Research with real-world results
Aryyama Kumar Jana, Software Development Engineer and Tech Lead at Amazon, has built a career at the intersection of research and impact. With a Master’s in Computer Science and more than a decade of professional and academic work in AI and intelligent software applications across India and the U.S., his focus has been on translating research into systems that solve problems at scale.
“My whole career has been research and development, something for impact,” he said. “Because I always believe that if we just research something and keep it in papers, that’s kind of not enough. We have to bring it into practical impact.”
Forecasting the reverse supply chain
At Amazon, Jana leads the Reverse Logistics Forecasting Initiative, which forecasts device returns across global markets. This “reverse logistics” is as critical as predicting sales.
“It’s quite a complex issue because given that Amazon works in so many countries and also across the U.S., I think that’s one of the biggest challenges that we want to serve our customers the best, not only in terms of delivery, but also in terms of returns.”
Bridging academia and industry
Jana explained how academia often runs ahead of industry, but turning those ideas into products requires scaling up and facing corner cases.
“Academia is something that provides us a starting point for doing something great and impactful,” he said. “And after that, we have to kind of navigate through it during the implementation phase to get the desired results.”
Responsible AI and human oversight
On the evolution of AI, Jana sees a clear shift from analytical tools to generative systems that actively assist humans. But he emphasized responsibility:
“I definitely feel personally that the person using AI should take the responsibility,” he said. “It’s like the Tesla autonomous car where they always say that, okay, there is an autonomous car. But it’s the responsibility of the driver who needs to be awake and see that things are going right or not.”
For Jana, humans must remain accountable, even as AI offers feedback and automation.
Judging with impact in mind
As a Winners’ Circle judge, Jana looks past flashy language in award nominations to find the substance.
“I would kind of look beyond the shiny marketing stuff,” he said. “You would kind of focus on three things. One is the measurable impact. Another is scalability of the product. And third is innovation.”
He values both quantitative and qualitative outcomes, including customer experience and long-term scalability.
Advice for innovators
Jana mentors startups and frequently reminds innovators to reverse engineer solutions from real problems. He encourages testing ideas with surveys, prototypes, and early user feedback before scaling.
“More important is the user experience,” he said. “That’s why people buy Nike shoes over any other shoe or Adidas shoes over that—because the comfort, the user experience that they give, is better.”
Inspiration from unlikely places
When asked where he finds unconventional inspiration, Jana shared that some ideas come in dreams or while hiking near the mountains or oceans. Outside of work, he keeps busy with cooking experiments and pickleball.