But here’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately: with AI now dominating our digital landscape, the rules of the game are changing. The very machines that are supposed to make content creation easier might be pushing us back to the fundamentals of quality. It’s a quiet irony, isn’t it?

Think about it this way: AI, at its core, is a super-sophisticated pattern-matcher. It doesn’t just read; it evaluates. It’s designed to spot inconsistencies, outdated facts, and statistical outliers in data. Over time, it learns which sources consistently deliver accuracy and depth. While a person might be fooled by a slick-looking website, AI is building an algorithmic trust profile for every source it encounters.

This shifts the credibility game completely. The old days of low-effort, high-volume content farms are fading. Now, your goal shouldn’t be to win the daily clickbait race. It should be to build what I’m calling “algorithmic trust capital.” Of course, AI helps but what gets noticed is originality. By fellow Humans.

This means getting your work into authentic, authoritative outlets. The old school way of publishing—pitching to a reputable journal, going through a rigorous editor, or getting a piece peer-reviewed—is no longer just for human audiences. It’s a critical investment in your digital credibility footprint. I know, it’s slower. It’s harder. But that hard work pays off in the long run. it is not the same – getting published in the new yorker versus your local online magazine.

The algorithms behind tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI overviews are increasingly relying on a core network of verified, high-quality sources. If your message is repeatedly cited in these spaces, it becomes part of the “trusted corpus” that AI leans on. If not, you risk being lost in the digital ocean of noise.

So, while it’s tempting to think AI makes traditional publishing obsolete, I believe the opposite is true. The shortcuts are losing relevance. The long, hard path of quality, expertise, and consistency is becoming the only way to build a voice that will carry weight tomorrow. The machines are watching, and they know the difference.

We are living in the digital world with the IOT devices getting all pervasive starting with the innocent echo device that has made its way into many homes. With a whole lot of photos spread across devices, along with a range of documents, personal ID cards, ebooks, etc.. a personal space on the cloud is well on its way to be a necessity.

We all already have some personal space on the cloud – be it your emails on gmail, or the music playlist on spotify – they are all stored on the cloud. Introduction of 5G and related services would generate even more data in the future. Data centres are mushrooming and would continue to expand with more and more of our activities moving online.

While still very nascent, having a private space on the cloud would soon be as ubiquitous as having a roof over your head.

The big tech know this and are leaving no stone unturned to woo us into their service. Apple launched its subscription bundle Apple One and sneaked in a whopping 2TB of cloud space in its premium option;  Microsoft has been bundling its Microsoft office suite with its cloud offering; amazon/google have their own offerings along with a countless others.

These companies know that this is he next growth area with a big potential moat as it is tough for a consumer to move out once he/she has bought in into the service.

As these services evolve, I see a lot of opportunities in consolidating all the needs and providing them as a bundled service. Currently, there are multiple places that I end up going to for the various cloud needs which is non effective. The 1TB of space on one drive, 50GB on icloud, In addition I subscribe separately to host my blog, a separate service for my online diary and another one for my home camera. Plus the countless other services that host my data in terms of email, social media, etc..

In my view, the ideal cloud service of the future would be someone where all my digital material can sit without disturbance and I can pay a monthly charge for it – privacy and the convenience, with the always-up reliability. All the personal space (photos, documents), cloud needs for the internet of things (live camera feed, Smart speaker preferences), along with some hosting space into one bundled service would create a winner.

In addition to these services, there needs to be regulation on the lines of what can the provider do and cannot do with the data, along with clear laws for portability (very much like mobile number portability for our cellular connections). While the social media was a war for our attention trading in our data, the future would be a war for our data and the opportunity to hold them all. Very much like the virtual roof on our heads that everyone would aspire to have as a necessity.

We are sure in the early days of this revolution, but one that is surely going to be all engulfing and any service having a head start would have a huge competitive advantage in these “Cloud Wars”.

