Can artificial intelligence (AI) replace human sensibilities? That was the major focus of a panel discussion titled “Building Trust in Machines — How do we Integrate AI in Strategy?” at the inaugural conference “From Insight to Impact: AI in the Boardroom” of The Federal COGNI: The Boardroom Series on Friday (June 7).
The conference, held at the Madras Management Association in Anna Salai, Chennai, was moderated by The Neural’s founder Ranjith Melarkode, who engaged in spirited discussions with founders, CXOs, and CEOs of companies, some of which integrated AI agents to communicate customer needs.
The Panellists included Thunai Ai’s CEO, Jegan Selvaraj; Managengine (Zoho)’s Head of Enterprise It Solutions, Aparna Ta; Responsive’s SVP of Engineering, Manish; and Founder and Ceo of Agilisium, Raj Babu.
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Examples of AI’s impact in real life
Melarkode kicked off the panel discussion with a brief throwback to 2023, when the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics appointed a robot, Sophia, as a “boardroom watcher”, as well as how in May 2025 in San Francisco, USA, the share of autonomous taxis went over the share of rideshare cabs in the city, highlighting these two examples as AI’s role in businesses and how it impacts them.
He reiterated that the panel discussion’s intention was to discuss the value AI brings to the boardroom, and the concerns surrounding it, with the fundamental question being, “Should AI be in the boardroom?”
AI beyond technology, into strategy
Raj Babu spoke about how we still have not understood how powerful AI is. “AI is for humanity as transformative as fire, wheel and the politics of democracy. Things which fundamentally change humanity,” said Raj Babu. “Knowledge is not power anymore. Knowledge is a commodity. AI has made knowledge a commodity. And humanity will not be as we know it.”
However, he clarified that it was not in a negative perspective. The fascinating aspect of AI is that, as humans, we became more intelligent with our understanding of knowledge, and now with the Large Language Model (LLM), we have passed on the ability to comprehend language to machines.
He mentioned an interesting point to take note about AI — “paranoia”. He explained it as “positive paranoia” that is necessary for business leaders in boardrooms, so they take AI seriously both at the decision-making level and in what they can offer to the existing industry.
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AI in the current tech wave
Aparna offered her insights into how the recent tech wave has come into public purview with the media’s attention on AI. She explained that AI has been an undercurrent in a lot of businesses for several decades, but due to the consumerisation of AI, it has been highlighted in the public consciousness.
AI as a tool or a competitive essential
Manish Bafna explained that while one can consider AI as a simple feature, it is one that transforms the whole business process. He gave insight into Requests for Proposal (RFP) and how the willingness to respond to a larger number of RFPs with accurate data will help businesses move ahead of their competition.
He also warned that AI is not an add-on someone can just disable, as there is a high risk of lagging behind competition and being kicked out of the market.
AI’s value addition for customers
Jegan Selvaraj spoke about Thunai AI’s fundamental philosophy and the democratisation of processes, offering opportunities and equal footing for, say, a business from Tamil Nadu to compete with the world’s largest AI companies.
He expanded on three major areas the board should consider — AI as a strategic move, adapting to new trends and retaining existing employees while increasing productivity levels, and increasing the value addition over 10 times more.
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AI saves time
Selvaraj went on to explain more about Thunai AI and how AI can be customised to suit different companies’ needs with chat, voice, email, and application AI agents for customers, where business users, and not developers, can configure their own workflow that is implemented and completely automated.
Examples of AI saving lives
Raj Babu explained how AI helps research and development, sales and marketing, manufacturing and labs and talked about AI models that look back at pathological cases, and instead of a first-come-first-serve technique, they look at who is the best-case scenario for the survival rate.
He spoke of current technology enabling a “digital patient” with a “digital treatment” before animal and human trials come about — which was tested during COVID, allowing for a vaccine that takes eight to 12 years to develop to come out in two years.
Concerns and benefits of AI
Aparna clarified, “The fundamental understanding of AI is that it is probabilistic, not deterministic — that’s where the risk comes in.”
Due to the consumerisation of AI, putting company data into a public LLM is a big risk that must be avoided. Selvaraj chimed in and spoke about how Thunai AI uses a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) system to ensure each client’s data is encrypted and customised so that sensitive information is not leaked to competitors.
Most panellists agreed that in each of their company processes, there was a human-in-the-loop (HITL) system — which is also used by The Federal when creating certain articles, that saves time, effort and the expert in the loop can ensure no errors are made by the machine.
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How India can benefit from AI
When it comes to the benefits of AI, Aparna said it can be valuable in a country like India, that is lacking in human resources in rural areas. The Indian government’s investment into voice and language AI can ensure that data can be scaled to respond to Requests for Information (RFI) in one’s native language, to ensure important data like agricultural growth, availability of produce and more can be easily accessible due to the democratised process.
The panel discussion ended on a positive note where everyone agreed that it is the people who build and manage the AI behind-the-scenes that are paramount for the development of businesses, and that AI cannot replace human sensibilities, although it can reach the near and far corners of the world.
