.

HCLSoftware will also acquire Jaspersoft, a provider of embedded analytics and pixel-perfect reporting platforms, from Cloud Software Group.

The deal is expected to close within six months of signing.

Jaspersoft’s products enable organisations to build pixel-perfect reports, interactive dashboards and advanced visualisations, and are widely used in regulated sectors such as government, banking, and financial services.

HCLSoftware said the acquisition would enhance Actian’s end-to-end data management proposition while expanding its reach through Jaspersoft’s global developer community.

“As GenAI adoption accelerates, our customers want business intelligence solutions that can deliver consistent analytics and reports and offer flexibility to fully own the analytics experience,” Potter said. “With Jaspersoft, Actian will provide seamless AI-powered embedded analytics with strong architectural flexibility.”

Steven Schneider, general manager of the analytics business unit at Cloud Software Group, said Jaspersoft would continue to serve customers under new ownership.

The post HCLSoftware ups AI, Data Stack with Wobby, Jaspersoft Acquisition appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

HARMAN International will acquire the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) business of ZF Group for €1.5 billion ($1.77 billion).

The deal covers automotive compute solutions, smart cameras, radars and ADAS software, and is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals.

“The industry is at an inflexion point where safety, intelligence, and in-cabin experience must come together through a unified computing architecture,” said Christian Sobottka, chief executive officer and president of HARMAN’s automotive division, in a statement. He added that the acquisition expands HARMAN’s portfolio with “complementary ADAS capabilities.”

With the acquisition, HARMAN, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, will expand its presence in ADAS and centralised vehicle compute platforms. About 3,750 ZF employees across Europe, the Americas and Asia are expected to transition to HARMAN upon closing of the transaction.

HARMAN said the deal strengthens its position as automakers move towards software-defined vehicles. The company plans to integrate ZF’s ADAS capabilities with its digital cockpit offerings within a centralised compute architecture.

ZF said the sale allows it to reduce debt and focus on core technologies. “With HARMAN, we have found the ideal partner to fully unlock the growth and innovation potential of our ADAS business,” said Mathias Miedreich, chief executive officer of ZF Group.

Samsung said the acquisition builds on HARMAN’s growth since 2017. “Adding ZF’s ADAS capabilities builds on that momentum,” said Young Sohn, chairman of HARMAN’s board and senior advisor to Samsung Electronics.

The post Samsung Electronics’ HARMAN to Acquire ZF’s ADAS Biz for €1.5 Bn appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Care ADHD, a UK-based digital mental health company and a key partner to the UK’s National Health Service, has opened its first GCC in India.

The new centre, located in Bengaluru, will focus on accelerating technology development, strengthening core operations, and supporting the company’s virtual care business, Duty Doctor.

Commenting on the launch, Mark Pattison, CEO of Care ADHD, said in a statement that the decision to set up the GCC in Bengaluru reflects the city’s growing stature as a global technology and innovation hub. He added that the India team will play a central role in advancing the company’s digital platforms and supporting its international growth ambitions.

James Whitebread, CTO at Care ADHD, said the Bengaluru GCC will serve as the nucleus for technology-driven product development across the organisation. He noted that the centre will focus on next-generation diagnostic tools, intelligent patient engagement systems, and seamless integrations to enhance virtual consultation services.

Care ADHD currently serves thousands of patients across the UK through evidence-based clinical care supported by advanced digital platforms. The new GCC is expected to enable closer collaboration between clinicians, product teams, and engineers, helping improve diagnostic accuracy, enhance patient experience, and speed up innovation cycles.

Regarding Care ADHD’s entry into India, Chandru Iyer, British Deputy High Commissioner for Karnataka and Kerala, said it was encouraging to see UK healthcare organisations expanding their presence in the country. He highlighted the growing importance of UK-India collaboration in strengthening the digital mental health ecosystem and wished the company success in delivering accessible, affordable, and reliable mental healthcare through technology-led solutions.