This post originally appeared on my LinkedIn profile-https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cloud-wars-bharat-jhurani/

This is the headline in a business page of today’s new York times. Such headlines have become all but too common in the recent past with legacy firms selling to finance companies for a small percentage of what they were once worth. In this case an institution that was founded in 1857, and was run by the same family since.

Same is the story with departmental stores here in the US. Lord & taylor – an icon of yesteryears has filed for bankruptcy. This follows other stalwarts including J.C.Penney Co., Neiman Marcus Group Ltd., Stage Stores Inc., etc..

The article mentions that McClatchy’s troubles are traced back to 2006 when it bought its larger rival, Knight Ridder, for $4.5 billion. Today, McClatchy is selling for ~$300 Million. A small percentage of what it was.

The newspaper industry has been struggling for years now with the advent of the new age digital media channels running amok, and changing habits of consumers. Similar is the case with face-to-face loans, that’s why you should apply for same day loans online, skip those boring procedures and try to move forward to modernity. However, amidst these challenges, there’s also the issue of fake paystub, adding another layer of complexity to financial transactions in today’s evolving market landscape.

This brings us to the moot point – every industry would eventually get obsolete, how do you ensure you are not caught in the downturn and remain relevant by constantly evolving and adapting to the new changing behaviours?

This interest piqued my curiosity to know more about the various techniques and the genesis behind this science.  Below is my attempt to summarize my learnings, which I am hoping would help guide anyone seeking to start on this immensely rewarding journey.

While it is tough to have one single definition for meditation, it is summarized as – “..a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state” on Wikipedia.

What is the difference between meditation and mindlfulness? While meditation is like the training ground where we learn to focus on the present for a limited time, mindfulness is the quality of being present throughout the day as we conduct our various duties. Being fully engaged with what we do – being focused, or in the state of flow.

The discipline of meditation finds mention in ancient traditions across the world as the path towards enlightenment and self-realization. The fundamental belief behind all the various types of meditation remains the same – being mindful of the breath – the connector of the body and the mind. The various types of meditation can be classified as – 

• Mindfulness meditation/Zen – originates from Buddhist teachings
• spiritual meditation – originates in eastern religions, trying to seek a deeper connection with God
• focused meditation – Involves concentration using any of the five senses
• movement meditation – while walking through the woods, gardening or other gentle forms of motion
• Mantra meditation – Using a repetitive sound (like Om)/Sound (Gongs, bowls, etc..) to clear the mind

While there are various ways in which the above types are defined by various sources, I believe the above mentioned types are the super sets of what it is. There forms known as Chakra meditation, Qigong meditation, vipassana meditation, etc.. which I find them all to be a part or combination of the above mentioned types.

How to meditate

While there are numerous resources on this on a simple online search, the basic principle is – “Focus on the breath, while breathing naturally”. No effort, comfortable posture and relaxed body. It is of course not that straight forward and requires mindful practice to be good at (like any other skill that you would learn). Gradual practice would help you increase the total time that you are able to focus without any distractions.

The benefits of regular meditation are plenty – ranging from better physical health to mental health, and one needs to get into the practice, and observe for himself/herself the positive effect on life.

There are various resources out there to get you started, and for those curious, I use the “headspace” app to guide my meditation practice.

Time has been moving rather fast this year with a global pandemic seizing the world. Life has been one roller coaster ride for me right since Jan, or rather late last year. I had got this job in Atlanta and had spent a majority part of the end of last year preparing to get my documentation, etc.. in place for the VISA.

Attending the VISA interviews and the countless farewells I landed up in America end of the month. Looking back that seems like a completely different world. Here I was, as recently as eight months back when I was criss-crossing the country, and across the atlantic within the first month only to be holed up in my high rise apartment for the remainder of the year.

After spending a very informative week in Florida, I got to Atlanta. New Country, new office, new colleagues, looking for a place to stay while spending my nights in a downtown hotel during the February chilly weather here in Atlanta, February seemed hopeful. Little did I realize that a virus brewing somewhere on the other side of the world would create havoc.

