Skills
About
Ashish Srimal is the CEO and cofounder of Ratio, a new kind of fintech platform that combines payments, predictive pricing, financing, and a frictionless quote to cash process into one platform for SaaS and technology companies.
Ashish Srimal
Published content
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A surge of bug reports and feature requests right after a new product or feature launch doesn’t always mean the release failed. But it can signal that the development team missed something important during planning, user acceptance testing or prelaunch validation. Before a product reaches users, dev teams need to understand not only whether it works but also whether it fits real customer needs, workflows and expectations. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council discuss some of the common reasons dev teams receive a steady stream of bug reports and feature requests shortly after a new product or feature release as well as tips to avoid these costly planning and testing missteps.
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AI is accelerating research, prototyping and product development, making it easier than ever for teams to move from idea to launch. But faster output doesn’t automatically mean better outcomes. When timelines compress, it becomes harder to pressure-test assumptions, document decisions thoroughly and make sure oversight keeps pace with execution. That creates a new challenge for technology leaders: understanding how AI-powered speed reshapes and expands enterprise risk. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share unintended (and sometimes hidden) consequences of AI-driven acceleration and why they deserve closer attention.
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For consumers and industries alike, artificial intelligence is inescapable these days. Familiar software is being enhanced with AI tools, and headlines are dominated by the latest and greatest iterations of leading GenAI engines like ChatGPT and Claude. And AI is no longer simply curating what many of us see online—it is also creating (even revising) much of it. While most people understand there are positives and negatives to the AI explosion, we may not be perfectly clear on what those are—but the tech experts who study it, build it and work with it daily are. Below, industry leaders from Forbes Technology Council spell out both the remarkable advantages and sobering drawbacks of AI and share their predictions for what’s coming next.
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AI-powered browsers are quickly becoming part of employees’ everyday workflows, from drafting emails to researching vendors to handling repetitive web-based tasks. Adoption is moving faster than many organizations’ governance models, which means teams are experimenting with tools that can access, process and act on company data in new ways. While the productivity upside is real, so are emerging questions around data accuracy, privacy and security. Without clear guardrails, it’s easy for employees to misunderstand how AI browsers access information, where that data is stored, and what happens behind the scenes when an “agent” takes action. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council discuss risks and misconceptions tech leaders should address as AI browsers become part of the modern workplace.
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In the highly regulated financial sector, full automation isn’t always an ideal solution, since many processes require an understanding of nuance and context and clear accountability. However, leaders are discovering the productivity boosts that come with pairing generative AI with human judgment. GenAI excels at processing massive volumes of data, spotting patterns and surfacing insights at machine speed, while humans bring experience, ethical reasoning and the ability to handle ambiguity when the rules aren’t black and white. From lending and wealth management to fraud detection and customer service, hybrid human-AI models are emerging as a practical middle ground between wholly manual work and hands-off automation. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council discuss financial sector workflows where pairing humans with GenAI is safer and more effective than leveraging full automation.
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Consumers are increasingly aware that their personal information fuels everything from targeted advertising to AI development, yet they rarely see direct financial returns from that value. And specialized businesses are often sitting on a goldmine of valuable data but don’t have straightforward pathways to share or benefit from it. As concerns around privacy, consent, and data value and ownership grow, so does startups’ interest in changing how data is collected, governed and monetized. A growing number of business models aim to help organizations share and profit from their data resources—and give users more control over their data and a stake in the upsides it creates. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council share their perspectives on data monetization strategies they believe could realistically work at scale.
Company details
Ratio
Company bio
Ratio is a new kind of FinTech which combines financing, payments, predictive pricing and a frictionless quote to cash process into one platform for SaaS and technology companies. We are reinventing the way that recurring revenue businesses, starting with SaaS companies, accelerate sales and leverage capital to fuel growth. Ratio is democratizing how customers buy technology and how technology companies fund themselves by removing barriers to purchase and creating access to a new source of growth capital. Simultaneously, we are creating a new multi-trillion dollar fixed income asset class for investors. We currently offer two products to serve this market: a) Ratio Boost - A fully integrated buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) payment and checkout product for SaaS and recurring revenue companies. Your customers are offered ultimate payment flexibility and a frictionless buying experience, while you still get paid upfront for each customer contract without discount or dilution. b) Ratio Trade - A non-dilutive upfront capital solution for high growth SaaS and recurring revenue companies backed by their portfolio of contracts. No need for companies to discount or dilute for growth or working capital. No restrictive covenants and access to capital in days not months.