The post Care ADHD Opens GCC in Bengaluru to Scale Digital Mental Health Platform appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Cautio, a Bengaluru-based AI video telematics startup, has acquired BYTES, the two-wheeler safety startup backed by Nikhil Kamath’s WTFund, to expand its road safety platform in India.

“Two-wheelers are at the heart of Indian mobility, and they deserve the same attention, intelligence, and care that larger fleets receive today,” said Ankit Acharya, co-founder and chief executive officer of Cautio, in a statement. He added that bringing BYTES into the company would help accelerate efforts to build a safety infrastructure that covers all road users.

The company said the move will bring BYTES’ team and technology into Cautio’s operations as it builds safety systems for riders across Indian cities. India recorded over 1.7 lakh road fatalities annually, with two-wheelers accounting for 46% of deaths, according to NCRB data.

Cautio said BYTES has focused on building safety technology and ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) specifically for two-wheelers. This segment faces constraints such as limited space, power availability, and unpredictable road conditions. The startup has developed vision-based systems for real-time risk detection and rider behaviour analysis, which Cautio plans to integrate into its platform.

Cautio currently provides video telematics and safety services for autos, cabs, buses, and logistics fleets, with deployments across more than 50 cities. The company said the acquisition reflects its plan to extend safety coverage beyond four-wheelers.

Following the acquisition, BYTES’ founders and team will join Cautio’s research and development unit. The company said it will invest further in areas such as rider visibility, incident documentation, real-time risk detection, and response systems designed for two-wheelers.

“Our mission at BYTES has always been to make riding safer without adding friction,” said Aayush Kumar and Prakhar Agrawal, co-founders of BYTES. They said working within Cautio’s platform would allow the technology to reach more riders across India.

Cautio said the acquisition aligns with its broader goal of developing safety infrastructure for Indian roads using video intelligence.

The post Cautio Acquires WTFund-backed BYTES to Expand Two-Wheeler ADAS appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

Quantum technologies in India are moving from academic promise to early deployment, driven by state funding, national missions, and rising startup activity.

As Karnataka commits ₹1,000 crore to its quantum mission and sets a 2035 target to become a “quantum economy”, attention is shifting beyond Bengaluru. The key question is whether the state’s tier-2 cities can participate meaningfully in this push, or whether quantum will remain concentrated in a few urban clusters.

The state has announced multiple initiatives, including an expansion of the quantum research park at IISc, indigenous hardware efforts, and partnerships between startups and universities outside the capital. However, readiness in tier-2 cities depends less on announcements and more on talent pipelines, infrastructure, and the ability to retain people once trained.

Training First Model

In Karnataka, this shift in quantum has been seen in Dharwad over the past year. In August, Bengaluru’s quantum startup QpiAI signed an MoU with IIIT Dharwad to launch the Q-Vidya eight-qubit quantum computer at the institute. The initiative aims to train researchers, provide hands-on learning to students and faculty and build academic capacity in quantum computing.

S R Mahadeva Prasanna, director at IIIT Dharwad, sees quantum computing following a familiar trajectory. “When any deep tech technology like this comes first, they will be in a few metro cities. Then, after some time, it will go into tier-2, tier-3 cities, just like the field of computing went,” he said in an exclusive interaction with AIM at the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025.

What is different this time, he argues, is the pace. Prasanna stated that the rate at which this quantum is expanding is causing significant disruption in the field. He emphasised the need for a substantial workforce and human resources to manage this.

That urgency is shaping how IIIT Dharwad is positioning itself within Karnataka’s quantum roadmap. The institute plans to focus on capacity building before large-scale commercial activity arrives.

“We are going to train those who can go and teach the courses in their colleges,” he said. Alongside this, the institute aims to train undergraduate and postgraduate students from the region, before expanding statewide.

However, infrastructure remains a key constraint. Prasanna acknowledged that tier-2 cities still lag metros on social and professional factors.

However, he said, compared to tier-1, improvements are needed in schools, healthcare, and transportation infrastructure, which is now better but will take five more years to catch up fully.

