Leading the AI charge - A chat with Ashish Jha, our Head of Machine Learning

04 July 2024

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking to the new Head of Machine Learning at XYZ Reality, Ashish Jha. Ashish is an expert on all things Artificial Intelligence (AI), penning two best-selling books on the subject and with a background working for FinTech unicorn Revolut, so we are thrilled to be able to call him one of our own.

Everything, everywhere, all at once

For Ashish, the most exciting part of working for a company like XYZ is the freedom to work across multiple verticals.

“I love how deep tech this is. We have a confluence of so many different disciplines – AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), AIML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), hardware, SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping). This does not happen very often.”

Working across all these disciplines, all at the same time, is something employees at most companies can only dream of.

“To give you an analogy, working at Google, it would be almost impossible to work on hardware, like the Google Pixel, while also working on AIML - Google Brain - and SLAM, like Waymo. That sounds like a career of 20 years. Here, I can do it in two months.”

Getting the AI where it needs to go

Ashish is wasting no time in putting his unique skillset to use.

“One of my goals is to quickly add as much intelligence as possible to both major products – the Atom™ and the Project Controls. It’s a really exciting opportunity for me to bring value to the company using all these rapidly advancing AI technologies.”

Not satisfied with only revolutionizing the way the Atom and Project Controls function, Ashish also has his sights set on maximizing efficiency within XYZ through AI implementation.

“I want to make XYZ an AI-first company. As we scale, we will have a lot of good problems – how do we go 10x with limited resources across the board. Tech support, customer support, HR systems, finance systems, everything. All of these smell of, ‘hey, I need AI to help me,’ and this is the perfect time to do so.”

A fresh challenge

For Ashish, working in construction is a family tradition.

“My father has been a lifelong civil engineer. That’s something I like about this job; I get to speak to him about the challenges we are facing.”

Having made the move from FinTech to ConTech, what really excites him is the opportunity presented by this industry.

“Construction, as a field within technology, is still one of the late adopters. It’s exciting to be part of a place where you can make a lot of radical improvements and redefine the way things are done within construction. This type of opportunity really excites me.”

Life at a ConTech Startup

Ashish is enjoying the startup life, and has been impressed with the leadership at XYZ.

“Speaking with David [Mitchell, Founder & CEO] and John [Haddick, CTO], I felt there was a clarity in vision. It was clear how focused they are in what they are doing with the technology. It is really important when you are building something from almost zero that you have top notch claritfy on what you want to build and how you want to embed AI into it, which this leadership really provides me.”

The close-knit teams at XYZ have also given him plenty to sink his teeth into from the get-go.

“I really like getting all the feedback from anyone in the company. Everyone is open with pain points about what’s not working on the operations, on the engineering side, things that AI can help automate. That’s what I’m here for and what I love to do.”

Ashish is certainly a man with a bright vision for the future at XYZ Reality and has already set about making the changes that will lead towards that future. We are excited to witness his impact at XYZ.

If you’re interested in joining our AI and machine learning team, or any other team at XYZ Reality, explore our open roles here.

Stay tuned for more updates from Ashish and the AI team here at XYZ...