Tech & AI LIVE London: Pratik Mutha, Director of Cloud, EY
Pratik Mutha, Director of Cloud at EY, took to the stage at Tech & AI LIVE London 2025 to open the Cyber Stage with a keynote titled The Intelligent Edge: Unlocking Value with Cloud, AI and Data Synergy.
His session tackled how businesses can achieve better digital transformation outcomes by avoiding siloed technology efforts and instead focusing on integration across core domains.
Building a foundation on synergy
Pratik began by acknowledging the evolving nature of digital transformation across industries and the need for tailored approaches.
However, he made one point clear: Organisations must avoid isolated technology deployments.
He defined three essential pillars — cloud, data and AI — and explained the typical benefits of each when addressed individually.
This is as cloud adoption brings scalability and operational flexibility and data transformation enables real-time analytics and governance, while AI introduces predictive capabilities, with today’s focus shifting to generative models and large language models (LLMs).
But without integration, these efforts lack cohesion.
Pratik drew a vivid analogy, likening siloed initiatives to “renovating a kitchen while doing dinner every day with cloud plumbers, data electricians and AI decorators constantly challenging your blueprints”.
He urged businesses to seek synergy between these pillars, arguing that combining them leads to more cost-effective, optimised and outcome-focused solutions.
A transformation case study
To illustrate the impact of integration, Pratik shared a real-world example from 2022 involving a CEO dealing with critical issues: Security flaws in on-prem infrastructure, delayed data reporting and reliance on outdated tech stacks.
By 2025, this organisation had fully migrated to the cloud, enabled a robust data platform and embedded LLMs into daily operations via a secure, private AI environment.
The result? Real-time analytics, platform reuse and measurable improvements in both underwriting and claims management.
“Few things done in the right way can help you synergise cloud, data and AI,” he noted, positioning this success story as a blueprint for others.
Pratik then expanded on how organisations pursue digital transformation to drive a variety of business outcomes — from productivity gains and cost reduction to customer experience and market differentiation.
According to a survey he cited, most businesses aim to achieve several of these outcomes simultaneously, highlighting the need for a coherent, comprehensive transformation strategy.
Trends, technology and people
In a section dedicated to emerging trends, Pratik spotlighted hybrid and multi-cloud as major enablers, offering flexibility while requiring strong governance.
He stressed that organisations must evolve to manage different cloud environments and called for better interoperability in data platforms to reduce integration challenges.
AI, particularly agentic AI, also received close attention. Pratik acknowledged the hype but advised cautious optimism.
“We have to be aware of bias and the maturity of the frameworks,” he warned, urging attendees to prioritise observability, ethical use and resilience in AI architecture.
Yet beyond technology, Pratik returned to a crucial theme: People.
He cautioned that digital transformation is often mistaken for a purely technical initiative, overlooking its impact on people, governance and processes.
“One of the challenges or inhibiting factors for digital transformation has been people,” he said, referencing issues around capability, culture and resistance to change.
This perspective carried into his response during the Q&A, where he emphasised the importance of employee morale and job security in AI adoption.
“Many employees are worried about their jobs. When you want to onboard people in the journey, you need to take that into consideration,” Pratik said.
He advocated for leadership to set the tone and for continuous learning across organisations to ensure successful adoption.
As a parting message, he encouraged everyone to “learn about agentic AI, Learn about large language models and learn about the copilot approach”.
Pratik closed by reiterating that the difference between successful and less successful digital transformations lies in approach.
Essential diary dates for 2025
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- Tech & AI LIVE London + Cyber LIVE London | 14-15 May
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