March, I moved into a perfect apartment suiting my tastes – high rise, with a beautiful long green view from the room with huge glass windows. The virus was razing through the world and by now we knew that it would be a matter of time it would start affecting us. We were asked to work from home. This started setting the tone for rest of the year.

Initially, without realizing the rather long impact of the pandemic, I was hopeful like everyone else that this would pass in a couple of months, if not weeks. An air of uncertainty all over, and my view from the apartment seeming monotonous, I gave in to the fact that this is here to stay.

Denial Mode, then ignore mode to then accepting the way it is mode and moving on. Since then, all the truisms of the pandemic and work from home have been coming true one after the another.

Cooking, going for longish walks in solitude, picking up home workouts through an app, reading extensively and watching a huge piece of content across streaming services. Did them all. While at the same time adapting to the “new normal”.

With the family on the other side of the planet, facetime has been a lifesaver. I would not have used so much bandwidth all my life till now on calls that I have used in the last six months. Thank goodness the internet speed kept up on both sides.

While I look back to the last six months, one thing that has immensely helped me remain sane is the day 1 decision in March that though there would be no office to go to, I would follow the same schedule and get into work mode (with work attire and shoes!) to ensure I mentally signal my body and the mind. This has helped and while it felt robotic at many a times, doing it for the last six months it has become a part of me.

The world still seems to be very much in the middle of the pandemic with the end nowhere in sight. Am hoping a vaccine would soon land up and reach the entire human population soon enough for life to be back to normal. What is normal again? Is this the “new normal”? A paradox.

One good non-FMCG example of a platform brand is Wechat in China which takes care of a gamut of stuff for the consumer, right from the smallest transaction to the smallest interaction, it is all routed through this super app. Fundamentally, I believe Wechat as a brand stands for “enabling and simplifying interactions”. It is a super app of any interaction (financial or otherwise).

Similarly, there could be a platform for various big needs that the consumer has. There are hordes of experiences that the consumer today is struggling with; With a fragmented approach and individual  gateways for each of these experiences it is not ideal, and thus someone who manages to consolidate these experiences in a useful manner would manage to create immense value.

In the software world, Cloud and Artificial intelligence would of course be important tools that would be used to provide these services. A point to note here is – Cloud, Machine learning, AI, etc.. are all in the backend to achieve the consumer’s need. The consumer is not looking for AI, he wants to get a job done and is employing a particular piece of hardware/software/service to accomplish that in the best possible way. What Brand would he trust to accomplish that particular “job” is where the moolah lies.

Companies and new age startups that think on these lines would have a chance to build a Mega integrated business capturing opportunities at multiple areas of the entire value chain. In the digital space, with the window of our digital devices, some of the spaces that I think are ripe for disruption – 

Entertainment – one platform for all my needs

What are the various avenues I reach out to entertain me in the digital world? I consume content. Be it by reading, listening, watching (from a 5 minute short film to a marathon season of a series), experiencing it with gaming, etc.. Before I get to that, I currently need to have gatekeeper apps to figure out what content, where can I access it, and blah, blah, blah, creating a friction between the experience. Can we have one place that I can access all of it?

• Movies
• Music, Podcasts,
• Gaming
• Reading – News, Magazines and Books

I feel the most poised to win this battle would be Apple. It already has a presence in all of these with their individual platforms – “Apple TV”, “Apple Music”, “Arcade”, “Book”, “News”, etc.. I am sure it is a matter of time when they figure out a smart way to integrate it all into one. A one stop solution for all the content that you can consume..

Health – one stop solution where one can access all my health needs

The four basic tenets of Health all mixed into one. The consumer would want to think of Health holistically and ideally want to lean on to one player for all his/her Health Needs. The four tenets of good health – 

• Food
• Physical
• Emotional/Mental
• Financial 

The super app platform could be that one place where the consumer gets access to reliable information regarding all of the above, take online/offline classes for any of the health programs, have access to his entire medical/financial portfolio and history along with an advisor, schedule appointments with a doctor/diagnostics, order medicines, etc..

