Hello, I’m Jay Gupta, the Global Head of Industry Solutions for the TMT sector at Quantexa, a British software company; we are one of the few ‘unicorns’ in the UK software space.
The company began almost ten years ago in financial services, primarily in banking, where our proprietary technology helped banks detect financial crime, enabling investigators to identify where they needed to take action. However, we soon noticed that the core capabilities were relevant to other use cases and industries such as telecoms, alongside government, healthcare, and insurance. By unifying siloed data, the same technology enables us to help businesses identify opportunities to grow their revenue as well as manage risk.
Our platform is called ‘Decision Intelligence’. We provide contextual intelligence on people, businesses and other entities. Essentially, we help our customers make more informed, data-driven decisions; moving beyond the traditional data management practices.
Vodafone is one of our customers, which we’re proud of. They came to us with a specific problem: the business sales team had a lot of siloed data about their customers. Identifying opportunities to upsell and cross-sell with existing data lacked accurate insights and required time-consuming efforts to find the right information, so we provided the technology to fuel better intelligence to streamline and significantly elevate Vodafone’s sales operations.
What do you enjoy most about working in this space?
I love that the industry thrives on solving complex problems, which makes it an exciting place to be. Telecoms power much of our daily lives, including our communication, safety, and economy. Society is dependent on the digital world, and telecoms underpins that digital infrastructure. I’ve always been fascinated by telecoms’ global reach too from a career perspective; I’ve been lucky enough to travel and work on interesting projects in a lot of countries across North America, Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe.
What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve done in the name of work?
In the early stages of my career, I was asked by a senior colleague to attend a meeting with a customer on his behalf. Little did I know that the customer was Senegal’s Ministry of Telecoms. The room was packed with government officials, and the experience was such an eye-opener for me.
However, I felt empowered and inspired — particularly by one formidable woman, who was the Minister of Telecoms, who commanded the male-dominated meeting room!
Where do you see telecoms heading?
Already, telecoms is underpinning the AI boom — and I expect this will only escalate. Telcos are in a prime position to drive the scale and resilience that is needed in essential infrastructure. Our dependence on AI technologies will undoubtedly increase rapidly, and there will be little tolerance for disruptions. At the same time, telecoms has a tremendous opportunity — albeit not without challenges — to help reshape how consumers, businesses, and entire industries adopt AI, ensuring it is deployed as a force for good as well as transformation.
What would you like people to know about your work?
Telecoms and technology are inseparable. In many ways, we segment the two industries, but telecoms revolves around technology! I think it’s important to understand that strong connection. Sure, telecoms has a lot to learn from the tech world, but equally, telecoms is an industry that the tech companies can learn from, too, especially experience in operating resilient, highly regulated, mission-critical technology at global scale.
Why is a vibrant, flourishing telecoms ecosystem important for the UK?
The UK has a proud legacy within telecoms. Telcos here need to remind themselves of this, and business owners should be aware that the sector will play a critical role in our country’s future. Much of this is about the next era of economic growth, which will be dependent on a resilient AI infrastructure. The UK government can use the sector to support the next wave of innovators by providing the secure, high-performance foundations they need to build and deploy new technologies. A strong ecosystem will help boost productivity, strengthen public services, and drive global competitiveness.
