Ashwini Asokan: The Technology Woman Who Didn’t Fit Any Stereotype
Ashwini Asokan is the founder and CEO of Mad Street Den which is a computer-based startup of Artificial Intelligence which is an underperforming sector in the country. Her startup is a platform which is based on cloud and empowers customers all around the world with all of its products in artificial intelligence across e-commerce, robotics, Omni-channel retail, and so much more. Of course, it was not easy because the technology industry usually feels that they have the right to tell women down because they like to feel it is a male-dominated field.
Proving the generic stereotype wrong, Ashwini and she was successful in building one of the first Retail based AI platforms in the whole wide world and it goes by the name, vue.ai. however, it was not how she had planned it and it was not how it began. Her professional journey was majorly concerned with her at a job at Intel in Silicon Valley for about 10 years. After spending a major part of her life, she realized, that she was not here to just work at the same job for all her life. There was more to her knowledge and skill.
When she was featured in YourStory, she said, ‘AI in India is still in very early days. I think technology is not lacking here, and there are a lot of AI tools available in India, which can be used to build things. The problem is that people are not willing to go deep and gain an in-depth knowledge of the technology. Before jumping and saying I am an expert, I wish people take time to explore this science. This is the reason that despite the talent when compared to Germany, France or even China for that matter, we have not been able to scale up in the field.’
The undeniable spirit of her being hear and her way of voicing her opinion in a field where people do not consider women to be even capable of doing anything, she rose to the cause and shut out what was hampering her. She wanted to take the phrase, women in tech to people in tech. In her regime to fight against all odds, leaving her well-paying job, of course, there were people who told her it was risky, it could cost her a fortune or that if she was confident and ready or capable for something like this. Despite what fingers, questions, and curveballs, were thrown at her, she chose to continue her journey and her initiative finally got the recognition it deserved.
With her damn spirit and amazing enthusiasm to keep proving herself at every step, every event, and every panel, her team has now become one of the most amazing AI tech products manufacturers over India, London, and also San Francisco. Her aspiring entrepreneur model is redefining the future of retail across social and online channels. It may have reached up here, however, what we know is that it started with a dream and the courage to go for it.
