Football fans will never forget the German national football team's unbeaten 2014 FIFA World Cup. After thrashing Brazil 7-1 in the semi-finals, Germany brought Argentina to their knees in a nail-biting final. However, their 12th man was big data analytics. The analytics team used SAP HANA to record each of their players' average ball possession time and helped suggest insights to reduce it from 3.4 seconds to 1.1 seconds.

If data and analytics can help a football team win the World Cup 2014, imagine its incredible potential for enterprises today. Bringing the benefits of this potential backed up with domain and industry expertise of more than 25 years has been the game changer for EXL, a data-driven analytics and AI company and trusted partner for data-rich industries like insurance, banking, healthcare, retail, and logistics. CIO Insider recently interviewed EXL's Chief Digital Officer, Anand Logani. Below is an excerpt from the interview, wherein Anand talks about EXL's 25- year evolution from a BPO to a leader in data driven analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

EXL has undergone several transforma- tions over the years. Tell us about what led EXL to become such a robust data, AI, and Analytics company.

EXL has been in business for 25 years, continuously evolving to stay ahead of industry trends and client needs.

Starting as a business process management company, we incorporated analytics after five years, recognizing the need for insights to make better decisions in the industries and markets we serviced. Six years later, we integrated digital transformation with a focus on automation to deliver accele- rated productivity. After another three years, we strategically prioritized data, realizing its importance in downstream transformation.

(NPS) of over 84 percent, one of the highest in the industry. The key to our success has been our ability to adapt and innovate, thus ensuring that we remain at the forefront of using the best and most powerful technologies to drive business transformation for our clients.

The AI industry is highly competitive and populous. What makes EXL unique?

Yes, the AI industry is highly competi-tive, with the demand for AI products and skills increasing rapidly as every company aspires to become an AI-driven business. The Gen AI ecosystem is getting massive funding from multiple market participants. EXL’s unique differentiation in this crowded market lies in being the orches -trator, the one who combines deep industry and domain knowledge with an in-depth understanding of enterprise data and a set of proprietary AI tools and skills to deliver business outcomes.

While most AI technology companies provide toolsets, they often fail to help clients achieve tangible business outcomes. EXL, on the other hand, integrates these horizontal technologies with our clients’ data and then embeds insights and decisions into an enterprise workflow. This enables our clients to derive maximum value from their investments in data and AI. In conclusion, the combination of domain expertise, data, and AI is our unique value proposition.

EXL recently announced a unique proprietary insurance large language model (LLM). Tell us more about this solution.

We believe it is one of the first of its kind. The innovation was driven by our clients' challenges in settling bodily injury, commercial liability, and auto claims. Generic large language models required complex prompts and a complex RAG architecture to understand the nuances of medical claims and often missed vital information, leading to incorrect claims decisions and a lack of trust from adjusters.