Vinayak Shrivastav is the co-founder and CEO of Toch.ai, a first-of-its-kind video-tech platform that uses cloud-agnostic and deep learning algorithms for the automatic interpretation of content featured in videos. Armed with a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Pune University, and an MBA from London Business School, Vinayak has achieved several milestones throughout his prolific career. Having been a former VC, Vinayak has worked with a few start-ups who were in their growth stage and has successfully exited those early-stage start-ups.
Most life coaches and mentors would say that the biggest problem with communication is it cannot be one-sided because people do not listen to understand, they listen to reply. However, in 2022, I would say that it works as the greatest vantage for visual communication because it arrests our primal system with rapt attention. The human mind has an immanent need for knowledge and interaction and that need has become an insatiable part of the subconscious ubiquitously. In the last few years we also have learned that videos are not just entertainment, it is an indispensable peripheral of business, politics, social media, voice of current affairs etcetera. In the corporate world videos are gaining importance as the perfect tool to reach audiences globally to disperse and proliferate the brand ethos while marketing and selling products.
Personally, I am an enthusiast, constantly learning from visual media in all its sundry; news, commercials, and documentaries alike, keeping abreast of times with news clips, commercials and documentaries. The perils of modern times are the attention deficits that humans face, bite-sized videos are a windfall that appeal to the senses as a burst of stimulation, and make an impression with clear, concise, and comprehensible messages that reach a larger demographic. The current trend has already seen a steep surge in video crusades in every social media platform whether it is live or an embedded video message that has multimodal learning content. The key is to keep it crisp, short, and precise and visual.
In the past decade we have witnessed a combustion of videos simply because it demands lesser physical or mental effort yet gains the same objective almost effortlessly. AI and ML based algorithms have even abridged videos as per our preferences with suggestive themes. As a point of reference, being a sports buff, if I were to watch all the centuries of Sir Don Bradman, it would take an unimaginable hour of work to compile his work of play. However today with a meta tag of Don Bradman, the algorithm abbreviates his best games, highlighting his skills in a matter of seconds, downsizing hours of manual labour of editing without a scope of error at a fraction of the cost. The impact of AI on video is just beginning to be felt across industries; sports, medicine, news, entertainment, education, road safety, agriculture, climatology, defence to name a few.
There has been a marvellous rise of the OTT, broadcasting, and streaming platforms with UHD resolutions, augmented digitisations, personalised branding and stipulated regulations, the world seems to be sailing in fair weather through the ocean of video content. The innovations in the video tech industry have been dynamic economical and ever promising. The collaborations between media moguls have made bundling and sharing even more accessible. Today the average consumer has a gluttonous appetite for short video content that satiates the needs yet leaving a desire for more. Needless to say, that with availability of affordable internet, smartphones and most importantly accessibility to a vast demographic there is a growing market for User Generated Content, made on the fly and yielding noteworthy ROI to the creator. Videos are now a part of every website, social media handles and advertisement plan. Simply because it reaches the mass, mirroring a sense of trust in the brand.
With the swell in the number of businesses opting for remote workplaces, the arithmetic is changing rapidly. Multinational brands are choosing video as a powerful tool to be connected and engaged with the teams over diversely located workplaces. Video is working as a paraphernalia in community building, to instil a sense of belonging and give a clear comprehension of brand strategy. With diverse teams from across the globe, virtual meeting rooms are being spruced up with AI assisted tools for collaborations and sharing. Meanwhile we could also create metaverse environments using AR and VR headsets making it as real as being in a conference room.
In a rapidly evolving global environment, I place my bet-on technology and innovation. Videos are voraciously being incorporated into traditional communication forms such as articles, blogs, and proposals. Video is being used to give a summary to drive the larger message. Video communication will continue to gain in popularity largely in manifolds as it is paltier than the usual tedious files and texts. At this point I must add that the link to future communications lies in the past. The Russians during the Russian revolution harboured the power of videos to propagate and educate the populace. The idea was to build emotions amongst its citizens. For the future, numerous technologies are being invented to make video communication even more personalised and faster and in real-time. With digital disruption video tech is making a gargantuan leap that will boost the market growth. Alongside AR and VR as a natural part of people’s lives at an affordable cost will spawn the consumers habits and bearings.
A thought that I would love to share; in the past five years we have already seen a marked difference in video resolution. With 5G being deployed around the world, videos are expected to be HD or UHD as more and more systems are supportive of the resolution level. With drones and 360 degrees cameras nothing will be left to imagination while integrations and add ons will help consumers to make a direct purchase from the video platform and interact directly with the host. More and more brands have introduced gamification to award users or viewers as a participatory impetus.
An important and vital message that needs to reach across users is that enough and more is being done on cyber security. The future tools are incorporating stringent protocols and policies with emboldened encryption for data protection and fortified security measures for third party applications.
On a personal note, I share a fervour for video conferencing, gaming with my colleagues and friends from across continents. It gives a feeling of personal presence and greater emotional connection than texts and mails. A video message from my parents and siblings brightens my day even on the dullest grim morning whilst I’m miles away from home. Video has a way through our psyche, it gives us a feeling of companionship and hope. So, the way I see it, video communication is already a proactive means of dialogue. Furthermore, with more innovations and advancements I see it as the most prudential and savvy mode of communication until we develop teleporting!