‘India has become an AI hub for startups’

Morgan Stanley, a major US investment bank, is exploring AI-based collaborations with Indian startups. With over 8,000 tech professionals in India, it leverages this talent for global operations. Its AI tools, “Assistant” and “Debrief,” developed with OpenAI, streamline advisor tasks by reducing administrative calls and aiding meeting summaries. Despite the wide impact of AI, Morgan Stanley continues expanding its workforce in India.

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American investment banks, is in talks with Indian startups to collaborate and leverage artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions. US Election 2024 US Election Result Live Updates Swing state results deciding who'll be new POTUS Trump vs Harris: Who’s winning which state? Full list According to Sal Cucchiara , chief information officer for wealth & investment management technology, Morgan Stanley , the growth process of startups in the country has come along impressively. “We’re evaluating the startups in India right now.

We met a couple of promising startups at our India CTO Summit this year that we will continue to look out,” he said. “It is impressive to see how India has become an AI hub for startups..



. It’s also interesting to see the maturity and how they’ve gone from solution to pitching. The whole journey of these startups has matured significantly over the past few years,” Cucchiara told ET.

The annual CTO Innovation Summit organised by Morgan Stanley facilitates early-stage partnerships between the company and emerging startups, promising solutions that can be refined and taken to market together. Talent Hunt Web Development Advanced Java Mastery: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Astrology Vastu Shastra Course By - Sachenkumar Rai, Vastu Shashtri View Program Leadership Business Storytelling Masterclass By - Ameen Haque, Founder of Storywallahs View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Basics of Generative AI: Unveiling Tomorrow's Innovations By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Master RESTful APIs with Python and Django REST Framework: Web API Development By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Intermediate Java Mastery: Method, Collections, and Beyond By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By - Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Author at Neil Patel Digital Digital Marketing Guru View Program Finance A2Z Of Money By - elearnmarkets, Financial Education by StockEdge View Program Data Science MySQL for Beginners: Learn Data Science and Analytics Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Advanced Excel Course - Financial Calculations & Excel Made Easy By - Anirudh Saraf, Founder- Saraf A & Associates, Chartered Accountant View Program Marketing Future of Marketing & Branding Masterclass By - Dr. David Aaker, Professor Emeritus at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley, Author | Speaker | Thought Leader | Branding Consultant View Program HR Human Potential and the Future of Employment By - Lynda Gratton, Prof.

at London Business School, Speaker, Author, Global Thought Leader View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program With a focus on technology, Morgan Stanley wants to tap into the country’s “experienced and next generation talent” along with building leadership here. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories It already has Rathnaprabha Manickavachagam, who heads innovation for Asia and India out of Bengaluru. Chakrapani Mantena is also based here as managing director for technology at global centers oversees — India, Hungary, Montreal and Glasgow.

In all, the US-headquartered investment bank has 24,000 technologists, of whom more than 8,000 people are based in India. They are spread between the two global capability centres (GCCs) — in Mumbai (set up in 2003) and Bengaluru (set up in 2014). Therefore, about a third of the company’s global tech workforce is based out of India.

While the team has not grown as much over the last year, “This year, we will probably continue to grow 10% for my team. We know we can rely on India, it has been a great source of global delivery for us. We will continue to leverage it,” Cucchiara said.

India is currently Morgan Stanley’s second largest location in terms of tech headcount outside the US. Here, the financial services investment giant operates through business units like technology, operations, finance, fund services, legal and compliance, HR, prime brokerage, internal audit, risk management, fixed income research and parametric. Also Read: For financial services companies, India’s best market for tech talent: Morgan Stanley executive Though the industry as a whole is worried about the threat of loss of jobs and the need for lesser people due to the disruption brought about by AI, Cucchiara said it has turned the other way for Morgan Stanley.

“Everybody thinks you’re going to need less people; [but] I need more people to fill the demand I have...

I have three times the demand I can handle...

With AI, hopefully, we can tackle more of that than without,” Cucchiara said, adding that of all the places to grow talent in the world, India would be his preferred choice. At Morgan Stanley, Cucchiara’s Wealth Management and Investment Management Technology team has trebled over the past eight years. Multiple Offerings Morgan Stanley leverages GenAI with two offerings, ‘Assistant’ and ‘Debrief’.

Since its launch in September 2023, the ‘Assistant’ tool, with the help of one of world’s most valuable startups, OpenAI, can access over one lakh research reports and documents, thereby saving time and enabling 40% reduction in calls for its financial advisors. “We’re also working on an ‘Assist’ technology for our service agents at call centres..

. Our goal is to try to eliminate the need for financial advisors to spend time making calls and waiting for responses..

. and shift away from administration to servicing clients,” Cucchiara added. Also Read: Big banks take to large language models trained on internal data Meanwhile, its ‘Debrief ’ solution, rolled out in June this year, helps with meetings’ record keeping, taking notes, summarisation and transcription, and then store those in a repository in its client relationship management system.

Being part of a highly regulated financial services industry, Morgan Stanley is currently using AI for internal use. Cucchiara said that despite plans to roll our more AI offerings, “the focus is internal first”. Globally, Morgan Stanley’s total client assets surpassed $7.

5 trillion (up from $6.2 trillion a year ago) across wealth and investment management in the third quarter ending September 2024, buoyed by equity markets and net asset inflows. The firm operates in three key business segments — investment banking, investment securities and wealth management.

Also Read: Accelerating with AI: Startups share how they are turning the gears with GenAI.