Possessing the ability to spot market trends and identify where they intersect with your customer’s needs is a valuable skill. But having the experience to use this data to design and launch a new product which transforms markets, aligns with government strategy, and enhances business operations for customers is much less common.
For the past decade Ambily Menon, who started her career as a coder and software engineer, has honed her ability to do exactly that. And today, as Product Manager at Intelematics, her role is to develop data-led products which improve fleet management, safety and efficiency – using AI, telemetry and data design.
In recognition of her success, Ambily has been nominated as a finalist in the ‘Technical’ category at this year’s ARN WIICTA 2024 awards. The prestigious event celebrates excellence across the Australian ICT industry. Ambily has also been invited to share her insights on future role machine learning will play in fleet management as a speaker at this year’s ANZ Data Innovation Summit.
Here, we take a closer look at Ambily’s insights and where she believes technology will take fleet management in the future.
What attracted you to product management? I originally qualified as an Electrical Engineer before moving into coding. Over time, I realised technology alone was not enough to drive me. What I enjoyed more was the interaction between people and technology. This led me into consultancy looking more closely at how to solve problems for companies leveraging the latest technologies. Product management is an extension of that principle with the added benefit of being able to create new, market-focused software and technologies.
What technologies have you helped bring to market? Predictive technologies, driven by AI and Machine Learning, are shaping the future of industry. At Intelematics I have helped to bring FailSafe to market in both the United and Australia. FailSafe is an AI solution which monitors vehicle battery health and predicts failure. This technology makes fleet management more efficient by preventing breakdowns and improves safety for drivers. It is now being trialled by major fleet operators.
What are the key challenges when developing new products? Spotting the market opportunities and aligning these with government priorities and technology is never easy. But as we head further towards a data-led culture, compliance will be an increasingly important factor to consider and navigate. This includes data ownership and consent – two things which are often unclear. We can overcome these challenges through new data discipline practices and by developing shared standards across industries and governments.
What are the opportunities for AI in fleet management? AI presents many opportunities particularly when it comes to vehicle health and driver safety, but the key opportunity lies in how it can be used to unlock insights from the vast amounts of data generated by vehicle sensors and systems. Using specialist consultants to manually analyse datasets is a common practice among fleet operators, but new AI tools will be designed to automate analysis and predict patterns in vehicle and driver behaviour. Realising this vision will rely on data accuracy and developing sophisticated Language Learning Models (LLMs) pre-trained to analyse these datasets. The better the fuel we can provide, the more impactful the insights from the AI will be.
What would you say to other women looking to follow in your footsteps? To work well in tech, one must have an open mind and keep learning and be ready for new challenges. There is no status quo per se, but patience and perseverance can help you be a steady player and have meaningful career longevity. Tech is gradually becoming more diverse and hence for a woman its no longer a lonely road. It offers work-life balance and gives a chance to use your skillsets for the larger good of the world and leave an impact.
Ambily Menon will be speaking on the topic of ‘How to prepare for Language Learning Models for the future’ at the ANZ Data Innovation Summit in Melbourne on 17th of October.
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