Anand S Rao: Making AI Better for Everyone

AI has the ultimate power to make very complicated things simplified and save valuable time for businesses. Often tech leaders gain valuable insights from statistical data and technology to make important business decisions, which in return saves their valuable time.

Anand S Rao the Global AI Lead of PwC is one of those veteran tech leaders who advises CEOs, business leaders, executive management teams, and policymakers on implementing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence-based solutions for a diverse range of businesses, strategic, ethical, and operational issues. He has completed his MSc (Tech) in Computer Science, from BITS Pilani, India. Later he pursued Ph.D. in AI from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Melbourne Business School. He also served in organizations like Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute, Mitchell Madison Group, and Diamond Management and Technology Consultants.

With a massive experience of four decades as a management consultant and with academic expertise in emerging technologies, Anand S Rao is recognized for transforming large organizations, generating growth, and driving creative disruption in industries in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Life at PwC

Anand has been a partner at PwC, which is one of the largest professional service firms on the planet since 2010. Currently, he serves as the Global Artificial Intelligence lead, and the US AI and Emerging Technology Practice lead at PwC. Anand heads innovation, delivery, and thought leadership in data, analytics, and AI for companies in the financial services, healthcare, technology, media, telecommunications, retail, and consumer sectors.

Before that (2014 – 2016), he was PwC’s Innovation Lead, Data, and Analytics, where he co-founded the firm’s Data and Analytics practice. From 2010 – 2013, he was a Partner in PwC’s US Insurance Advisory Services, where he oversaw customer experience, digital transformation, data and analytics strategy, marketing and distribution strategy, operations, and claims transformation processes for personal and commercial lines, life annuity, and retirement clients.

Identifying Untapped Markets

Anand S Rao identifies markets with untapped potential for market share growth and revenue around the world. He evaluates various opportunities, barriers, risks, and assesses government policies and regulations in order to develop the strategic roadmap for market entry. Anand S Rao founded and grew PwC’s simulation intelligence practice that uses advanced, agent-based, and system dynamics simulation to address strategic and operational decisions for global organizations.

As a leader, Anand S Rao has led multiple engagements with a large global automotive manufacturer to develop and execute growth and market-entry strategy focused on personal mobility via car share/rideshare services with autonomous vehicles. Additionally, he has supervised simulation experts to enable a medical device company specializing in genome-sequencing machines to bundle their solution and pricing and target their new digital genome-sequencing machines. As a result, the company improved profitability fourfold and was later acquired at a premium.

He has developed and launched an online strategy, which includes mobile and social media for the corporate unit of a life, annuity, and retirement income provider. A financial crisis focused consumer advocacy microsite was also launched, which increased brand awareness and won multiple awards.

Spearheading AI-Based Solutions

Like a steadfast leader, Anand S Rao has led PwC’s ‘Responsible AI’ research and thought leadership platform and worked with global government policy- making bodies to help create national AI strategies and how to use AI for the greater good of society. He has founded and grew PwC’s artificial intelligence practice including, natural language processing and generation; big data tools; machine learning; deep learning for audio, image, video, text, and chatbots; and intelligent assistant technologies. Additionally, he has served as the Chief Research Scientist at the Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute and led the firm’s research direction in agent-based modelling, belief-desire-intention architectures, and real-time decision support systems. He also delivered projects for NASA, DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), and the Australian Defence. His work during this period won him the Most Influential Paper Award for the Decade in 2007 from the Autonomous Agents & Multi-Agent Systems organization for his contribution on the Belief-Desire-Intention Architectures.

One of the Most Prominent Leaders

Anand S Rao also Co-edited four books and published more than fifty academic papers in Computer Science, AI, data, analytics, and behavioural economics in an international journal, conferences, and workshops. He has also been a frequent speaker at various global technical and trade forms and associations, including International Joint Conference of AI: World Economic Forum; American Association of AI; International System Dynamics Conference; EmTech; Consumer Electronics Show; Society of Actuaries; National Predictive Modelling Congress; LIMRA; LOMA; and many others. He has been recognized by Corinium as the Top 50 Data & Analytics professionals in USA and Canada, Top 50 Innovators of Data & Analytics professionals, and Top 50 InsurTech professionals. He was recognized this year as the Top 25 Technology Leaders in consulting by Consulting Report and was awarded the CogX Award on Enterprise CXO of the Year in 2022.

Just like a true leader, Anand S Rao has led thought leadership for PwC’s AI practice globally and produced white papers and studies. Additionally the thought leadership of PwC’s Data Analytics practice globally, including the Big Decisions surveys of 2014 and 2016 and white papers such as: Creating or Destroying Shareholder Value, AI in Insurance – Hype or Reality?; and InsurTech –Global Opportunity for Insurers to Innovate has also been directed by him. His article on How to build disruptive strategic flywheels won the National Silver Award by ASBPE for the Best Technical article in 2019; his A Strategist’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence has won the National Gold Award by ASBPE for the Best Technical article in 2018 and the FOLIO editorial award; his Sizing the Prize won the most quoted Consulting Thought Leadership Award.

Anand S Rao is currently associated with many organizations including, Virginia Thurston Healing Garden Cancer Support Center where he serves on the Board of Trustees. He also serves as Adjunct Professor, the APP Centre for AI Research (APPCAIR) at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS Pilani); Advisory Board Member at University of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI; Member, Global AI Council, World Economic Forum (WEF); the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Network of Experts on AI (ONE) and AI Compute initiative; Northwestern University, Kellogg & McCormick MBAi program; Member, Responsible AI Institute; Fellow, Nordic AI Institute; and International Congress for the Governance of AI.