Happy Monday! Rapid developments in artificial intelligence are being adopted in India’s fast-growing wealthtech sector. This and more in today’s ETtech Morning Dispatch.

Also in this letter:
■ IT logs strong deal wins
■ Coldplay fans stuck in digital queue
■ The rise of long-form content

Wealthtech sector takes up AI models to rewire business

As tech startups in the wealthtech sector look to go beyond robo-advisory and algorithm-based trading, companies are experimenting with ChatGPT to find better ways of processing market information and servicing clients.

What’s happening: Lightspeed-backed Centricity has developed an AI-powered recommendation engine that is nearing the ability to offer services through voice-based commands. Centricity will have a 20-member team dedicated to working on various generative AI tools.

Tell me more: Wealthtech platform IndMoney uses AI to process large volumes of market reports and news, converting them into concise, user-friendly snippets for mobile consumption. Bengaluru-based Stable Money is adopting AI to streamline customer interactions, aiming for greater efficiency, while Mumbai-based discount brokerage mStock is exploring AI to standardise and speed up customer responses.

Big picture: While AI is being used across multiple functions by startups, industry insiders said that these are still very early days. There is a shortfall in data around conversations between relationship managers and investors. The lack of access to such data means AI-powered investment advisors will be difficult to build right away.

ETSA 2024 | Deeptech needs stronger govt, private sector tie-up to take root: Top Innovator winner BrainSight AI’s founder

Rimjhim Agrawal and Laina Emmanuel, founders, BrainSight AI

BrainSight AI is building software systems that use AI-powered models to decode problems within the human brain. After four years of testing with multiple hospitals, armed with a clinical licence, the startup is finally set on a commercialisation journey. This won the Bengaluru-based startup the Top Innovator Award in ET Startup Awards 2024.

Business model: The startup offers a tech platform to doctors and hospitals that can read MRI scans of patients suffering from brain tumours. It helps doctors understand the medical condition and undertake operational procedures on the patient in a more efficient fashion. Now BrainSight AI is moving into other brain-related ailments like Parkinson’s, brain stroke, or even issues around trauma.

Knowing the founders: Rimjhim Agrawal, a PhD in machine learning (ML) for psychiatry, and Laina Emmanuel, an engineering graduate with a masters in health management, started the venture back in 2020. They survived the last four years with grant funding and some small equity money, which added up to around $1 million. Now the company is in the process of signing business contracts with around 10 hospital chains.

What’s ahead: BrainSight AI is finding applications in psychiatry, along with neurosciences. The startup is setting up processes to apply for US FDA approval, which will let it expand to other geographies. It is competing with an Australian company that operates in the same space. Besides these two, there are hardly any large tech companies that have built solutions around these health challenges.

IT companies log strong deal wins in Q2 after a long lull

IT companies have seen strong deal wins in July and August, indicating a good pickup in demand momentum after a long lull.

Tell me more: At least 33 deals have been signed by key IT services globally, data sourced by us showed.

• In the first two months of the second quarter, bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) alone announced four deal wins with Primark, Rolls-Royce, Sydney Marathon, and McDonald’s Philippines.

• Infosys closed agreements with Sector Alarm, Delaware Department of Labour, TDC Net, ServiceNow, Metro Bank, and Posti Group.

• HCLTech, besides a large project with Xerox, has announced a deal with Germany’s apoBank, while Wipro announced at least three deals.

• Tech Mahindra also bagged two deals, including one with Doha telecommunications firm Ooredoo and Marshall Group for aerospace innovation.

Expert take: “Our deal tracker is indicating that deal signings have sequentially improved in the September ’24 quarter, and cost saving continues to be the dominant theme for deal signings. Over the last two years, when enterprises started prioritising cost savings, deal tenures have increased as these are typically longer tenured contracts,” said Kumar Rakesh, associate director of BNP Paribas.

Coldplay fans unload online as BookMyShow sale crashes

Seconds after tickets for the highly anticipated Coldplay concert went live, the website of online ticketing platform BookMyShow crashed, leaving fans stuck in digital queues and disappointed.

Driving the news: The concert, scheduled for January 18 and 19 at the DY Patil Sports Stadium, marks the British band’s return to India after an eight-year break. Frustrated fans took to social media to criticise the platform’s failure, with many questioning its ability to handle high-demand events.

BookMyShow noted that over 13 million fans logged in to the platform, hoping to secure their spots for the Coldplay concert.

Company’s response: “We implemented a queueing system to manage the overwhelming demand and addressed issues caused by suspicious and malicious traffic within minutes, causing a brief delay but ensuring minimal disruption for genuine fans,” a spokesperson for BookMyShow said.

Context: Fans who missed out on tickets on September 22 will have another chance when more tickets are released on November 22, 2024. Coldplay’s return to India has been long-awaited since their 2016 appearance at the Global Citizen Festival in Mumbai.

Other Top Stories By Our Reporters

The long shot: exploring the rise of long-form content in India’s creator economy: In the era of mindless scrolling on social media and attention spans of less than eight seconds, long-form content is continuing to thrive, monetise, and garner fan loyalties. While short-form content has a loyal fanbase who need its bite-sized convenience, long-form remains a powerful tool for brands seeking in-depth engagement and value. This is evidenced by notable Indian creators who have refused to succumb to the concept of quick virality.

Apple’s big bet on AI tech faces EU regulations hurdle: Apple’s latest smartphone, the iPhone 16, hit the shelves across various markets on Friday. But for the foreseeable future, consumers in the European Union will not be experiencing its AI suite of features, called Apple Intelligence, that the new device was built for. We explain why and other instances this year when Apple ran into trouble with EU authorities and regulations.

India hosts fewer than 10 micro data centres, finds study: India hosts fewer than 10 micro data centres (MDCs), which are small facilities designed to handle critical CPU and GPU workloads that require less space and need lower investments, a paper published by Nandan Nilekani-backed people+ai has found. The organisation’s brainchild, the Open Cloud Compute (OCC) project, advocates a distributed network of micro data centres.