Making Something From Nothing: Sravanth Aluru of Avataar On How To Go From Idea To Launch
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
AR-enabled devices can also help employees visualize instructions while they are working on a physical task or view alternative items or products that can work as a solution without experiencing several trials and errors. AI-assisted skills will start making significant in-roads and there is a lot of latent utilitarian value & efficiency waiting to be tapped into.
As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Sravanth Aluru.
Sravanth Aluru is the Founder and CEO of Avataar. Sravanth received his engineering degree from IIT Bombay and is a Wharton Business school alumnus. He is a lead inventor for 10+ US Patents across AI, computer vision and data transmission optimization over mobile wireless networks.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?
An engineer at heart, I spent my formative years in early 2000s as a Program Manager at Microsoft, where I first experienced the power of AI and Computer Vision. Post my MBA at Wharton I worked with the technology investment banking division at Deutsche Bank helping tech entrepreneurs strategize and scale their business globally; advising on transactions across mergers, acquisitions, and Nasdaq technology IPOs, cumulating over $100 billion in value.
I started Avataar in 2014, with a vision to uncover untapped potential from the confluence of self-learning AI and computer vision. My belief stemmed from a fundamental view, that advancements in computer vision (with cameras now surpassing the capabilities of a human eye) coupled with AI (analogous to the human brain-eye coordination) can bring about a paradigm shift in visual discovery experiences for consumers and businesses globally.
Is there a particular story that inspired you to pursue a career in the XR industry?
XR was more of a destiny than a choice for me. I was first exposed to the power of AI & CV, right at the onset of my career at Microsoft, where xBox used a depth sensing camera called Kinect to innovate on highly contextual gaming experiences. While the hardware was still nascent and limited to early adopters, the potential of an inflection point in the future seemed inevitable to me. Post my MBA at Wharton, as a Wall Street Technology investment banker at Deutsche Bank, I first-hand witnessed massive organic & inorganic investments going into a converging future vision across tech giants, that of a new computing device (that replaces today’s flat screen mobile devices), which would bring to life a true life-size 3D digital world. In parallel, the underlying hardware evolution of smartphones has made possible the “here & now” opportunity of introducing a third dimension to today’s digital visual discovery catered to all smartphone users globally. I truly discovered a glimpse of this utilitarian value we are trying to create, and this was an ecosystem that stood out to me.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this fascinating career?
I experienced consumer validation in 2019 at Avataar. I spent some time doing A/B testing, comparing 2D images to life-size 3D renders, and saw how consumers reacted to the new technology. We saw a huge uptick in Gen Z and Millennials’ engagement and this evolution happened while we were improving our tech stack at the time, further cementing our belief and vision.
Covid-19 made technology a necessity across industries since we were confined at home and were forced to order more online which led to digital commerce expanding rapidly. Since then, we’ve witnessed consumer shopping behavior to have reset and changed forever.
The moment we replaced 2D images with interactive 3D experiences, we saw brands sell 3x more, which has formed the thesis of our clients’ return on investment proposition. We were also seeing a very consistent increase in consumer shopping behavior, with over 4 minutes of average engagement time discovering digital commerce, regardless of category and geography. It exceeded our expectations and the industry too. We found that when consumers win, the brand wins — because they were selling more than ever before.
What are the 3 things that concern you about the VR, AR and MR industries? Can you explain? What can be done to address those concerns?
Extended reality has the power to transform the way we interact with our reality. There is novelty value with these experiences, and I hope the industry doesn’t focus on one-time novelty, but more on delivering sustainable value to the consumer and overcoming adoptability across all age groups. Brands must think about the holistic consumer technology preferences, behavior and go to market with technology that appeals to consumers across all generations.
AR and VR headsets aren’t at the point where we can imagine a significant consumer penetration in the next 24 months. It will take both hardware and software to take it to the next level and will be an iterative process to extract value. The potential is immense as rightly being anticipated, but there is some distance to go to democratize 3D across the digital web.
Are there other ways that VR, AR and MR can improve our lives? Can you explain?
Physical reality will soon become even more dynamic such as driving a car while viewing a map that overlays the roads.
