For combining human connection with project-management excellence in the Indian tech industry

Senior Project Manager at EXL ǀ Pune, India

Swati Pundir speaks in a dizzying, yet impressive, jargon of alphabetical acronyms. The senior project manager for data innovation company EXL dives deep on topics like CSR, IVR systems, LLM models, NFBCs, and so many diverse types of artificial intelligence (AI), showcasing an encyclopedic knowledge of her field. “Data speaks in itself,” Swati says, between detailing a past generative AI project and how she has tracked the percentage of calls that stay within a client’s phone bot system (this saves her clients money when the phone bot prevents human employees from having to be involved in resolving calls).

Swati is responsible for managing a team that creates data and AI solutions for clients, particularly those with customer call centers. Yet, despite toiling in the tech weeds week in and week out, it is the personal touch that Swati feels is essential to project management. “[My past supervisor] used to value humanity above his work,” she recalls. “Being at this level of seniority, it becomes very necessary to connect with your team, so that it's easier to get the work done.”

Swati believes that this human connection is a true asset to project managers. “When I speak to different people and understand their perspective, it helps me to widen my perspective,” she says. “That's how I get to learn many things that I am not aware of, and can implement into my project management skills. As a project manager, you should be broad-minded. You should be patient and listen to others, their ideas, and their ways of working. Because maybe your junior can teach you something.”

Swati’s ability to blend her human-interest strengths with data management expertise has led to measurable industry success. Recently, she addressed a client’s concerns about sharing customer data by demonstrating how data management vendors could securely and temporarily access customer data in the cloud. In doing so, Swati showcased her team’s intent-tagging model, which proved to be 85-90 percent accurate in identifying a caller’s need within the first few seconds of their interaction with a customer service associate.

Swati believes that continued training is essential for her team members—and for her own development. Last year, she completed the PMI’s overview training on generative AI for project managers, and has studied Python so that she can understand the intricate coding of projects she manages. She is especially a proponent of agile thinking.

Perhaps the truest proof of Swati’s project management success is how invisible it is to end users. Imagine you call a customer-service center to resolve a problem, and are helped either by a masterfully-programmed AI bot or by a human agent who quickly zeroes in on your problem. When your issue is dealt with quickly, allowing you to get back to your life, you can thank Swati and her team.