AI Without the Overwhelm: An Interview with Rohan Marfatia

This article was originally published by MonitorDaily in July 2024.
Reprinted with permission from the author.

AI is top-of-mind for professionals across the industry, but the exploration and implementation processes can be a lot to take in. Deb Reuben and Rohan Marfatia discuss how leaders can push past the overwhelm and begin successfully adopting AI.

Getting practical value from AI is a hot topic in our industry. Many don’t know where to begin. How might leaders get past the overwhelm to take on this exciting technology to successfully adopt and extract value from AI?

To explore further, I sat down with Rohan Marfatia, CEO at Beround. We discussed the critical role of AI and automation in equipment finance, strategies for overcoming adoption challenges and the importance of collaboration and continuous learning in successfully implementing and evolving AI solutions to enhance customer experience and maintain competitiveness. Following is our interview condensed and rephrased for conciseness.

REUBEN: What are the highlights of your career journey leading to what you do today?

ROHAN MARFATIA: My career started with my dad’s advice on the importance of taking risks. Born and raised in India, I completed my undergrad there before relocating to London. Despite initial hesitation, my dad encouraged me to embrace the opportunity. This major move led to my involvement in British Telecom’s 21st-century network transformation, a billion-dollar project where I joined a fast-track leadership program.

In the Netherlands, I met my current business partner and wife. My experiences across different cultures — from the UK to the Netherlands and the U.S. — have been invaluable. I worked in Denver, St. Louis and the Bay Area, focusing on technology and consulting. My journey included roles in both large companies and startups, particularly those partnering with Salesforce and Microsoft.

Throughout my career, partnerships have been crucial, collaborating with major companies like AT&T, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and Databricks. Today, at Beround, we consider ourselves a “smile-enabling company” focused on building a happiness ecosystem through partnerships in data, AI and CRM.

My background spans telecom, financial services, healthcare and biotech, always aiming to drive transformation and bring smiles to our customers through strategic partnerships.

REUBEN: What is the importance of AI in the context of equipment finance?

MARFATIA: We’re in a dynamic time, and fierce competition comes from all directions. In equipment finance, we’re seeing new models emerge — equipment-as-a-service, IoT connectivity, asset tracking — you name it. Whether you’re a lessor, vendor or lessee, the game is changing fast.

Here’s where AI comes in. It’s not about starting with tech and finding a problem to solve. No, you start with your business challenge — how can you compete better, how can you differentiate yourself? That’s where AI becomes your secret weapon.

AI lets you automate those repetitive, low-value tasks. Freeing up your team’s brainpower for stuff that really matters — your core objectives, your strategic goals. Think about it. Your leadership, your ops team, your sales folks — they can focus on what truly drives your business forward.

And let me tell you, this tech is evolving at lightning speed. Even we practitioners who’ve been in the game for 20 years can barely keep up, but that’s exactly why it’s so crucial. This is the age of AI, and if you’re not using it to improve your processes and focus on your core objectives, well, someone else is going to eat your lunch.

Bottom line? AI isn’t just important in equipment finance — it’s becoming essential. Use it wisely, and you’ll stay ahead of the curve. Ignore it, and you risk being left behind. It’s that simple.

REUBEN: Where can leaders begin to adopt intelligent automation?

MARFATIA: Start small and focus on areas that can really move the needle for your customer experience. You don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Pick a specific area where you think automation could make a difference and experiment. As an example of this targeted approach, one of our customers in equipment finance used AI to time their offers based on where customers were in their lifecycle. After identifying an area to focus on, don’t try to go it alone. Partner with experts who can guide you through the process. These days, you can run micro sprints — we’re talking hours or days, not weeks — to test ideas quickly.

The beauty is, even if it doesn’t work out perfectly, you’ll learn something valuable. And if it does work, you could see a real transformation in your customer experience.

The hardest part is getting started. Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. Take that first step, no matter how small; you’ll find the rest starts to fall into place. Remember, you’re not committing to a massive overhaul — you’re just exploring possibilities. Dive in and see where it takes you.

REUBEN: How might we overcome common challenges in adopting AI?

MARFATIA: With any new tech, there’s always some fear and skepticism. The key is change management. Leadership shifting the mindset from fear to opportunity. Instead of asking, “What if AI takes my job?” we want people asking, “How can AI help me focus on our core business?”

