Sayali Joshi has long known that advanced technologies hold the power to solve complex problems. As a teenager, she planned to pursue a pathway that would take her around the world and expose her to innovative ways to process information.
After earning a bachelor's in computer science in 2021 from the Marathwada Institute of Technology in Aurangabad, India, Joshi launched her career at Red Hat, an IT services and consulting company in Pune, Maharashtra, India. As a technical support engineer, she focused on Ansible, a tool that automates Linux systems for international companies like IBM, Verizon, and Visa.
"I developed an interest in subjects like machine learning and big data during my undergraduate studies," Joshi said. "Resolving automation cases and contributing to seamless cloud rollouts at Red Hat gave me real-world experience and helped me realize I wanted to explore the full power of data analytics."
While researching master's programs, Joshi was drawn to Robinson's world-class faculty and hands-on curriculum focusing on emerging technologies like generative AI and cloud automation. She enrolled in the M.S. in Information Systems program in July 2024 and graduates this summer.
"I remember seeing a photograph of a Robison student," she said. "It made me think, 'I want to be that person one day—someone who not only graduates but also uses their education to do meaningful work.'"
This past January, Joshi was hired as a cloud support engineer at DataStax, an AI platform provider recently acquired by IBM. Her role involves supporting solutions across Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure. Plus, her background in automation and analytics allows her to contribute to projects involving LangChain and other generative AI tools.
"I'm using what I learn in class to solve real-time technical issues," she said. "Whether it's running machine learning models or identifying the right architecture for a system, I can confidently make suggestions in meetings and back them up with strong results."
Joshi credits Dr. Balasubramaniam Ramesh's Generative AI for Business course with helping her understand the theory behind generative AI as well as its practical applications in summarizing data and automating workflows. She appreciates how the program's overall curriculum incorporates the most cutting-edge data strategies and technologies.
Outside of the classroom, Joshi has earned multiple AWS and SAP certifications through Robinsons' training modules.
“I always knew I wanted to pursue higher education and work with global teams,” she said. “The way AI and cloud computing are shaping industries today excites me.”
Whether helping multinational companies gain faster insights and smarter automation or guiding startups to save money and build scale, Joshi sees AI as the future of business.
"I believe human imagination, combined with continuous learning, will fuel the next wave of innovation, which includes AI," she said. "And I want to be right in the middle of it."