A Career in Automation: How Ruchika is Leading with Curiosity and Passion for Real Outcomes

In a world where technology is evolving faster than ever, Ruchika stands at the intersection of innovation and real-world impact. As the Market Leader for Technical Sales in IBM’s Automation business across India and South Asia, she is not only guiding enterprise clients through digital transformation — she’s shaping the future of how Automation can unlock untapped value.

With a 21-year career spanning industry giants, Ruchika shares her perspective on the roles, including:

·         What is AI+ Automation?
·         What does Automation look like at IBM?
·         Advice on top skills for a career in Automation.

Ruchika, who is based in Gurgaon, India, has led Sales, Pre-sales, Specialist Sales, GTM (Go-to-Market), Strategy Cloud solutions’ sales, and Business Development across India, Middle-East & South-East Asia regions covering global accounts’ segments, large enterprises, SMB (Small and Medium-sized Businesses) as well as Mid-market segments.

She’s worked with Indian clients, solving problems for them via technologies like Cloud, Business Applications, Application Modernization, Agentic AI-powered Middleware platforms, IT Ops Automation, Infrastructure as a code (IaC), AI+ Risk & Resiliency platforms, FinOps/IT Financial Management and much more. She encourages customers to go beyond siloed tools and lead with an AI+ Automation-First Mindset & Culture, solving some real on-ground problems, driving sustained performance and efficiency benefits.

But how does she do it? Her true power lies in her curiosity and sense of purpose that she drives from problem-solving for clients.

“I would call myself simply a ‘curious mind’, hungry to solve problems and drive real tangible outcomes for customers,” she says.

At IBM, she has found the perfect platform to channel that energy — and her passion is contagious.

The India and South Asia (ISA) region represents one of the most dynamic and fast-evolving technology landscapes in the world. When it comes to Automation, Ruchika sees clear market signals that point to a major shift in how organizations think about their IT investments.

“Over the last two years, Indian CXOs (Chief "X" Officer: A general term used to describe executive-level roles within a company) have developed a clear imperative around creating business value and cost optimization. Every single investment/initiative has to create value, optimize cost and those same savings can go into modernization and innovation efforts for the enterprise, driving further incremental value,” she shares.

Across the region, decision-makers are no longer interested in automation as a buzzword. They want tangible results. Whether it’s simply moving workloads back to on-premise as part of a performance-aware cost-optimization effort or exploring AI-powered automation to compensate for skill shortages, the pressure is on to extract real, measurable outcomes from money that’s spent.

What’s gaining traction in Automation? Ruchika shares her list:

• AI Assistants (e.g., Code, API (Application Programming Interface), Integration, Customer experience Assistants) to drive productivity benefits and improve CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score).
• Application modernization to drive GTM speed for businesses.
• Business process automation across functions to drive productivity & efficiency benefits.
• FinOps to drive complex multi-cloud spend optimization and ensuring tech-powered business value realization from the cost of investment.
• Automation in Day 0, Day 1 and Day 2 IT operations to drive error-free productivity and GTM speed benefits. This space is surely set to gradually move towards autonomous IT operations over time.
• Vertical-specific pointed use cases across industries, solving pointed problems – e.g Fraud & Risk management for BFSI, preventive maintenance for Manufacturing, content governance for Media.
• IT Risk & Resiliency Posture evolving with great speed from an automation-led impact perspective.

Sure, the topic of AI is hot right now, but automation is just as important. Automation is often an outcome of AI, but Ruchika believes it’s an area that needs a separate strategy for both technology and business functions.

“Automation has to be embedded deep within the cultural DNA of how IT teams operate, not an afterthought,” Ruchika explains.

