AI-PODs and the future of work

So the last few months have been interesting in R&D as AI driven development has firmly caught on the imagination of the company. If there are better efficiencies possible with AI then companies must and should embrace it, to not be left behind the competition. Thats how these small, agile, AI driven development teams have started and been called as POD teams (we did have something equivalent but just  not agile enough). 

Anyway recently there was a discussion around the risks and mitigations for such teams and reflecting on it, i would akin it to running a marathon. Imagine a marathon where runners are running in small groups of five. And the race is not with anyone else but oneself. Can we do this better than we could do it before?  

Some of the groups are running for 5k, some 10k, some half marathons and some full ones. These are like the efforts and complexity of the marathon (delivering a feature). Now one of the first risks that we can have is the runners don't know how long is the distance exactly - how much are the efforts that will be consumed (because with AI doing the bulk of planning and implementation - the estimation opportunities are low). The risk therefore is not knowing the goal (distance) but yet having to run for it (commitment).

The second risk that arises is the risk of injury. Having insufficient experience or expertise or practice causes injury. Just having a mindset to run a marathon does not make you capable to run one. You need to practice for it. The preparation of the runners is therefore a risk - have they run such marathons before - if they haven’t do they have sufficient practice to run them (maybe on treadmills), maybe short PoC’s, will they need support and if so how much etc.

Once the run is ongoing, we may realize the gaps - who is able to contribute, who is not, competence gaps, support issues and the like. Because in this marathon, everyone of that small group needs to reach the finish line. And then we may have runners who have to be substituted for those reasons. This is the risk of mismatch. Unfortunately you wont know till you try this phase out and go over it. For short runs it may not matter as much, but for longer runs this can become glaring. 

The coaches in the meantime are the one who are like co-runners - showing (or finding) the way, depending on their own competence, arranging for breaks and stops for recuperation, getting those glucose and bananas for the runners., Ofcourse they themselves need to be trained to be coaches, and to understand the facets of the run to even support meaningfully. 

Then there are other things that come up from time to time - and the marathon becomes more like a hurdle race - checkpoints to ensure we are not running away in a wrong direction or taking shortcuts along the way. We have our tooling business for that - they are not the main thing - rather indicators and traffic lights - so we should not confuse the woods for the trees - the race is still to be completed. 

The success of any marathon depends on several factors- the terrain, the distance, the runners, the route, the hurdles, the coaching, the support systems, and everything in between. Also people to cheer us along and motivate us further. Maybe it can be compared to the units ensuring the pods and their members are sufficiently supported. Not having them support sufficiently (due to whatever reasons- capacity issues, expertise issues etc) is another risk. 

The mitigations for these risks are rather straightforward. Giving sufficient training before the marathon, ensuring good fitness for the run. Taking feedback’s from the runners and the coaches and the units, from time to time - what do we lack, where can we improve, what are the difficulties, what are some solutions etc., Open discussions help to steer us else we fall into the trap of group think.

Finally, every POD has a story to tell - the good the bad and the ugly. And each have to be told, and heard, to make meaningful and transformational change. 

So what then is the future of work? It’s evolving and we are learning - but one thing is for sure - it’s exciting due to the possibilities it opens up and the break neck speeds at which it can be achieved. Lets just ensure we keep our necks in the process!

Mar&Apr

 Ok so i missed the Mar updates :) and here i try to combine both Mar and Apr. But honestly, time flies and much more happens when you are into the thick of things. March and April have both been super hot this season, and while i did travel to a few places they were equally hot if not more, both Chennai and Trichy. I got to know some fun names of the different dishes there - like perpusli, vethakolzubu, moorkozumbu, kootu and all (ok I know i got all those spellings wrong!). So yea, looking forward for the summer to go and rains to come by — today it started to rain super heavy suddenly so there is hope. In fact it rained so hard that the tree branch fell on our house gate and wrecked it! Just got those fixed and blah. This city also needs a big re development project, everything seems to be falling apart..!

Book readings have slowed down noticeably last few weeks- maybe it’s the heat and everything-but haven’t been able to finish any book last two months, super slow progress. But now i am reading a new book - Orhan Pamuk’s Other Colors. The other book of his was My name is Red, which was a long read but very interesting literature. This is more auto biographical and short stories in a way - it’s also a book that has won the Nobel Prize. So looking forward. 

Things have picked up in office with more projects added into the fray. Taking stock, one by one! The office visits are a good things still - I find the interactions more positive, quick and in some ways more meaningful - like humane., Anyway i guess that’s here to stay so that helps. 

May seems like another busy month. I may take a few days off for a few hospital checks and visits for parents - but that’s about it. Too hot still to plan anything more. Looking forward to June already :)

- NB

Feb’26

A few days already since end of Feb but here goes..! As the summer started to set in, and leaves began to wither and fall, there were still others which were in bloom this season, like the Tabebuia roses or the pink trumpet trees which lines many a roads here! Even the Nile tulip trees were in full blossom, and several others. 

Coming to the reading i had started in Jan, it continued in Feb - Sampath, Revolutionaries, and 1-2-3 were done! There were several other readings that i have added in the list - one of which is called “Freedoms Forge” by Arthur Herman, and the other more of a self-help book called “Unposted letter” by Mahatria Ra on practical ways to manage one’s life. Have several others waiting, like Bose or Gandhi, Waiting for Shiva, Genome, The end of an era, and so on…so many on the reading list this year and hoping if i take some time out daily, i can read these gems.

I am also contemplating reading more on economics more as a subject, this great book by Hubbard and O’Brien seems like a good one to get more into the nitty-gritty of macroeconomics. Apart, work picked up more steam, several more activities/projects are ongoing and planned keeping this year full of activities. We also had several exciting team events which makes our workplace interesting and fun at the same time! Several events and get-togethers - both at work and with friends/alumni from college/iim - made the month more tolerable :) 

I did manage to take out and dust my guitar :) it had been ages since i got it out. Had some re tuning to do. The online apps really help now, earlier i used to rely on devices for tuning, now i can just do these with an app/online. With that done, tried out a few of my fav’s to know if i still remember! My finger tips were hurting, which meant i was doing fine! Once the finger tips harden after repeated playing, it does not feel so hard. Anyway there are many other songs to learn on it - but i am not able to get my head around how to record them and master them, Earlier used to maintain a book of songs (the guitar teacher insisted it!) - maybe need to follow that mode again. Need to think more!

Ofcourse nothing these days end without talking about AI :) The classes i took from iisc now seems prehistoric, it was just two years ago! But a lot has changed now with generative AI and LLMs gaining so much momentum. I do have licenced versions of M365 and Copilot - it’s time to think of use-cases to make full use of them - for e2e workflow automations and the like. Agentic AI is something to explore further..thats the task for March!

Ciao. 

Jan’26

Considering the fact that i am finding it hard to get time to write here regularly, I decided to try some kind of monthly round-ups this year ! So here goes for the month of Jan…

The year and month began with lot of hope, promises and resolutions both professionally and personally! 

I would like to do more reading this year, so i have 4 books currently which i am actively reading. The first is “Mr Sampath: The printer of Malgudi” from RK Narayanan. It’s a book describing the life of one printer in a small town in India. The scenes are rustic/rural, and describes in great detail of the life and times of this printer, who well starts as a printer but goes on to produce movies (that’s where i am in the book currently!). Been a while since i read any RK Narayanan’s. 

The next book is called “The Revolutionaries” which is about India and its freedom fighters (the revolutionaries). When you read through it you realise how much of sacrifice has been made to get our freedom, and how little we know about them through mainstream history per se. It’s a great account of several of the most daring revolutionaries who showed a lot of courage to face the occupation of the British in India. So many characters come to life in this Sanjeev Sanyal’s book and it’s a very interesting read. Many of them are awe-inspiring and you start to realise the tremendous amount of human capacity that we all can have for a cause, but remain untapped. 

The third book is called “One, Two, Three..Infinity”, by George Gamow. It’s on the facts and speculations of science. At the onset it would feel like an easy science read on aspects of irrational numbers, space-time curvatures, microcosms and macroscosms - and it’s not such an easy read after all! It is deeeply riveting and so many ideas are packed into each chapter and made as much easy reading, (which is really difficult for such complex topics). It’s not a new book, but rather quite an old publication, but the ideas and logic never fades and it packs so much of them in those pages. I am still mid-way and my head is already reeling!

The last book is a re-read of the “Monk who sold his Ferrari” by Robin Sharma. I started to read it again in one of the holidays at the end of last year - and i once again liked the quiet strength it gives, I especially like those little nuggets of wisdom it packs, which makes you think more slowly and absorb life more deeply- and you start to question what really is meaningful to us in our limited time on earth. 

So those were on books- which i am glad i could start again in Jan.

Other than those, i still find it very meaningful to take long brisk walks in the mornings (especially if i am able to do it in parks or such). January gave me plenty of opportunities to do these - the little break in Jan at one of the resorts was a super place too! 

Then of course work was at the brim from mid Jan onwards with several new challenges and changes to deal with. We are still going through several transformations and looking forward to more interesting times ahead. There are tons of learning’s while we deal with the daily challenges. I did have two thoughts which i left my team with in the team meeting this month. The first was “What got you here, won’t get you there” and the second one, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got!” 

With those summing up my thoughts right now, calling it a day!