Technology and data sciences need to be given due importance as they bring change in every ecosystem they are part of, OYO Hotels and Homes Founder and Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said on Monday. ”No matter what industry you are in, technology and data sciences will fundamentally enter and re-evaluate how your industry has existed or will exist in future”, he said while addressing a panel discussion at the annual convention of the industry body, Ficci.

Giving the example of the hospitality sector, Agarwal said that OYO serves small hotels and holiday homes across the world and its primary job is to ensure they can better returns. ”Earlier in the hotel industry, if you have 20,000 to 30,000 hotels on your platform, you will have hundreds of people who will be managing pricing every day…. In the new generation we live in, machines do that job, by means of which small hotels are able to generate two to three times jump in online revenue and the cost of operating substantially reduces,” he added.

Similarly, in almost every other ecosystem, one would see this change that would come very quickly, and ”my hope is that as young people consider looking at their skill sets and as educational institutions look at re-evaluating the programmes, data sciences and engineering will be given due importance,” Agarwal said.

He also said that he believes that increasingly a perspective of creativity needs to be created in the Indian industry, for which he would like the Indian industry to consider stock options as a way of being able to appreciate employees and bring a sense of ownership in them.

Agarwal also said that there is a need for bringing academia and industry connect much closer.