BENGALURU, India, Jan. 20, 2026 -- SeedlingLabs, an AI-native Product Development as a Service (PDaaS) company purpose-built for enterprise-grade execution, today announced the appointment of Dr. Sudhir Kumar Patnaik as the inaugural member of its Advisory Board.
The appointment marks a critical milestone in SeedlingLabs' early growth as it scales its AI-native platform, global talent model, and production delivery capabilities - at a time when many organizations are discovering that moving AI from prototype to production is far harder than building demos.
While AI tooling has dramatically lowered the barrier to experimentation, enterprises continue to struggle with operationalizing AI reliably, securely, and at scale. SeedlingLabs was founded to close this execution gap by combining an AI-native delivery platform with deeply experienced engineering talent - designed from day one for real-world production, not just rapid prototyping.
"AI does not fail because models don't work - it fails because systems don't scale," said Shanti Kuropati, Founder & CEO of SeedlingLabs. "SeedlingLabs exists to solve the hard, unglamorous problems of AI-native product development: production reliability, enterprise security, and operational resilience. Dr. Sudhir has spent his career building exactly these kinds of systems at scale, and his guidance is invaluable as we grow."
Dr. Sudhir brings over 28 years of global leadership experience across large-scale software engineering, enterprise platforms, global capability centers, and academia - bridging strategy with hands-on execution.
He currently serves as Professor and Centre Director – Corporate & Industry Relations (CIR) at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bengaluru, where he works closely with industry leaders to shape future-ready engineering talent and drive applied research aligned with real-world enterprise needs.
Prior to academia, Dr. Sudhir held senior global technology leadership roles across some of the world's most respected technology-driven enterprises. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Business Technology for international insurance at Prudential Financial Inc., USA, leading enterprise-scale technology initiatives across APAC and LATAM Markets. Before Prudential, he spent over a decade at Intuit, where he played a pivotal role in scaling the Intuit India Global Capability Center from 30 engineers to more than 1,200, while also leading platform engineering across India and Israel.
Earlier in his career, he held senior engineering leadership roles at Dassault Systèmes (formerly Accelrys) and Misys Healthcare, contributing to the design and scaling of complex, mission-critical enterprise solutions in the life sciences and healthcare domain.
A strong advocate for software engineering excellence and AI-driven systems, Dr. Sudhir has published and presented at reputed industry and academic journals and conferences, holds a PhD in Computer Science with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence, and has served on academic advisory boards at leading engineering institutions in India.
As an Advisory Board member, Dr. Sudhir will work closely with the SeedlingLabs leadership team across three strategic priorities:
- Enterprise-Grade AI-Native Platforms - Guiding the design of resilient, secure systems that scale confidently from MVP to production.
- AI-Native Talent & Capability Building - Shaping SeedlingLabs' integrated platform-and-talent model, including its 'Nursery to Naukri' initiative, to build industry-ready AI practitioners at scale.
- Industry-Academia Collaboration - Strengthening partnerships between startups, enterprises, and academic institutions to future-proof AI engineering education and applied research.
"Dr. Sudhir's arrival is a significant catalyst for our mission to democratize high-end engineering opportunities," said Suribabu Nekkanti, Co-Founder of SeedlingLabs. "His unparalleled experience in scaling Global Capability Centers aligns perfectly with our 'Nursery to Naukri' vision. As we prepare to onboard our first 100 engineers in Gangavathi, Dr. Sudhir's mentorship will be instrumental in transforming regional talent into world-class AI practitioners who can deliver enterprise-grade excellence from day one."
"What stood out to me about SeedlingLabs is its vision and discipline," said Dr. Sudhir Kumar Patnaik. "This is not a company chasing AI hype. It is focused on building the foundations - platforms, processes, and people - required to run AI systems reliably in production. That clarity of intent is rare, especially at an early stage, and I'm excited to contribute to its journey."
"As we scale, our priority is not just speed, but durability," added Kuropati. "Dr. Sudhir helps ensure that everything we build - technology, talent, and culture - is designed to last."
About SeedlingLabs
SeedlingLabs is an AI-native Product Design & Development as a Service (PDaaS) company that enables startups and product-led enterprises to build, deploy, and scale AI-powered products with enterprise-grade reliability.
Combining a proprietary AI Workbench with deeply experienced, AI-native engineering teams, SeedlingLabs takes end-to-end responsibility for the product lifecycle - from strategy and design through deployment and ongoing operations. Built on a human-first, design-thinking-led philosophy, the company is purpose-built to move organizations beyond experimentation and deliver secure, high-performance AI systems in real-world production environments.
SeedlingLabs enables ambitious teams to turn bold ideas into scalable, enterprise-ready products - faster, smarter, and built to last.
For more information, visit www.seedlinglabs.com or contact info@seedlinglabs.com.
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2864329/Dr_Sudhir_Kumar_Patnaik.jpg
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/seedlinglabs-welcomes-dr-sudhir-kumar-patnaik-to-its-advisory-board-302664746.html
