The International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad), in partnership with HYSEA celebrated the second anniversary of the TechForward Research Seminar Series on Monday night with a special edition titled “TechForward 2026: The Future, Powered by AI,” bringing together leaders from academia, industry, research, and the technology ecosystem to discuss the transformative role of artificial intelligence and the future of industry-academia collaboration. The anniversary edition featured a distinguished lineup of leaders from academia and industry, including Aditya Rao (ServiceNow), Dr. Deva Kumar U (IIIT Hyderabad), Maneesh Sehgal (DBS Tech), Shashi Reddy (Qualcomm), Sumeet Mathur (ServiceNow), Prof. B. S. Murty (IIT Hyderabad), Prof. Bhagwan Chowdhry (Indian School of Business), Prof. P. J. Narayanan (IIIT Hyderabad), Prof. Sandeep Kumar Shukla (IIIT Hyderabad), and Rajesh Dhuddu (PwC).

The International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad) marks the release of Roots & Wings: Building India’s Deep Tech Ecosystem, the authorized biography of Padma Shri Dr. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Chairman of the institute’s Governing Council and one of India’s most distinguished technologists, innovators and institution builders. Authored by entrepreneur and ecosystem builder Saloni Malhotra, Roots & Wings traces Dr. Jhunjhunwala’s remarkable journey over four decades — from returning to India in 1981 with the conviction that world-class technology could be built in the country, to becoming a pioneering force behind India’s deep-tech ecosystem. The book offers an intimate account of the ideas, leadership, and collaborations that have shaped his enduring contributions to technology, entrepreneurship, and nation-building.

In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, the term ‘Agentic AI’ has emerged as the next big frontier—one that promises to transform how machines collaborate with humans. At the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH), the TechForward series marked its second anniversary with a roundtable dedicated to demystifying this concept and exploring its real-world implications. According to Prof. Karthik Vaidhyanathan, whose research group has published over 20 papers on Agentic and Generative AI, the term is widely misunderstood. “It is neither a chatbot nor a model. Agentic AI is more of an ecosystem,” he explained. Unlike chatbots that merely respond to prompts, AI agents can reason, plan, use tools, remember context, and execute tasks autonomously. The challenge now lies not in building better models but in designing entire systems around them—integrating memory, governance, safety, and human oversight.