For now, the institute is betting that opportunities can anchor talent locally. “When we create opportunities, people would like to stay back,” he said. Without that, graduates continue to migrate to Bengaluru, Pune, or Mumbai.

IIIT Dharwad hopes that training quantum manpower will eventually attract startups and industry labs to the region, reversing that flow.

Ecosystem Gaps Beyond Skills

While training momentum is evident, startups in quantum software and services are more cautious about ecosystem readiness.

“Software and services are growing and have huge potential. We are eager to deploy quantum computers and provide QCaaS and QVidya to tier-2 cities,” said Nagendra Nagaraja, founder and CEO of QpiAI, in a conversation.

Sujoy Chakravarthy, founder and CEO at Quanfluence, drew a clear distinction between education and deployment. “The maturity question is interesting,” he told AIM. In terms of universities and student training, I think the momentum is quite strong,” he said to AIM.

Chakravarthy pointed to heightened activity in smaller cities such as Chandigarh, Mandi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Manipal, Trivandrum, and Goa. QpiAI also offers its Explorer training programme, which aims to train over 40,000 people in quantum readiness. “A lot of them are from tier-2 cities,” Nagaraja added.

However, Chakravarthy flagged structural gaps.

Chakravarthy expressed less confidence in the overall ecosystem’s preparedness, citing factors such as cross-functional talent’s willingness to relocate, the availability of capital, and ongoing infrastructure to support growth. He also noted a persistent global bias against smaller towns, which he considered to have inferior delivery capabilities.

For Quanfluence, the focus remains on training partnerships rather than physical expansion. “We don’t yet have plans to set up an office in these towns, but that could evolve over the next few months or years as the ecosystem matures,” Chakravarthy said.

This reflects a broader pattern. Even as Karnataka encourages activity beyond Bengaluru, most private investment, advanced labs, and early customers remain metro-centric. Without industry demand in tier-2 locations, trained talent often has little reason to stay.

What Quantum Readiness Actually Needs

From a large industry perspective, IBM Research India director Amith Singhee framed quantum readiness as a multidimensional challenge. Quantum computing is rapidly advancing. However, it remains in the early stages of large-scale application. Singhee identified four foundational pillars, including workforce and scaling. Besides, he also pointed out that strong R&D, industry involvement, and access to the best quantum technologies are crucial.

India has made progress on workforce exposure. IBM’s Qiskit platform and free-tier access have attracted significant participation from outside metro areas.

“The quantum advocacy program had more than 77,000 users from India,” Singhee said, adding that many were likely from tier-2 and tier-3 locations.

Yet deeper challenges remain. Singhee noted that over 90% of funding is government-sourced, which is insufficient. He emphasised that private sector involvement (e.g., finance, biotech, materials) is necessary to link quantum research to real-world applications.

Singhee also warned that research often struggles to move beyond laboratories. “We need this whole pathway from doing science to lab to market,” he said. Without test beds and collaboration structures, promising work risks staying confined to academic settings.

For tier-2 cities, he suggested hub-and-spoke models anchored by metro facilities. “Even if you set up a quantum park or a facility in a tier-1 place, you also design into that program a way for tier-2 in the region to participate,” he said, through internships, residencies, or shared infrastructure.

This approach is already visible in Karnataka. Whether it scales will depend on sustained funding and predictable policy support.

QpiAI is building infrastructure in non-metro cities. The company plans to put up data centres in Amaravati, Mangaluru, Vishakhapatnam, and the coastal areas of Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, it has acquired 10 acres in Devanahalli, rural Bangalore, to put together 100–1000 qubit machines. It would also have 15 application-specific labs connected to this massive quantum compute grid. “It’s the world’s largest quantum data centre, namely QpiAI QSC,” Nagaraja said.

As Karnataka pushes ahead with its quantum ambitions, it is not just about tier-2 cities training talent anymore. The real test is whether jobs, research opportunities, and industry confidence will follow. Without that, the state risks building a quantum workforce that still has to leave home to use its skills.

