“What attracted me to artificial intelligence engineering is the ability to use technology to solve real world problems,” said Deepak Gulia, Manager, AI Engineering. “What I like most about working in AI at IQVIA is that the projects I am involved in have a positive impact on healthcare and patients.”

Path to IQVIA

Deepak has always been ambitious and hungry to use his curiosity and technical expertise for the greater good. In high school, he was inspired by NASA's Mars Rovers Program, leading to his pursuit of an aeronautical engineering degree. While Deepak did not go on to become an astronaut per say, he did follow his passion for data, technology and challenging – yet rewarding – work.

In 2015, Deepak was looking for a coding job in SAS/R. At the time, he was enrolled at a coding training institute who referred him to IQVIA and soon after his exploration of the organization, he accepted a contractor role. Within a few months, he was offered a full-time position as a Data Analyst.

Deepak was promoted in 2018 to Lead Artificial Intelligence Engineer and most recently, relocated to London where he is developing a global big data product and managing a data science team. Outside of his day job, he and his teammates have been participating in various AI competitions, even winning the PAN India Hackathon for the past four consecutive years.

Passionate about the work we do

“The best part of working on IQVIA’s AIML team is challenging ourselves to solve real world problems,” said Deepak. “We can do more with unstructured data than we ever thought possible. It’s inspiring to see the impact our solutions are making on patients, prescribers and healthcare professionals.”

Deepak and his team have worked on machine learning projects to predict parallel imports of drugs. They have built platforms to answer key client questions from large volumes of data faster. And they have contributed to accelerating clinical trials by making better use of patient data.

“I am currently working on using AI algorithms to detect rare disease patients at earlier stages of diagnosis and then targeting relevant healthcare prescribers so these patients can be reached,” said Deepak. “Something a few years ago, we could have only dreamed about.”

Key skills for success as an artificial intelligence expert

Deepak says as an AI engineer you must know a few programming languages, notably Python and Spark. He says knowing a few databases help you compete the data story in a project.

Outside of the technical skills, you must be able to translate how a complex technical solution will address a business. He also says that innovation and bringing forth new ideas are key to success at any organization.

“Always be thinking of new ways to tackle healthcare problems and challenge the status quo,” said Deepak. “There are so many healthcare issues that have yet to solved and we have the power and capabilities to do so.”

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