'Human-AI Harmony, Not Man Vs Machine': Exotel’s Sachin Bhatia at Republic AI Summit

At the AI Summit and Awards 2026, Mr. Sachin Bhatia (Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Exotel) took the stage to speak on ‘Human-AI Harmony at Scale’. These were some insightful 20 minutes where Mr. Bhatia completely discarded the ‘man vs machines’ myth, highlighting how the future won’t be characterized by AI replacing humans. It will rather see AI working alongside them, taking over manual and repetitive tasks and leaving humans with decision-making, improvising and creativity. 

Here’s a brief lay down of what he covered in his session.

What is Human-AI Harmony?

In his session, Mr. Bhatia clearly stated that instead of AI taking away your jobs, the future will be marked by a collaboration between Humans and AI. Hence the name ‘Human-AI Harmony’.

His focus was on the vast computational power of AI, and how it excels at processing vast amounts of data, identifying patterns, and automating repetitive tasks. Mr. Bhatia envisions AI carrying out such repetitive and voluminous tasks while humans enter the process where judgement, creativity, ethics, empathy, and context matter. 

The session emphasised that true progress lies in combining these strengths where AI does what it does best, while humans retain control over intent, direction, and moral responsibility.

More details on this Symbiotic Relationship

Detailing more on how the Human-AI harmony works, Mr. Bhatia lays down that the ideal symbiotic relationship involves humans designing, training and guiding AI systems. These very systems will go on to support human decision-making, efficiency, and innovation.

What this system would lead to, is a human in the loop where the person maintains active involvement in areas where decision-making is involved. Such a setup works best in areas like governance, healthcare, finance, defence, and media.

What the Future entails

As highlighted at the Republic AI Summit 2026, the future of AI will not be defined by how powerful machines become, but by how wisely humans choose to use them. 

Human beings are vital to ensure ethical AI governance as well as responsibility and transparency in innovation. If AI is to become a trusted partner, it needs to be programmed in such a way that it empowers professionals, enhances productivity, and opens new possibilities, while remaining accountable to human oversight.

Who is Sachin Bhatia? 

Mr. Sachin Bhatia is a seasoned entrepreneur who has co-founded Exotel, one of India’s fastest-growing cloud communications platforms. As a Co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, his deep experience in customer communication technologies and strategic growth has propelled Exotel into driving product innovation, market expansion, and integrating AI into enterprise communications. 

Founded in 2011, Exotel’s mission has been to simplify and scale business communication. Basically,  reducing reliance on traditional hardware-heavy call centres and replacing them with flexible, cloud-native systems. Thanks to its cloud-based customer communication platform, Exotel enables businesses to interact with users across AI-powered voice, messaging, chat, and automated workflows. 

From automated alerts to customer support conversations and voice-bot interactions across calls and messaging (including WhatsApp), Exotel continues to power tens of billions of customer interactions annually for thousands of businesses across India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. 

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