We can expect our homes to be half digital and half physical in the future as well as have wearables that can overlay rich digital information in our reality and change the way we interact with our physical world. Imagine a salesperson meeting with another person, and being able to view their LinkedIn profile, powered by AI-assisted search through a lens/ Google search results automatically pop up based on the topics that are being discussed verbally in real-time. Immersing in a digital world will be a far more ambient experience in our daily lives and will allow us to become superhumans and improve productivity.
As the industry continues to evolve, it will morph into being “always on & persistent”, opening up new degrees of freedom & presenting opportunities that we would never have imagined. There is a fundamental shift in digital visual discovery that will impact everyone sooner than we expect.
The moment technology succeeds, we humans will extract superhuman capabilities to assist us and will achieve our tasks in a far more efficient way. Between how we work, communicate, and live our personal lives, the internet won’t be a single destination we visit, but the transition where the connected world is where we live and it will become a part of our reality.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people or businesses?
Avataar is currently transforming consumers’ online buying/browsing behavior by creating immersive, interactive shopping experiences and reimagining the visual discovery journey. It uses a first-of-its-kind XR+AR technology platform to take an AI-driven approach to scaling commerce with an unparalleled level of detail on photorealism (while we blend say a digital virtual couch over a physical consumer living space) to help consumers make more informed purchase decisions.
The Avataar platform leverages AI to instantly convert product videos & images into life-size 3D models at scale. Avataar accelerates its customer’s 3D catalog transformation through its AI driven platform and thereafter allows brands to iterate on consumer psychology with first-to-market consumer journeys geared to convert impulse & purchase intent.
With 10+ US patents and strategic partnerships with Facebook and Google, Avataar is deeply committed to re-shaping the digital commerce industry through delivering life-size 3D and XR+AR first experiences across all consumer touchpoints (web, in-app and social channels), using their proprietary platform.
Today, we work with the largest ecommerce and retail players in the world, shaping their customer journeys and delivering recurring, sustainable RoI (Return on Investment).
Samsung is one such brand we work with, specifically their consumer electronics division, which has increased customer engagement with their products. Avataar’s conversion of Samsung products (i.e. TV, refrigerators and mobile phones) into life-size 3D interactive XR experiences has positively impacted the company’s customer acquisition and growth.
Our new path-to-purchase experiences help customers of e-commerce and retail brands feel more confident in their purchases and leverage it as a helpful asset for future purchase decisions.
The VR, AR and MR industries seem so exciting right now. What are the 3 things in particular that most excite you about the industry? Can you explain or give an example?
It’s exciting to see how AR/VR has exponentially grown recently due to the increasing interest in the digital world. The virtual environment allows brands and customers to connect on a new level where stores are selling physical and digital products and consumers can digitally explore in the comfort of their home. As the VR, AR and MR industries continue to advance, it will inevitably change the way people engage with brands and shop.
Augmented reality is accelerating evolution of the consumer shopping experience and is integrating into more industries than ever before. It’s not only for retailers and e-commerce brands but it’s already integrating into social, media & entertainment, manufacturing, education, tourism, military, and more. For those who been there in late 90s and early 00s, it does feel like the beginning of internet all over again!
I think the entertainment aspects of VR, AR and MR are apparent. Can you share with our readers how these industries can help us at work?
VR, AR and MR are making their way into the workplace by supporting employees in their day-to-day tasks and improving productivity. For example, augmented reality eyewear can assist in training new employees who are in either medical or manufacturing fields to showcase real case scenarios and how to manage them.
AR-enabled devices can also help employees visualize instructions while they are working on a physical task or view alternative items or products that can work as a solution without experiencing several trials and errors. AI-assisted skills will start making significant in-roads and there is a lot of latent utilitarian value & efficiency waiting to be tapped into.
Human communication will undergo significant shift from AR technology as we start living in a hybrid work world. Corporate collaboration and streamlined communication are common business goals and extended reality can keep teams connected by enabling virtual communication and seeing one another (bridging an important gap of missing body language in virtual meetings). At a personal level, imagine two friends in different cities, shopping together in a virtual mall that’s located in Paris. Overall, internet will take yet another giant step in further reducing the gap that physical distances bring to human communication and relationships.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