The post Is Karnataka’s Tier-2 Ready for Quantum? appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

A public disagreement between AI researchers Yann LeCun and Demis Hassabis has reopened a long-running debate on whether human intelligence can be described as “general”.

In a recent podcast appearance, LeCun said the idea of general intelligence, when used to mean human-level intelligence, is flawed.

LeCun argues that “there is no such thing as general intelligence”, saying the term is largely used to describe human-level intelligence, which he believes is a mistake. Human intelligence, he said, is “super specialised”, shaped by evolution to handle the physical world and social interaction efficiently.

While humans navigate real-world environments and deal with other people well, LeCun pointed out that they perform poorly at many structured tasks, like chess, and are outperformed by other animals in several domains. This, he said, shows that humans are not broadly general but highly specialised.

“We think of ourselves as being general, but it’s simply an illusion because all of the problems that we can apprehend are the ones that we can think of,” LeCun said.

Hassabis responded that LeCun was conflating general intelligence with universal intelligence. “Brains are the most exquisite and complex phenomena we know of in the universe (so far), and they are in fact extremely general,” he wrote in his post on X.

He argued that while no system can escape the no free lunch theorem, a general system can still learn any computable function in principle. “In the Turing machine sense, the architecture of such a general system is capable of learning anything computable given enough time and memory,” he said, adding that human brains and AI foundation models are “approximate Turing machines”.

Hassabis also rejected the idea that human performance in narrow domains undermines generality. Referring to chess, he said it was notable that humans invented the game at all and reached elite levels of play.

LeCun later said the dispute was largely about terminology. “I object to the use of ‘general’ to designate ‘human level’ because humans are extremely specialised,” he wrote in his response.

He argued that intelligence should be judged not just by theoretical capability but by efficiency under limited resources. “For the vast majority of computational problems, [the human brain is] horribly inefficient,” he said, citing time and memory constraints in tasks such as chess.

To support his argument, LeCun used an analogy from deep learning, noting that while a simple neural network can approximate any function in theory, it becomes impractical for most real-world problems.

He also pointed to biological limits, arguing that the number of functions the human brain can represent is vanishingly small compared to the space of all possible functions. “Not only are we not general, we are [also] ridiculously specialised,” he said.

LeCun concluded by noting that humans mistake this specialisation for generality because most possible functions are incomprehensible. Quoting Albert Einstein, he wrote, “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that the world is comprehensible.”

The post Yann LeCun, Demis Hassabis Clash Over What ‘General Intelligence’ Means appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.

When US-based global digital infrastructure company Vertiv launched its Training Academy and Technology Excellence Center in Pune last month, the move indicated the shortage of skilled service engineers at a time when infrastructure is expanding rapidly and becoming significantly more complex due to AI-driven workloads.

India’s operational data centre capacity has crossed 1.5 gigawatts (GW) and is projected to reach 4.5 GW or more by the end of the decade, supported by investments estimated at $20–25 billion. Much of this growth is being driven by hyperscale cloud adoption, data localisation requirements, and the early stages of large-scale AI deployment.

While capital expenditure and construction pipelines continue to accelerate, operators say the availability of skilled talent, particularly service engineers capable of managing high-density, AI-ready environments, has not kept pace.

Training for a new generation of infrastructure

Located at Vertiv’s Integrated Business Services (IBS) hub in Pune, the new training academy is designed to provide hands-on exposure to the systems that underpin modern data centres.

The facility features live demonstrations of cooling distribution units (CDUs), power switchgear systems, three-phase uninterruptible power supply (UPS) modules, and thermal management technologies, allowing trainees to work with production-grade equipment under simulated operating conditions.

“With the surge in AI investments in the data centre space, we expect a significant demand for a skilled, adapted, and updated workforce,” said Subhasis Majumdar, managing director, Vertiv India. He added that the academy intends to support engineers and customers working across both new and existing data centre environments.

