“Drones, in itself, is just a dumb flying platform. What makes it intelligent is the analytics and smart sensors; and how that can be disruptive in providing real value to our enterprise clients,” said Kamarul Muhamed, who founded Aerodyne in 2014 and has grown the company into a world-leading drone-based enterprise solutions provider and, more importantly, a pioneer in the use of AI for large-scale data operations and process optimization. Today, we sat down with Kamarul to talk all things drones, the Uberization of agritech, how drone tech has created a new market for technology talents. We also discussed why Southeast Asia, once dominated by traditional agriculture, is so bullish on new technologies, and the wonderful future of the region’s home-grown unicorns.
About the speaker:
Kamarul Muhamed left the corporate world to pursue his passion in technology and digital innovation, founding Aerodyne in 2014 with a specialty in aerial imagery. The company has since pivoted to data intelligence, integrated solutions and now, Drone Tech, Data Tech and Digital Transformation (DT3). Ranked second in the world by Drone Industry Insights of Germany, Aerodyne has over 400 drone professionals operating in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAS) services sector, managing more than 300,000 infrastructure assets with 110,000 flight operations across 35 countries globally.
Show notes:
01:39 Introduction to Kamarul Muhamed and Aerodyne Group
02:29 How the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of agritech
05:52 Contactless technologies to automate infrastructure operations for powerlining and solar farms
07:15 Transforming traditional labor-intensive agriculture jobs into tech talents
10:15 How the Uberization of agritech has created a new micro-economy
13:05 Southeast Asia’s governments are already channeling agriculture subsidy into the adoption of technology
18:36 How Aerodyne tackled the challenges of adoption and scaling a cross-border team
22:00 The future of aerial robotics and AI’s pivotal role in the ecosystem
26:40 Entering the bigger B2C market with the super-app model for agriculture
32:35 What the world can learn from China’s speed of innovation and Southeast Asia’s massive opportunities
Many thanks to our guests Kamarul Muhamed; host Oscar Ramos; producers Sagar Chaudhary and Lace Nguyen; editor David; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com.
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