With more than 20 years of experience in AI-led enterprise transformation, he has turned telecom and fintech challenges into scalable automation stories. From leading Bharti Airtel’s award-winning financial automation to building real-time data systems, his career has consistently blended innovation with meaningful impact. We sat down with him to understand how he thinks about scale, mentorship, and what comes next in the fintech space.  

Q: You’ve led some massive AI and automation programmes at Airtel. What’s been the real motivation behind your work over the years?  

Neeraj:    
For me, it has always been about solving what’s hard, what’s chaotic, and what’s ignored for too long because of its complexity. I’ve seen too many legacy systems cause unnecessary delays and friction in organisations, not because people don’t want to improve them, but because they’re seen as too embedded to change. That’s where I’ve found purpose: in making those systems better, cleaner, smarter.  

At Airtel, I had the chance to take deeply fragmented financial operations and rebuild them in a way that worked at scale. I’m not just talking about writing some scripts to automate steps. We were redesigning financial workflows across multiple geographies, currencies, and compliance layers. We weren’t chasing shiny metrics. We were trying to build something sustainable that could evolve with the business.  

But if I had to sum it up, I’d say my biggest motivation has been seeing the shift in people’s mindsets when automation finally works for them. When a team that used to dread month-end because of manual processes starts seeing results instantly, that changes how they work, how they think, and how they innovate.  

Q: Can you tell us about a project where you really saw that change take hold?  

Neeraj:    
Yes, the invoice automation system is a perfect example. At one point, we were processing over 57,000 invoices every month. These came in over 800 different formats, with varying tax rules and currencies. It was a logistical nightmare. We built a platform that used AI and robotic process automation to handle all of that automatically, identifying patterns, flagging exceptions, and learning as it went.  

What changed wasn’t just the numbers, though we did see a 40 percent drop in reconciliation errors, and brought the efficiency of several full-time equivalent roles in manual work. What really shifted was how people in finance and procurement started trusting the system. Vendors stopped chasing payments. Compliance teams had clean audit trails. Everyone’s work became easier, faster, and more accurate.  

To me, that’s what meaningful automation should do. It should disappear into the background while making life easier for everyone involved.  

Q: You also led the Africa Shared Services ERP migration, which sounds incredibly complex. What was that like?  

Neeraj:    
It was one of the toughest and most rewarding projects of my career. We had to migrate 14 African countries onto a single Oracle ERP R12 platform and each one had its own currency, tax framework, and statutory rules. So this wasn't just an automation project; we had to fundamentally re-engineer their entire financial backbone and its processes.  

We standardized everything from the chart of accounts to the core financial cycles like Procure-to-Pay, Order-to-Cash, and the financial close. A huge part of the work involved developing the necessary reports, interfaces, and custom workflows to meet very specific local and operational needs, all while keeping the core platform standard. We implemented strict SLAs, which led directly to faster closing cycles and more accurate reconciliations.  

Honestly, the technology was the predictable part. The real challenge was the change management, persuading 14 successful, independent teams to adopt one standardized framework without compromising on local regulation. I spent a lot of time on the ground with the country CFOs, showing them how standardization would actually ease their daily operations and reduce risk.  

In the end, we achieved complete end to end visibility and robust compliance, making reporting for investors much simpler. Winning Airtel’s Golden Award was fantastic recognition, but the real success was earning that trust across 14 diverse teams. It proved that achieving scale with tight control is absolutely possible.  

Q: You’ve solved some of the toughest automation problems at scale. But looking ahead, what’s the frontier you’re most interested in exploring?  

 Neeraj:  

When I look back at my work in telecom, whether it was automating finance, streamlining customer onboarding, or building data systems, the common thread was this: we were always catching up to complexity. Systems processed what had already happened — invoices raised, calls made, customers interacting with services.  

 The frontier I’m exploring now is what I call “living telecom systems” — platforms that don’t just automate but actually anticipate. Imagine a network where customer interactions, billing, compliance, and finance all feed into one continuous intelligence layer. A system that can sense churn risks as they form, predict revenue leakages before they occur, or auto-adjust customer plans and settlements in real time.  

 Telecom generates billions of micro-events every day. The next leap is connecting those dots into a self-learning backbone — one that adapts on its own as markets, customers, and regulations shift. That’s the kind of resilience and intelligence I believe the industry is ready for, and it’s where I’m putting my energy now.  

Q: You talk often about mentorship. Why is that such a big part of how you lead?  

Neeraj:    
Because I’ve seen how many great ideas don’t scale simply because people aren’t supported to take them forward. Mentorship is where those ideas get nurtured and shaped. It’s also where future leaders learn how to make decisions, not just write code or follow checklists.  

Over the past few years, I’ve mentored dozens of professionals through formal programmes like CII and Synergy Bridge. Some of them went on to launch their own startups, while others moved into leadership roles within digital transformation. I also ran in-house training programmes at Airtel to help over 100 employees upskill in AI and automation, including non-technical teams. That cross-pollination of knowledge is crucial if you want innovation to spread across an organisation, not stay locked in IT.  

So for me, mentorship is about scale, human scale. It’s about creating conditions where innovation continues even when I’m not in the room.  

Q: You’ve done impactful work in the social sector, too, especially during the pandemic. Can you talk about that?  

Neeraj:    
Yes, that project is still close to my heart. I worked with the Indian Social Responsibility Network (ISRN) during the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in remote parts of Nagaland and Meghalaya. We built a real-time data evaluation system to track vaccine coverage and gaps. It helped the field teams adapt quickly, redeploy resources, and stay aligned with public health goals.  

Similarly, we introduced AI-driven donor engagement tools and automated grant reporting systems. This wasn’t just about efficiency. It actually helped them increase their funding success rate by around 60 percent. So you had a tech backbone directly supporting life-saving work on the ground.  

It reminded me that even small-scale automation, done well, can have a massive impact, especially in areas where resources are limited and time matters.  

Q: What would you tell young professionals getting into automation or AI today?  

Neeraj:    
Don’t focus only on the technical side. Yes, you need strong skills in data, systems, and analytics. But you also need to understand the business. Ask yourself: Why does this process exist? Who benefits when it improves? What are the constraints?  

Also, teach others. If you’ve solved a problem, share how you did it. That’s how ecosystems grow. And that’s how you grow as well.  

 In conclusion, Neeraj Gupta is focused on the kind of innovation that scales quietly, across borders and departments, with measurable results and lasting cultural change. Whether automating Airtel’s financial backbone, guiding startups, or planning a fintech-first firm, his approach is consistent: find the complexity, make it simple, and help others rise with you.