The facility also includes a Technology Excellence Center with engineering and R&D laboratories focused on testing and validating power and thermal management solutions.

AI workloads raise the bar for service engineers

The shift from traditional enterprise IT to AI-heavy workloads has altered the operational profile of data centres. AI infrastructure typically involves GPU-dense racks, liquid cooling architectures, and power densities ranging from 100 kW to 300 kW per rack, compared to far lower levels in conventional facilities.

According to A S Rajgopal, managing director and CEO at NxtGen Cloud Technologies Private Limited, the most critical talent gap lies in managing this convergence of disciplines.

“The most critical gap today is at the intersection of high-density compute, power engineering, and AI infrastructure orchestration,” Rajgopal said. “Traditional data centre talent understands virtualisation, networking, and facilities, but AI workloads demand expertise in GPU fabric design, liquid cooling, ultra-high power racks, and AI workload scheduling.”

He added that there is also a growing shortage of professionals who can bridge physical infrastructure and AI platforms. “There is a sharp shortage of AI infrastructure architects and MLOps engineers who can bridge the gap between physical infrastructure and large-scale model training platforms,” he said, noting that the capability gap is widening faster than talent supply.

Converging physical infrastructure and digital intelligence

A similar assessment comes from Vipul Kumar, VP–edge and network at CtrlS Datacenters Limited, who said the industry is seeing a fundamental shift in the skills required to operate AI-ready facilities.

“The real challenge is building talent that can truly bridge physical infrastructure and digital intelligence,” Kumar said. “AI-ready data centres demand a shift in mindset from managing racks and uptime in isolation to understanding how compute density, thermal dynamics, energy efficiency, networking, and AI workload behaviour interact as one system.”

As AI workloads become more power- and heat-intensive, Kumar said, teams must take a holistic approach to performance optimisation, cooling strategies, energy usage, and workload orchestration. “This convergence of skills is now essential to delivering reliable, efficient, and scalable AI infrastructure,” he added.

CtrlS, he said, is building this capability through focused upskilling initiatives, cross-functional teams, and closer collaboration with technology partners to ensure its facilities are prepared for evolving AI infrastructure requirements.

Extensive retraining required

Despite India’s large pool of engineering graduates, operators say most new entrants are not immediately prepared for real-world data centre operations.

“Most engineering graduates are not job-ready for modern AI-era data centres,” Rajgopal said. Academic curricula, he noted, continue to focus on legacy IT systems and conventional cloud concepts. As a result, “companies end up spending six to 12 months, or more on retraining before graduates can handle real operational responsibility.”

Kumar echoed this view, saying that while graduates often have a strong theoretical foundation, they lack exposure to live environments. “They require immersion in real-world skills such as power systems, cooling technologies, network fabrics, risk management, security protocols, and process discipline,” he said.

This training burden has become more pronounced as data centres scale rapidly. Mumbai alone accounts for over 50% of India’s installed capacity, followed by Chennai, Delhi-NCR, and Bengaluru—regions where competition for experienced engineers is particularly intense.

According to David Yao, senior director at Vertiv’s Pune Hub, the facility combines experienced trainers with live systems and digital tools to support skill development across installation, maintenance, and continuous improvement in high-density environments.

Automation does not remove skill needs

While automation and AI-driven tools are increasingly deployed for monitoring, fault detection, and predictive maintenance, operators say these technologies do not eliminate the need for specialised talent.

“Automation and AI will reduce dependence on repetitive operational roles,” Rajgopal said. “However, this does not eliminate the talent crunch.”

Instead, demand is shifting toward advanced roles such as AIOps engineers, automation architects, cybersecurity specialists, and energy optimisation experts.

Kumar described the trend as a skills transition rather than a reduction in workforce requirements. “The talent requirement is evolving, not shrinking. The industry faces a skills transition, not a workforce reduction demand,” he said.

The post India’s Data Centre Boom Is Running Into a Talent Wall appeared first on Analytics India Magazine.