Prashant Kumar enters AI space with Entermind

Entermind is a new Singapore-headquartered AI consulting firm launched with an ambition to be the world’s first whole brain AI player.

The company is founded by Prashant Kumar, who in his previous role led Data & AI for Global growth markets spanning Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Middle east & Africa at Accenture Song with a front seat perspective of the widest expanse of AI projects around the world.

He also founded Entropia, a data-driven marketing firm that was acquired by Accenture in its largest acquisition in SE Asia. Before Entropia, Prashant was the CEO of Asia World markets for IPG Mediabrands.

The venture brings together left-brain capabilities in data engineering and the right-brain capabilities in defining and designing the subjective human experiences. The company starts with offices in Silicon Valley, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore – with its 24 people core solutioning hub in Kuala Lumpur forming the kernel.

Some familiar names who have joined the new entity are Sourabh Agrawal (ex IPG, Entropia, Accenture Song), Evan Beh (ex AirAsia MOVE, Razer Malaysia), John Woo (ex Entropia, Accenture Song), James Yeang (ex Domino’s, Reckitt, McKinsey), Anneth (ex Entropia, Accenture Song, WPP Media) and top gun Al-Ishsal Ishak (ex Pos Malaysia, MCMC, FMT News, Cybersecurity Malaysia, AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, amongst others).

Commenting on the launch, Prashant Kumar says, “Most first-generation AI pilots are failing to scale. Because they are doing it the legacy way.”

We sat down to prompt him with some questions.

Whole brain ‘AI consultancy’ sounds sexy. What’s the  evidence that this approach actually beats the left-brain data shops or right-brain brand consultancies out there?

AI is the world’s first whole brain technology, as machines can capture subjective experiences. Businesses were always human systems. To bring this whole brain technology to human systems, companies need a whole brain approach too. That this approach was not taken is a key reason why 95% of AI thrusts were failures as per latest MIT report. It’s the hard way but it’s the only way to undo the 95% failure rate. 

You’ve said most AI pilots are dying on the runway because companies are stuck in the old ways. What’s the number one problem that kills AI scaling every time? 

Context. To use a model is easy. To build a quick and dirty app is easy. To actually conceive and tailor a holistic AI orchestration – across people, processes and data – to a specific context in order to make it worth the cost, effort and risks takes work. It also takes rethinking from a white sheet. Legacy players struggle with that. 

Your thoughts about synthetic intelligence needing to tango with authentic intelligence is powerful. But honestly, which side screws it up more?

The advisors and decision makers who don’t get the tango. You could say it’s the authentic intelligence hijacked by the synthetic hype, so as to lose sight of what really works. 

Why Kuala Lumpur, not Palo Alto? You could’ve put your kernel anywhere – Silicon Valley, Bangalore, Singapore.

I have been a strong believer all these years in Malaysian talent. It’s no coincidence that a small country like Malaysia is behind globally competitive stories like Grab, Carsome, AirAsia and iProperty. Cost competitiveness, good quality of life and diversity… they all add up.

You sold Entropia to Accenture and led the global AI game too. What made you want to build from scratch again?

I think the MIT report tells it all. Consultants most of all need to sell trust. Trust as a navigational partner. And in times of rapid change that trust becomes ever more important as you need to rethink stuff afresh. We need to keep it real for clients. We need to tailor. We need to be able to cut through the hype to focus on what matters. These were my inspirations. 

“The future’s flow can’t fit into the plumbing of the past.”

If I’m a CEO listening to you, what’s the one piece of ‘old plumbing’ I should rip out tomorrow morning before it strangles my ambitions? 

Curiosity is a great employee quality in uncertain times. The pace of change is not easy for companies to handle but curiosity – an open mind about new technology and willingness to learn and experiment – goes a long way. Old plumbing reflects a learning-averse mindset. It’s also about old foundational Infra that becomes a bottleneck for the future. For instance, the way you store, organise and understand your data…