There are tons of opportunities in equipment finance back-office operations — invoice automation, lease processing, credit scoring, payment applications. Automating these tasks frees up time for more strategic work. Making this shift requires two things. First, leadership must create a culture that embraces constant change and innovation. Second, find the right partners. Don’t do it alone. Work with experts who can guide you through the process.

In our case, we team up with companies like Salesforce and MuleSoft. Their RPA tools, combined with API management and AI analytics, create a powerful package. It’s about building an ecosystem of partners who can help drive AI and automation across your organization.

REUBEN: How can leaders help employees overcome fear and ensure a smooth transition to ai adoption?

MARFATIA: The fear around AI is valid, but here’s the thing — it’s not about AI taking your job, it’s about keeping yourself relevant. Leaders must make this clear to their teams. Continuous learning and upskilling are key. Throughout my 20-year career, I’ve made it a point to be continually learning, and now I’m taking a course on emerging technologies and AI at California Science and Technology University.

It’s not about padding your resume but staying relevant in a rapidly-changing world. Leaders need to reinforce this message. In reality, if someone loses their job, it’s likely not because AI took it, but because they didn’t adapt and upskill.

You can’t resist; it’s happening as we speak. You must get on the bandwagon. And here’s the exciting part — people are intrigued by AI. They want to tinker with tools like Claude or GPT. As leaders, we need to tap into this excitement. Encourage exploration. Create opportunities for learning and experimenting. Make it clear that AI isn’t a threat; it’s a tool to enhance their work.

REUBEN: How important is collaboration in AI adoption?

MARFATIA: Collaboration is crucial in AI adoption. It’s not about implementing a technology and calling it a day. Consider the whole lifecycle. First, evaluate and design your use case. Then implement it with a partner like MuleSoft, Salesforce or UiPath. But here’s where it gets interesting — there’s a long “operate” phase after that. This is where collaboration really shines.

Once your AI solution is live, you’ll constantly face new scenarios and edge cases. That’s when having strong partnerships becomes invaluable. Tech companies aren’t standing still; they’re constantly updating their products. As products evolve, we’d be foolish not to leverage new capabilities.

It’s a two-way street. We partner closely with these product teams, relaying what we’re experiencing in the industry. This helps them enhance their platforms, and, in turn, we can implement these improvements for our equipment finance clients.

REUBEN: What trends are you watching? What’s next?

MARFATIA: We see a massive shift towards customer experience. It’s not just about the product anymore; it’s about how quickly and easily customers can get what they need. In equipment finance, we’re moving away from the old, slow processes that have been around for decades. Customers today want instant gratification. We’re seeing a push towards technologies that enable faster, more accurate processes while eliminating human error.

Another key trend is the rise of MLOps and LLMOps — basically, managing and deploying machine learning and large language models more effectively. It’s getting easier for companies to integrate advanced AI technologies into their operations.

What’s exciting is seeing equipment finance companies transforming into tech companies, realizing that, to offer a stellar customer experience, they need to fully embrace new technologies.

REUBEN: What is something leaders can do today to shape a better future?

MARFATIA: Drive innovative ways to adopt change. Change is constant, and things are evolving rapidly around us. So, the question is: how can we be creative in embracing this change?

One approach I love is turning change adoption into a friendly competition. Instead of just asking for use cases, why not create a contest? You might find your accounting department suddenly coming up with 50 different use cases for new tech. Then other teams start thinking, “Wait, if they have 40 use cases and we don’t even have one, we’re falling behind!”

This fosters a sense of healthy competition to embrace change. It’s a different way of implementing new ideas and technologies. By doing this, you’re not just preparing for the future — you’re actively shaping it. To shape a better tomorrow, we need to embrace change today. As leaders, our job is to make that embrace exciting and engaging for our teams. •

Rohan Marfatia is the CEO of Beround with two decades of global experience scaling companies through partnerships and innovative technology solutions. Beround is a company focused on creating a happiness ecosystem at the intersection of data, AI and CRM. Learn more at beroundgroup.com.

Deborah Reuben, CLFP is CEO and founder of TomorrowZone, an innovative consulting firm bringing forward-thinking insights and original ideas to help companies explore the art of the possible and design roadmaps for the future. She holds many industry leadership positions and authored The Certified Lease & Finance Professionals’ Handbook 6th-9th editions. Learn more at tomorrowzone.io.