India’s most futuristic event kick-started today, as the curtains rose on DataHack Summit (DHS) 2025. With over 80 distinguished guest speakers and around 1000 attendees gathered under one roof, Day 1 set the stage for a one-of-a-kind journey into the evolving world of AI, data, and machine learning. More than just an “event,” it was a congregation of India’s brightest minds coming together to shape the next generation of coders, innovators, and working professionals in the field.
With energy inside the halls nothing short of electric, the day began with Kunal Jain, Founder & CEO of Analytics Vidhya, delivering his opening remarks. He reminded the audience of the power of community and collaboration in scripting India’s AI story. His words underscored why this summit has become the nation’s premier platform for learning, inspiration, and collective vision – a place where tomorrow’s leaders in AI find their spark.
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DHS 2025: Illustrating the Real Impact of AI
The stage at the DHS 2025 then welcomed keynote speaker Dr. Geetha Manjunath, Founder & CEO of Niramai Health Analytix, who shared a deeply impactful case study on Responsible AI in Medical Imaging. Using breast cancer screening as an example, she demonstrated how fairness, explainability, and patient safety are not optional in healthcare innovation but the very foundation of trust. Her talk left the audience inspired by the possibility of technology not just transforming lives, but saving them responsibly.
Agentic AI – The New Norm
Diving deep into the world of AI agents, Dipanjan Sarkar, Head of Artificial Intelligence & Community at AnalyticsVidhya, then took the stage. With his years of expertise in the field, he shared insights on building effective Agentic AI Systems. Drawing from real-world deployments, he brought clarity to the challenges of tool failures, memory management, and system reliability, giving attendees not just concepts but actionable wisdom. Similarly, Gauri Kholkar, Machine Learning Engineer at Pure Storage, struck a vital chord with her session on Deploying GenAI Safely, reminding the audience that securing LLMs against vulnerabilities is as much about foresight as it is about innovation.
Innovation to Ideas
At DHS 2025, innovation set the stage for ideas that will define the future of AI. In his session, Arun Prakash Asokan, Associate Director of Data Science at Novartis, spoke on Agentic Knowledge Augmented Generation (Agentic KAG). He explained how this leap goes beyond Retrieval-Augmented Generation to build richer, context-driven AI applications. On a parallel note, Kuldeep Jiwani, VP & Head of AI Solutions at ConcertAI, delved into the urgent need for Measuring Uncertainty in LLMs. His insights on aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty highlighted how clarity and confidence metrics are essential if AI is to be trusted in high-stakes environments.
Responsible AI at the Core
Themes of responsibility and reliability carried into Praveen Kumar GS, Senior Director at Samsung R&D Institute, who spoke on Agentic AI Meets Responsible AI, and Krishnakumar Menon, Technology Partner at Tiger Analytics, who drew from production-level experience in building agents at scale. Both sessions reinforced the idea that scaling AI requires more than technical prowess. It demands accountability, ethical guardrails, and robust architectures that don’t just dazzle in demos but deliver in the real world.
Adding further depth to the day’s exploration, Syed Quiser Ahmed, AVP and Head of Infosys Responsible AI Office, spoke passionately about Onboarding AI Agents with Human Values, stressing that as agents become more autonomous, they must be grounded in responsibility and alignment from the very start. In parallel, Shubhradeep Nandi, Chief Data Scientist with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, addressed the challenge of aligning Responsible AI with the probabilistic world of LLMs. He showed how fairness and transparency can be maintained even when decisions are driven by probabilities rather than absolutes. Together, their talks expanded the conversation beyond technical mastery to include the ethical and societal lens AI cannot afford to ignore.
Equally impressive was the lineup of practitioners pushing AI into the real world. Ashish Tripathy, CTO & Co-Founder of Pype AI, unveiled a blueprint for Healthcare Voice AI Contact Centers, showcasing how real-time voice agents can transform patient engagement and medical workflows. And in a much-anticipated technical session, Kartik Nighania, MLOps Engineer at Typewise, walked the audience through engineering reliable agents at scale, proving that production-readiness is not an afterthought but the very foundation of impactful AI.
Applications Beyond Theory
Day 1 also celebrated applications beyond theory. Vignesh Kumar, AI Engineering Manager at Ford Motor Company, showcased how multimodal AI with Google’s Gemini is automating vehicle inspections, a use case that demonstrated business impact alongside technological sophistication. Meanwhile, voices like Deepak Sharma, Senior Machine Learning Engineer with Google DeepMind, and Nikhil Rana, Senior Technical Solutions Consultant, AI, at Google, added depth with perspectives on human-in-the-loop systems and interoperability protocols, showing how agents must evolve responsibly within diverse workflows.
Celebrating the Luminaries of GenAI
On Day 1 of DHS 2025, AnalyticsVidhya recognised the pioneers shaping the Generative AI movement. With the prestigious AV Luminary Awards, the spotlight turned to the Top 7 GenAI Leaders, whose contributions are redefining what’s possible with this technology. The award winners are –
Arti Rajaraman
David Zakkam
Kuldeep Jiwani
Praveen Kumar GS
Sudalai Rajkumar (SRK)
Vikas Agrawal
Vinay Mony
Yash S.
From groundbreaking models to transformative real-world impact, these leaders exemplify the spirit of innovation that DataHack Summit celebrates. More than just driving AI adoption, their work is also inspiring the community to imagine bigger and build responsibly. As the awardees received their honours, the hall was filled with applause, both for their achievements and the future they are helping create.
GenAI Booths – Where Ideas Meet Play
Amidst the packed sessions and serious conversations, Day 1 also carved out space for something equally vital: fun, creativity, and discovery. At the GenAI Playground Booths, there was a blend of networking and play, where AI became both a learning tool and a source of joy.
From decoding prompts in Prompt Charades to unleashing creativity in Comic War, from leaving digital footprints in the Time Capsule to designing quirky creations in StickerVerse, the energy was nothing short of infectious. Conversations flowed freely over cups of chai, laughter echoed across the hall, and attendees found themselves learning while playing.
These booths also served as a reminder that the future of AI is as much about community and imagination as it is about algorithms and code. They made it evident that innovation often sparks brightest when curiosity and camaraderie come together.
DHS 2025: Day 2 Awaits
The day closed on a futuristic note with Tanika Gupta, Director of Data Science at Sigmoid, introducing the audience to Vibe Coding. Her live demonstration illustrated how AI-assisted development is not about replacing coders, but about amplifying creativity, accelerating prototyping, and redefining what it means to build in the age of AI. For the next generation of professionals, it was a glimpse into a world where collaboration with AI is as natural as collaboration with a colleague.
In a nutshell, Day 1 of DHS 2025 was a celebration of India’s data and AI community coming together with purpose. The conversations reminded us that the future of AI is not only about making systems smarter, but also about making them more responsible, reliable, and deeply human-centered. As the first day concluded, one thing was clear: India’s AI community is not here to follow trends – it is here to set them. With this momentum, the stage is set for an even more exciting Day 2. Stay tuned to this space to know all about the Data Hack Summit 2025.
