GLOSSARY: What Unfolded at MLDS-2025

AIM Media House concluded the 7th edition of its much-celebrated developer-centric conference MLDS 2025 last week.‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

What Unfolded at MLDS-2025

THE BELAMY

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF AIM

Monday, Feb 10, 2025 | By Siddharth Jindal

"The human brain is an extremely efficient AGI. It runs on potatoes. You don't need a nuclear power data centre to run an AGI."

What will it take for India to replicate the ISRO model in AI?

These were some points that left the audience pondering at MLDS 2025. Speaker Paras Chopra, founder of Lossfunk, captivated the developers with the idea that the Indian jugaad mindset can be its greatest asset in building its own SOTA model. He encouraged them to step away from dependence on the US or China.

AIM Media House concluded the 7th edition of its much-celebrated developer-centric conference MLDS 2025 last week. At a time when all eyes are on agentic AI, a niche conference like this was just what the industry needed. With its in-depth sessions and invaluable insights, the event drew over 1,000 attendees from across India. Over three days, MLDS featured more than 100 speakers and welcomed 600+ organisations.

Vikas Mishra, a customer engineer at Google, explained that 2025 is expected to be the year when AI agents will be produced at a large scale, enabling enterprises to solve customer problems more effectively. "You can see the agents as vertically integrated, niche problem-solving components for both internal and external-facing use cases—such as customer agents, employee agents, and CX agents," Mishra said.

Genpact VP of AI practice Chirag Jain opened the event with the simple yet crucial message that businesses must set long-term goals before implementing AI. He compared this to the vision of a sports team: Just as India's cricket team aspires to be the best in the world, businesses also require a clear, long-term goal to guide their AI strategy.

While MLDS took all the spotlight in Namma Bengaluru, another noteworthy event unfolded in New Delhi, where OpenAI chief Sam Altman met IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and key startup founders. During his visit to the country, Altman hailed India as OpenAI's second-biggest market and was quick to clarify that his past comments on foundational models were misinterpreted.

Read the full story here.

Back at MLDS, Rahul Bhattacharya, AI leader at GDS consulting, EY, pointed out that evaluating the risks of integrating AI agents into the workforce is just as important as understanding the benefits they bring.

Siddhant Goswami, co-founder of 100xEngineers, reminded the audience that human involvement remains crucial, even as autonomous agents advance. "We can't rely on them completely without oversight. These agents are self-directed and capable of planning and executing multiple steps, but they still need human feedback and updated goals to function effectively," he said.

While Gnani AI co-founders Ganesh Gopalan and Bharat Shankar showcased how voice agents are shaping industries, Sakthivel B, director of data science at Tiger Analytics, explored the challenges of designing and deploying custom ML solutions for unique business needs. The topics were captivating and catered to the vibrant audience.

Taking the discussion further into real-world applications, SmartQ's CTO Abhishek A and co-founder Keshav Meda presented their insights into how the startup is acting as a bridge between humans and machines, enabling structured communication. Shifting the focus to AI's role in financial services, the event also saw Mathangi Sri Ramachandran, chief data officer at Yubi, lead a workshop on how LLMs are transforming finance.

Representing ed-tech was Navin Reddy, founder of Telusko Edutech, who discussed how AI is changing the way students learn and solve problems. He marvelled that the same students who once turned to books, peers, and online trainers for help now rely on AI for debugging and troubleshooting.

Meanwhile, TakeMe2Space, a Hyderabad-based space-tech startup founded by Ronak Kumar Samantray, aims to make space more accessible by launching India's first AI-driven space laboratory. The company is working to change the way people interact with satellites. Click here to read more about it.

MLDS 2025 wrapped up with standup comic Kumar Varun, best known for his iconic roles in All India Bakchod's comedy sketches, leaving the rather "serious techie audience" in splits.

Check out AIM's YouTube channel to view MLDS live sessions and other related videos. We congratulate all the winners of the 40 Under 40 Data Scientist Awards for their remarkable contributions to the field of AI and analytics. Check out the list of winners here.

Thanks to all the sponsors for making MLDS 2025 a grand success. And a special shout-out to Team AIM for their unwavering dedication and hard work.

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