Sandeep Giri

I am a technologist, educator and entrepreneur working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, data science and human learning.

My career has been shaped by a mix of rigorous technical work, hands-on product building and teaching. But underneath all of it runs a single question that I keep returning to: how can technology and education help human beings think more deeply, create more freely and live better?

IIT Roorkee and the Beginning

I completed my undergraduate education at IIT Roorkee, where I studied Chemical Engineering but became deeply absorbed in computer science and technology. Even though my formal degree was not in computer science, I spent my college years developing expertise in software engineering, algorithms and systems.

During this time, I co-founded IMG — Information Management Group, the student-led technical group responsible for building and maintaining important online systems and resources on campus. This was my first experience of turning ideas into something real that many people depended on. It shaped my understanding that technology, at its best, is a form of service.

D. E. Shaw

After graduating, I joined D. E. Shaw, where I worked on technically demanding problems involving computing and data. This was in the early 2000s, before the modern vocabulary of big data and machine learning had entered everyday usage.

My time there gave me a foundation in rigorous problem solving, security-conscious engineering and the discipline of high-quality technical execution. These habits have stayed with me ever since.

Amazon

At Amazon, I worked on the product detail page — one of the most highly visited pages in internet commerce. I worked on recommendation systems and frameworks for selecting and optimising product images. This experience gave me a deep appreciation for the challenge of building systems that operate at very large scale while directly shaping what millions of users see and decide.

InMobi

At InMobi, I worked on recommendation systems involving very large-scale datasets, including systems operating on hundreds of terabytes of data. This deepened my experience in machine learning, data infrastructure and the practical challenges of turning raw data into useful business decisions.

tBits: Building for the Real World

I later founded tBits, a document management and technology company whose software was used extensively in India's power sector. Seeing software built by my team being used in the construction and operation of actual power plants gave me a strong sense of what it means to build for the real world rather than a demonstration.

Through tBits, I hired and mentored several talented engineers, many of them graduates from leading Indian engineering institutions. Watching those engineers go on to build strong careers was one of the most satisfying parts of that chapter.

CloudxLab: Teaching at Scale

I founded CloudxLab with a mission to make practical, high-quality technology education accessible to a large number of learners. CloudxLab has reached hundreds of thousands of learners interested in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data engineering, cloud computing and related fields.

Teaching and interacting with learners profoundly changed my thinking. I began to realise that education is not primarily about delivering information. It is about creating conditions in which a learner discovers ideas, gains confidence and develops the ability to think independently.

This insight gradually became what I call Learning by Inventing: an approach to teaching in which learners are guided through carefully designed problems until they discover the idea or formula themselves, rather than simply being told what it is.

One of the most meaningful moments of my teaching journey came when a learner told me that she had never believed she was good at mathematics, but that after attending my classes she had developed confidence and had begun teaching mathematics to her niece. That kind of transformation matters deeply to me.

Education should not just transmit knowledge. It should build the confidence and curiosity to go beyond what is already known.

Terno AI: Enterprise-Grade AI Analytics

I am now building Terno AI, an AI data scientist for enterprises.

Terno enables users to ask questions about their business data in natural language and obtain reliable, analytical answers. Instead of generating text that sounds plausible, Terno generates and executes analytical code against enterprise data in a secure environment. The results are reproducible, auditable and grounded in actual analysis.

This is important because many AI applications are impressive in demonstrations but become risky when connected to confidential enterprise data. Terno AI is designed around the principle that useful AI for business must be secure, auditable and correct.

My Teaching Philosophy

Over years of teaching, I have developed a strong belief in what I call Learning by Inventing. The core idea is simple:

Rather than beginning by giving learners a formula or an answer, design a sequence of simple problems that guides them toward discovering the idea themselves. When a learner discovers something, it becomes genuinely theirs.

I have seen this approach work with mathematics, machine learning, algorithms and data science. I am also interested in building an AI teacher that interacts through voice and a visual whiteboard, guiding learners through discovery rather than simply revealing answers.

My Broader Interests

My writing and thinking are not limited to technology or product building. I am genuinely interested in ideas that challenge conventional assumptions about how society, education and institutions are organised.

What does a world look like where education builds original thinkers rather than credential collectors? What would it mean for AI to help us imagine possibilities that have never existed, rather than simply reflecting the patterns of what already has?

These are the questions I return to in my writing.

Academic and Teaching Engagements

I have delivered lectures and educational engagements associated with institutions including IIT Bombay, the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University. I enjoy collaborating across industry, academia and entrepreneurship and am always interested in conversations that cross these lines.

Connect

I enjoy connecting with learners, educators, founders, researchers and enterprise leaders working on meaningful applications of artificial intelligence.

If you are interested in trustworthy AI, education, intelligent analytics or collaborative work, I would be glad to hear from you.