Critical thinking vital in age of AI, Large Language Models: Zoho's Director AI Research

New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) Human edge in critical thinking and reasoning will continue to be vital in the age of AI and large language models, Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI Research at homegrown technology company Zoho Corp has said, emphasising that human interventions will remain essential despite massive productivity push from new technologies.

According to him, skills such as prompt engineering will gain traction, while new and upcoming frameworks will expand opportunities in areas such as legal and privacy tech.

"Job roles will evolve, and it is important for everybody to make use of AI, the same way they did when internet came in," he told PTI.

That said, human strengths in reasoning and critical thinking will remain essential, even in the age of AI and LLMs.

Stressing the need to adopt AI, he said its edge can be thought of in the same way as one would think of other tools, and cited an example of two individuals, one improving results with Google search and the other responding without search tools, vying for the same project.

"It is the same with LLM today. Try and use it. See where it could help, and where it could not. It is more important to build that... In your line of business where could an LLM be effective, where could you do it yourself. So having that exposure would really help you stay afloat," he said.

In AI and LLM age, hardware skills too will be in demand as companies grapple with increasing complexities around hardware, from acquiring GPUs to managing scale and data centre requirements, he said.

Zoho recently announced its proprietary large language model (Zia LLM) designed for enterprises using its suite of products, a move that reflected the bold ambitions of Indian firms to build and innovate on their own AI stacks in global tech race.

Zoho has also deepened AI portfolio with prebuilt Agents, and custom Agent Builder.

"ChatGPTs and Geminis of the world are built with the consumers in mind. Zia LLM is built with enterprises in mind," he said. PTI MBI MR