As AI drives rapid transformation across industries, Oracle, a continuous pioneer in data architecture since the 1970s and a true-bred hyperscaler, is seeing growing activity in Central and Eastern Europe. The company reported US$53 billion in global revenue in FY2024 and has invested over US$80 billion in R&D since FY2012, including the development of the world’s first autonomous database. To learn more about their AI vision and how they can support the AI journey of startups and scaleups, we sat down with Cherian Varghese, Senior Vice President – AI and SMB, EMEA.
To see Oracle’s capabilities in action, check our full report on the State of AI in CEE featuring a case study with Tremend, a Romania-based digital transformation service provider recently acquired by Publicis Sapient.
What differentiates Oracle in the AI space?
Cherian Varghese: I think three important parameters to this whole AI journey are: a good amount of data, a strong cloud infrastructure, and an understanding of how to use data effectively. We’ve been traditionally a data company for the last 45+ years. We understand the data architecture better than any other provider in the world.
When you handle data for over four decades, you know where this data has been used in large enterprises, where it’s coming from, its format, and how much is structured or unstructured. We’ve been servicing customers for many years, and imagine the gold in that data from solving countless customer problems. This wealth of knowledge is a key differentiator for Oracle. I always say it’s a three-legged stool. For AI to run, you need strong data and a very strong cloud infrastructure.
Can you tell us more about the Oracle AI strategy and the layers in which you operate?
We operate in all layers of AI. Let’s start with the AI infrastructure layer. Here Oracle is at the forefront with its partnerships with NVIDIA and AMD to provide that engine for strong computational power. Whether you’re looking to perform inferencing or fine-tuning or train large-scale-out models for generative AI, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) offers industry-leading bare metal and virtual machine GPU cluster options powered by an ultrahigh-bandwidth network and high-performance storage to fit any AI needs.
The next layer is the AI data layer. In that data layer, we are a completely open multi-cloud environment, which means it gives us the ability to traverse and work with a lot of open source and other worldwide created LLM players. We have a partnership with Cohere, we have a partnership with Meta’s Llama, and others who have already created world-class LLM models.
Of course, we have our own set of tools. We were pioneers in developing an autonomous database, which is widely recognized as the industry’s first and only self-healing, self-securing, self-managing database. We have also developed a world-class product called Oracle Database 23ai, which brings deep integration of AI technologies to our database. One standout feature is Oracle AI Vector Search, which introduces a new approach to data querying and analysis. It enables semantic search capabilities within the database, allowing searches based on the conceptual content of the data rather than just keywords.
A very popular open-source product is HeatWave GenAI, which brings together every aspect of the Generative AI pipeline within the database. It comes with an inbuilt LLM free of cost, includes in-database embedding generation, and works seamlessly with other in-database features such as machine learning, analytics, and Lakehouse, all as part of our data management layer.
A key focus in our data layer is strengthened security – one of the biggest concerns for CEOs and CTOs. We’re working towards passwordless security. I can tell you that within a few years, you will never ever type a password on any of your devices. Your face is your password, your biometrics is your password. This is a significant development in the industry that AI will power going forward.
The third layer is the AI SaaS – embedding GenAI models into the applications and workflows that businesses use every day. Within the industry-specific solutions, great examples are in our Oracle Fusion Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Human Capital Management (HCM) services. What we have done is, as the world is moving towards an agentic AI domain, providing prepackaged 50 to 100-odd agentic AI within our Fusion applications.
How is Oracle positioning itself to support AI-driven growth for startups or scale-ups?
We position ourselves as a true-bred hyperscaler who can guide our customers through their entire journey, from cloud adoption to AI implementation. We have a very strong ecosystem and community in place, called the Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN).
We’ve built a strong multidisciplinary team supporting clients through the entire AI development and commercialization lifecycle. We’ve created a highly intellectual sales team on AI, pushing them to be certified AI practitioners. This means they’re not just good commercially, but also technically capable. We also have Oracle Accredited Cloud Architects (ACE) who work with startups to build architecture and spec solutions. Our industry expert team provides insights on Gen-AI use cases in various sectors, and our center of excellence team, comprised of PhDs and data science experts, offers deep expertise on technologies like NVIDIA chips, tensor computing, and Python coding.
We also work with a lot of Scaleups and have been running and building this cohort over a period of time. They have access to OCI, enabling them to train their existing data, build AI models, and create their GenAI story.
Besides technology, we also help them go to the market. We are prevalent in over 100 countries and operate at scale. This presence gives startups or scale-ups the ability to jointly go into markets they probably would not have been able to access on their own. We provide marketing support, including opportunities for startups to showcase their solutions in the Oracle marketplace, exposing them to our global customer base.
Additionally, we run mentorship and collaboration programs that provide valuable networking opportunities and help startups refine their go-to-market strategies. We can organize events like CEO breakfasts, focused customer groups, or educational webinars, depending on the startup’s needs and stage of development.
In terms of pricing, we offer flexible, pay-as-you-go options. This allows startups to scale their usage and costs as they grow, without being burdened by high upfront costs.
What challenges do companies face when adopting AI, and how is Oracle helping?
Most companies today are in the initial phases of AI adoption. There are a lot of POCs going on, with many customers entering through easier areas like chatbots.
The challenges include cultural acceptability, technological imbalance, and data sovereignty. Many countries are still hesitant about AI adoption due to data sovereignty concerns. Government sectors often don’t allow data to go outside the region.
We’ve been at the forefront of addressing this problem. For example, we offer Oracle EU Sovereign Cloud, which is located entirely within the EU and enables organizations to place sensitive data and applications in the cloud in alignment with EU data privacy and sovereignty requirements.
