Powering Progress - The Infrastructure and Compute Foundations for AI Growth
Setting the Foundation
As the United Kingdom pushes forward AI ambition while ensuring privacy and regulatory standards, compute and infrastructure have emerged as two of the essential resources of the decade. Enterprises are striving to meet the requirements of modern workloads by efficiently scaling. However, the adoption of foundational models and the need for real-time analytics have demanded heavy investments in the industry.
To support this shift, enterprises are rethinking their compute strategies, from adopting GPU-accelerated environments to modernising data centres. The goal is to have connected systems that can sustainably cater to all AI needs at scale. Whether training a large language model, running inference on an application, or delivering real-time insights, compute and infrastructure have become the hidden force behind an enterprise's competitive advantage.
Some History Notes:
In the 1800s, economist William Jevons stated that making steam engines more efficient led to more coal being used and not less. This effect is called the Jevons Paradox, where lower costs increase overall demand. We are seeing similar patterns in today's AI landscape. The increased affordability and widespread adoption have led to a surge where anything and everything is just one query away.
This has pushed enterprises to rethink how AI is offered earlier and how it has to be contextually embedded into every platform where it adds the most value. On the other hand, semiconductor firms are investing in building bigger and better chips to meet growing AI needs.
Demand Curve for the AI Workloads
By now, we have established that for today's AI workloads, there is a growing demand for both compute and infrastructure. But the big question here is where and how much to invest. AI and the compute vendors in the market are taking a big share of the profits of enterprises. We at Zoho are both hyper-scalers and builders, where we scale to meet the growing demands of data centres and have built 16 data centres worldwide. This also restricts data within the local environment, limiting data sharing across countries.
The Way Forward
Moving ahead, the adoption rates are set to grow to unprecedented levels, evolving from experimental PoCs to becoming an enterprise-foundational layer. This clearly signals the rising need for compute power and robust infrastructure. The choices enterprises make today, starting from investing in GPUs to data centre design, will determine their ability to compete, adapt, and lead.
Zoho’s approach mirrors this shift. By playing the long game and vertically integrating our stack, which includes data centres, hardware, servers, platforms, and AI, we are riding the wave and meeting every demand at scale.
As countries like the United Kingdom position themselves as global AI leaders while ensuring strong privacy and regulatory frameworks, the need for scalable and secure infrastructure is increasing. This is especially true for enterprises that treat infrastructure as a strategic enabler in their long-term growth plans and look to build long-term trust while ensuring that AI aligns with evolving needs.
techUK - Seizing the AI Opportunity
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Usman Ikhlaq
Usman Ikhlaq
Usman joined techUK in January 2024 as Programme Manager for Artificial Intelligence.
He leads techUK’s AI Adoption programme, supporting members of all sizes and sectors in adopting AI at scale. His work involves identifying barriers to adoption, exploring solutions, and helping to unlock AI’s transformative potential, particularly its benefits for people, the economy, society, and the planet. He is also committed to advancing the UK’s AI sector and ensuring the UK remains a global leader in AI by working closely with techUK members, the UK Government, regulators, and devolved and local authorities.
Since joining techUK, Usman has delivered a regular drumbeat of activity to engage members and advance techUK's AI programme. This has included two campaign weeks, the creation of the AI Adoption Hub (now the AI Hub), the AI Leader's Event Series, the Putting AI into Action webinar series and the Industrial AI sprint campaign.
Before joining techUK, Usman worked as a policy, regulatory and government/public affairs professional in the advertising sector. He has also worked in sales, marketing, and FinTech.
Usman holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a GDL and LLB from BPP Law School, and a BA from Queen Mary University of London.
When he isn’t working, Usman enjoys spending time with his family and friends. He also has a keen interest in running, reading and travelling.
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Ramprakash Ramamoorthy
Ramprakash Ramamoorthy leads the AI efforts for Zoho Corporation. He has been instrumental in setting up Zoho's AI platform from scratch. He comes with a rich 12+ years of experience in building AI for the enterprises at Zoho Corp.