AI not a panacea for everything, says former IBM Fellow

Trivandrum / January 13, 2026

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan.13: Though the latest artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has a major influence on Database Management System (DBMS), it is not a panacea for everything, said former IBM Fellow at Silicon Valley and Ex-IBM India Chief Scientist Prof C Mohan today.

“AI has its limitations and techies should not get carried away by the hype in the media or by academics, web 2.0 companies and consultants,” Prof Mohan noted while delivering a lecture on ‘Data Management Implications of Intelligent Computing’ at Technopark here.

The lecture was organized by Digital University of Kerala (DUK) in association with Technopark.

Shri Vasanth Varada, Deputy Vice President (Marketing & Customer Relationship); Dr A Mujeeb, Registrar, DUK; Dr. Jayashanker, Dean Academics; Shri Ashraf, Dean, DuK; researchers, students and techies attended.

Prof Mohan, who is also the Distinguished Professor of Science, Hong Kong Baptist University, China, said the Government of India’s India AI plays a major role in the country’s AI scene. He urged techies to cultivate soft skills and evangelize their work as both are extremely important in today’s scenario.

Explain that intelligent computing is merging information with everyday life, Prof Mohan said it involves improved digital assistants, home devices and facial recognition etc.

According to him, hardcore database systems work is alive and thriving, despite all the hype and funding associated with AI.

“It makes sense to learn from historical systems even if current focus is predominantly in the more modern cloud environment. Publishing papers not only on research systems but also on commercial ones has become even more important for the benefit of individuals and organizations,” he opined.

Prof Mohan said various types and size of organizations and business models have serious implications on application of AI technologies, especially regarding the availability of good training data for machine learning (ML) algorithms.

Commenting on general data research/industry trends, he said academics are founding more data startups than in the past. “Enterprises aim to democratize data, enabling data-driven decisions. Major tech companies in China have become very active in building systems and publishing papers in top-notch database conferences,” Prof Mohan said.

He also stressed the importance of creating interaction between academics and industrialists.

The lecture marked the beginning of a monthly talk series jointly organised by Technopark and the Digital University of Kerala, with Prof. C. Mohan’s session being the inaugural.

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