Sandeep Rachapudi on TCS, AI Transformation, and the Value of Human Recognition

Sandeep Rachapudi is helping enterprises navigate the shift from digital transformation to AI transformation. As an IT services expert at Tata Consultancy Services, Sandeep has spent more than two decades working across fintech, cloud migration, digital transformation, generative AI, and now agentic AI. He is also one of BIG’s 2025 All-Star Judges, recognized for his commitment to reviewing nominations, providing thoughtful feedback, and helping identify innovation across industries.In this episode, Russ and Sandeep discuss what it means to judge innovation in a world where every company is trying to prove its value. Sandeep shares how his background in IT services helps him evaluate nominations by looking past the technology itself and asking a more important question: what value did it create?The conversation also explores what separates strong award submissions from weaker ones. For Sandeep, the best nominations clearly explain the problem, show how the solution was implemented, provide evidence, and demonstrate measurable impact. He especially values entries that include outside links, videos, customer outcomes, and clear proof of how an innovation improved a process, helped a customer, reduced risk, or created business value.Russ and Sandeep also discuss the current wave of AI adoption. Sandeep explains why companies should not put AI everywhere just because they can. Instead, they need to understand where probabilistic systems make sense, where deterministic systems should remain untouched, and what happens if an AI agent fails. His message is clear: use AI where it can improve decisions, patterns, analytics, fraud detection, operations, and efficiency, but keep humans in the loop where failure could create serious risk.Along the way, Sandeep discusses recognition, trust signals, cloud transformation, agentic AI, token costs, fintech use cases, kitchen inventory automation, risk assessment, and why human judging still matters in an AI-driven world.Topics Covered:[00:00] Welcome and intro, Sandeep Rachapudi and BIG’s All-Star Judges[01:03] Sandeep’s role at TCS and background in IT services[01:09] Two decades in fintech, cloud migration, digital transformation, and AI[01:41] How Sandeep first became involved as a BIG judge[02:12] Why recognition matters beyond internal company awards[04:43] Recognition as a trust signal and third party validation[05:33] Why transparent, online judging matters[06:46] The commitment behind judging six BIG programs[07:20] What keeps Sandeep coming back as a judge[08:55] Why reviewing nominations feels like seeing innovation pitches[09:40] How Sandeep evaluates award entries[10:00] Why outside links, videos, and proof points help judges[11:22] How judging sparks new ideas[12:06] What separates standout nominations from weaker ones[12:30] Examples of innovation in sustainability, AI, and customer value[14:27] Why outcomes matter more than technical complexity[15:28] The importance of showing clear value[16:34] How judging across industries helps Sandeep in his own work[17:06] Learning from nominations and applying those ideas to AI agents[18:30] Digital transformation, cloud migration, and the next wave of AI[20:23] What has changed most in enterprise AI over the last year[22:00] Where AI should and should not be applied[22:40] Fintech examples: transaction systems, fraud prevention, and analytics[25:48] AI use cases in operations, kitchens, inventory, and waste reduction[27:30] Asking what happens if an AI agent fails[28:28] Human in the loop as the last risk mitigator[29:16] What listeners should understand about judging and recognition[31:42] Final thoughts on judging, feedback, and the BIG community