What is automation in AI? And what does IBM Automation actually do? At the heart of IBM’s offering is a deeply integrated, AI-powered platform that Ruchika describes as:

“Tech for Tech — or as the industry calls it, ‘IT for IT’ ”

What does that mean? In essence, IBM’s Automation stack is designed to optimize and automate every step of the enterprise technology lifecycle — from initial planning to eventual retirement and everything that comes in-between. To decode this simply, it’s structured across six pillars, each addressing a different aspect of how businesses can manage technology lifecycles:

1. Application Development & Integration – Speed up app development & delivery with built-in support for modern and traditional patterns.
2. Infrastructure Delivery Automation – Improve IT operational efficiency through infrastructure-as-a-code. Deliver infrastructure with confidence, diligence, governance and speed to internal and external customers.
3. Identity & Access Management – Enable organizations to create and securely dispose of digital identities, set and enforce access control policies, verify users and monitor user activity.
4. IT Operations Automation – Helps build a proactive AI+ IT Ops culture, ensuring performance at an optimum cost at all times. Performance, without focus on risk factors and clear bent-of-mind to contribute to improving resilience posture of your organization, remains tactical. Let’s get strategic with this pillar.
5. Technology Business Management (TBM) – Align tech spending to business values. Optimize Low ROI (Return on Investment) functions to reinvest across high ROI/Strategic functions.
6. Asset Lifecycle Management – Extend lifespan of your assets (IT or Non-IT) by tracking the asset lifecycle and multiple tech interventions. This ensures overall asset health, which drives productivity, uptime & efficiency benefits.

This modular yet holistic approach allows clients to automate their entire tech stack lifecycle across infrastructures, networks, applications, security and business layers — with the flexibility to start where it matters most.

“It’s about empowering organizations to turn their data-rich IT environments into engines of efficiency and growth,” Ruchika says.

Over her two decades of industry experience, Ruchika has had the chance to work with multi-talented people around the world and she believes automation specialists blend technical curiosity with a deep focus on driving customer impact.

Key traits and skills to be successful in Automation business (from Ruchika’s perspective):

• An inherent passion and curiosity for solving real-world problems leveraging one’s tech tenacity.
• Value-selling mindset with ability to convert solutions into tangible value for the customer.
• A wide knowledge of the IT landscape and how it is evolving as a space, along with a learning mindset to continue expanding one’s knowledge
• The ability to use that knowledge for problem-solving, taking those insights back to the customer to help create solutions.
• Specialized knowledge of the Automation Pillars, or skills in IT operations, app modernization, integration tools, infrastructure delivery, DevSecOps, Identity & Access Management, FinOps.

And above all, also encompassing a growth mindset.

“Even if you come from a non-tech background, but you have a passion for tech and solving customer problems, go for it,” Ruchika says. “Start with specialist or post-sales roles, and potentially, build from there.”

At IBM, you’ll be supported by robust training methodologies, learning paths, mentorship, and exposure to global best practices. There is also opportunity to grow into leadership roles or pivot across functions based on your interests.

IBM is not just a place to work — it’s a place to thrive. Ruchika is intentional about building a team culture where career growth is personal, not prescriptive.

“Support is different for everyone,” she explains. “From career planning to skip-level mentoring, joint preparation for meetings, and industry exposure — we tailor development to each person’s goals and aspirations.”

And the flexibility? That’s real, too.

“I like speed — high-performance environments are my thing. And IBM’s flex work, open leadership channels, and culture of trust helps keep it all in balance,” she says.

For professionals thinking about a move into Automation, Ruchika sees IBM as uniquely positioned in the current market — not just to fulfill customer needs, but to also anticipate future needs before customers feel the pinch. You have to meet our IBM Research teams to see some really exciting stuff they are working on, from future perspective.

“IBM is in a truly unique position to serve customers with an end-to-end ‘Tech for Tech’ Automation platform,” she says. “Our hybrid cloud stack, powered by Red Hat, and our AI+ strategy with watsonx, come together to create a powerful force that touches every single business imperative for CXOs, making our automation platform best-in-class for customers’ complex environments.”

In other words, IBM doesn’t just talk about automation — it delivers outcomes. From the boardroom to the server room, IBM has the tools, experience, and strategy to help businesses evolve confidently.

So, if you’re driven by impact, energized by innovation, and eager to build and grow with purpose, then consider a career with the IBM Automation team in ISA.

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