I think Cultfit in India is well on its way to build this, and with a wide offline presence complementing its online platform. It is well placed to build trust and reliability which is the most important tenet for any player in this space. Gaia is another player in this space that has potential and a vast adoption.

What are the other areas that you think are ripe for disruption?

This post originally appeared on my LinkedIn profile- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/platform-thinking-bharat-jhurani/

I briefly touched upon the purpose (the in thing!), and on purpose can a blog serve in today’s hyper connected world where everyone is looking for a quick adrenaline fix, on a social media platform in less than 140 characters ideally. Reports indicate that our attention span has reduced to single digit seconds in the last decade. That means a person has less than a 10 second attention span on a particular “distraction” before moving on to something else. (The 10 second mentioned here is generous, reports indicate much lower than that!) In such times, what in the world would a person come to read a blog post for?

Well, I believe it is more of a personal journal. A chronicle sorts to record the happenings and thoughts in your life. And this blog has served it well all through the years – its been more than a decade that I have been maintaining it in different forms.

Thus, with this thought, I am convinced that a blog is much more than what it seems. It is like a open public personal diary of sorts. And that it is, and would continue to be, in the time foreseeable.

In related news, I have recently moved to Atlanta, Georgia taking up an assignment within the company. These are exciting times, with new experiences everyday. I am excited on this new journey, and looking forward to new experiences and events enjoying the varied culture and a diverse ecosystem that this country has to offer. Hoping to keep you posted on these on a regular basis.

After long. Like after really really long, I today stumbled upon my site. My Blog. Bharatjhurani.com !

Yes, I actually stumbled upon it, when I was searching for something else, and then realized that I actually pay a small fee every quarter to continue hosting this, and I have not even looked at it. No point checking if anyone has been looking at it! There is no new content on it for more than a year now for someone to be even redirected or check for anything here.

This brings me to the thought – Are personal blogs relevant anymore? In this age of Instagram, and snapchat, where people can be connected with the “interesting stuff” happening in your life literally LIVE, why would anyone take the effort of going to a blog and reading stuff? More importantly, why would someone take the effort of writing down the whole episode, thoughts, beliefs, comments knowing very well that it is too late, and people have moved on.

Taking one step back, why did I start the blog? To pen down my thoughts. I faintly remember that afternoon in the computer lab in engineering college when I stumbled (back then too!) upon this new toy called “blog” and immediately started penning down some random ramblings. Looking at the stuff that I had written back then, I clearly did not care who is reading it and what could be the repercussions. Did I not know that there could be a privacy filter, and I could make this blog a read only? I am sure I did. I just did not care. Call it youth!

From when I can remember, I have always loved writing and storing my thoughts for perpetuity. I have maintained a personal journal (in the physical form) since the late nineties right since my early teen years. (Go calculate my age backward!) I have always enjoyed writing, and it is kind of therapeutic.

I guess, with the years, I have become more mature and thus more careful. I have come to realize that my innocent ramblings could have a deep impact, and thus am careful on what is private , and what can go public.

In such a quest, I don’t see a reason why should anyone be interested in my private life – what am I upto, what am I doing on weekends, which movie did I watch, which book did I read, etc..

There was a brief time when I had started using this blog as a review site, but then I realized that it was tending to be more of a reminder for myself of which movies I have watched, and what books I had read, and I am no expert to be reviewing these works of art. I stopped my reviews in public, and rather penned down my small notes privately.

In this day and age, I guess we have all graduated to instant gratification (in the “insta” age), and thus these social media platforms serve their purpose well. Though, I still don’t see a reason for people to flash their entire vacation album, but well,  I believe it is just easier that way to share some pictures with your friends and family. To each his own!

In such circumstances, this blog needs to serve a different purpose.

I think this would turn into a chronicler of all that I would want the world to know. There is stuff that I would like to share with you, hoping that it would help someone develop a better perspective on things that I have been doing, and thus help gain some knowledge. It would also serve the place where i make my point of view clear – to myself, and to whoever cares!

With this renewed purpose, I am hoping to be more regular on this platform, and would love to hear from you.