Ashlesha’s journey began with a strong foundation in tech, graduating with honors with a Computer Science Engineering degree from BITS Pilani. After working as a software developer at Cisco Systems, the desire to make a bigger impact through her work led her to make a strategic leap into business, with an MBA from the prestigious IIM Bangalore. This unique blend of deep technical understanding and business acumen has allowed her to be force multiplier in terms of creating impact at scale across industries throughout her career.

Ashlesha was hand-picked among a select few right out of B-school to join Aditya Birla Group’s leadership program where she worked with CXOs across B2B sales, marketing, M&A and strategy. During her stint at Aditya Birla Group, she launched Allen Solly, a top apparel brand in India, across online marketplaces. She grew the online sales channel from 0 to 1, creatively leveraging AI to unlock growth. After spending some time with the Aditya Birla Group, she joined Amazon in 2016, and has had one of the fastest growth trajectories at Amazon.

At Amazon, Ashlesha has led multiple global launches of AI-enabled products and features. She leads technical product development that uses AI to power all the music experiences from Amazon Music on Alexa. She works with engineering and science teams across the globe on the most cutting-edge AI technologies to create first-to-world music experiences on Alexa. Her work has created positive PR for Amazon in leading publications like VentureBeat, VoiceBot.ai, Pocket-lint, Tech Advisor, and more.

Ashlesha has made contributions to the field of voice technology that extend beyond her job. She has filed 2 patents and published numerous whitepapers in the field of AI in Voice Assistants, a testament to her commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation. She is on the Board of Editors for multiple AI and ML journals like the International Journal of AI Research and Development (IJAIRD). She is seen as a top industry expert in the field of AI and voice assistants, with press coverage about her in top publications like Khaleej Times, Tech Bullion, NY Weekly and others.

Ashlesha is also currently serving as the co-chair for Human Computer Interaction at the prestigious Grace Hopper Celebration (biggest conference for women in tech with 30K+ participants across 115 countries).

Looking forward, with the advent of the latest developments in AI, particularly Large Language Models, Ashlesha is at the forefront of this AI development, leading and influencing the voice assistant space to leverage these technologies to provide users with personalized, delightful yet ethical and safe product experiences.

Ashlesha’s mission and vision is to be a thought leader and influencing voice to help companies across the world use AI in a positive and ethical way to improve lives.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleshakadam/