Chief Executive Officer, ABBYY Group
ABBYY CEO on India Expansion, AI Innovation & Bengaluru R&D Hub | Exclusive BizTalk Interview”
Why is ABBYY betting big on India? In this exclusive BizTalk interview, ABBYY CEO Ulf Persson shares insights on the company's ...
About Ulf Persson
In March 2025, Persson announced the opening of ABBYY’s first AI research and development center in Bengaluru, India, describing the city as having “one of the world's best pools of AI Talent.” He stated that the company is “investing heavily in AI” and aims to be the “absolute market leader in document centric AI powered document centric process automation.” Persson said the expansion was motivated by access to talent, the local ecosystem of developers and system integrators, and the potential to grow India as a market. In earlier interviews, Persson discussed the pace of AI development relative to regulation, saying that “a technology that is developing at breakneck speed” has outpaced the “regulatory and audit framework.” He argued that AI applications must make sense from the user’s perspective, be financially viable, and be “safe,” with results that are “auditable and consistent and unbiased.” Persson also emphasized the importance of defining clear success criteria before undertaking digital transformation, noting that “just the fact that we can do it doesn't necessarily mean that we should do it.”
Transcript (25 segments)
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Interviewer0:09
One of the world's best pools of AI talent is here in Bangalore. Today we have with us the CEO of a major tech corporation which specializes in intelligent document processing, and this company has just opened its first AI R&D center in Bangalore. I'd like to welcome Mr. Ulf Persson, CEO of Abby, a company using AI technologies to transform business workflows. Hello and welcome, Mr. Persson. It's great to have you on our show. We're going to discuss more about Abby. It's a very interesting name. We were discussing this a few days ago. What is Abby? What does it stand for? To give an introduction to our viewers, please describe Abby.
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Ulf Persson1:13
Thanks for having me, first of all, Sammy. I'm very pleased to be here. Please feel free to call me Ol. I know that's not the easiest name to pronounce, but that's my first name. Very excited to be here. It's the first time I am in India, and obviously first time in Bengaluru. We are opening up our big office here, which is a landmark event for us, a milestone for Abby in its 35-year history. Abby has been around for a long time. We are a leader in something called intelligent process automation. Effectively, we use AI and other technologies to understand the context and content of various business documents, extract information, and make it available in downstream processes. When you think of any business process you want to automate, chances are there are one or several documents—paper or digital—that contain vital information for that process. That's where we come in.
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Interviewer2:29
Wonderful. So there was a very interesting theory about the name itself that we discussed in the last call. Let our viewers in on that theory and maybe an interesting story you might have with the name Abby. I'm sure you said previously it's not an abbreviation, but there's definitely a story behind that.
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Ulf Persson2:53
It's not an abbreviation, though it might look like one. The founder of the company, a gentleman called David Yan, and his partners at the time came up with that name. It's not entirely clear to me what it actually means. I've heard different theories, but the theory that appeals to me most is that in an obscure language—existing or non-existing—the word 'Abby' means 'the seer', which fits our ability to see into documents and understand their content. Also, the spelling puts us high up on most alphabetical lists.
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Interviewer3:46
So to think of it, many people may not realize that Abby's technology is being used in daily lives, in different aspects of life. Can you share some everyday examples where Abby technology is used in a way that the masses can relate to?
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Ulf Persson4:07
Yes, there are many use cases. With generative AI, the number is expanding. For any major company, there is a procure-to-pay or invoice management system where an invoice comes in, data points are matched to a purchase order, set up in the ERP, and sent for payment. All of that can be automated by reading and understanding the information in the invoice. Also, for consumers, if you go to a bank to apply for a loan or open an account, the bank asks for documents. Instead of printing and bringing them, you can scan with your phone, and the information is automatically extracted and goes into the application process.
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Interviewer5:31
Wonderful. I think a lot of people with the bank example can relate to how Abby's technology is deployed in real-world scenarios.
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Ulf Persson5:43
Yes, it's more prevalent than most people think. You come to an airport today and can go to automatic scanning of passports. That's typically not our technology, but it could be.
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Interviewer5:56
Perfect. Let's come to Bangalore. This is your first AI R&D center in Bangalore. Why now and why India?
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Ulf Persson6:10
Good questions. Abby is a leader in what we do—we're growing, profitable, ranked number one by analyst firms. We need to innovate and be at the forefront. With generative AI, things are changing fast. Our solutions and products are expanding in both number of use cases and quality. To do that, we need access to one of the world's best pools of AI talent in Bangalore. We also want access to the ecosystem of developers, system integrators, consultancy firms, and enterprises here. Third, India is a large market. We sell into India but it's not one of our largest markets; we want it to become a top market.
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Interviewer7:46
With this expansion into India and Bengaluru specifically, what kind of talent are you looking for? Can you elaborate?
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Ulf Persson7:57
It's a broad spectrum. It involves AI engineers at different levels, SREs, support, information security—everything that goes into the vision, planning, road map, building products, and then deploying and servicing them. We expect that over half, maybe 60-70% of all our R&D staff will be based here in Bengaluru once the office is fully built out. It's not one type of capability; it's a broad approach.
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Interviewer8:47
As you might agree, India is not like any other market, especially with all the languages. Each state has a different dialect. So even as an AI company, do you find it challenging to cater to a market as multilingual as India?
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Ulf Persson9:11
If you look at India as a user of our products, we have well over 200 languages we can deploy. India is an important market for us but hasn't been a primary market for end users. Many partners and multinational enterprises are present here. We hope that one of the reasons we are here is to grow that. We need to grow our ability to work with Indian languages, and we look forward to bringing that capability.
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Interviewer10:03
Wonderful. When we talk about AI, there's been a lot of buzz, but also concerns about privacy. You've been in the space for a long time. How do you address privacy concerns?
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Ulf Persson10:27
This is paramount. We use what we call purposeful AI—using AI to enhance results or broaden use cases, but it must make sense from economic, financial, security, and compliance perspectives. We provide solutions that are vetted, auditable, produce consistent results, and we take responsibility for the models we use, whether they are our own or co-developed with customers.
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Interviewer11:19
A follow-up: where are your data centers based?
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Ulf Persson11:25
We have data centers in the US, Europe, and Australia for different markets.
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Interviewer11:34
Do you have any plans to work with the Indian government or startups in India to further boost your presence?
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Ulf Persson11:44
We are already tapping into the ecosystem of developers. For us, the developer experience is important. Some of our customers are developers themselves who use our technology to build into their solutions. Even when it goes to banks or governments, they have their own centers of excellence. We need to work with them so they can use our products with ease. We don't have a specific startup program for India right now, but we will definitely look into it.
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Interviewer12:33
Wonderful. That brings me to the last question. With AI evolving so rapidly, especially in the last year, what is your vision for the next five years from the company's point of view?
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Ulf Persson12:53
We want to be the absolute market leader in document-centric AI-powered intelligent process automation. That's one of the main reasons we are here. We are investing heavily in AI and our product portfolio. We want to be seen as a super secure, compliant, trustworthy partner for our customers, whether government, enterprise, or financial services. We also want to be super customer-centric while creating a wonderful workplace for our employees.
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Interviewer13:35
That's wonderful to know. I think that gives a lot of clarity into what Abby does and why choosing India at this juncture matters. We definitely wish you all the best. Thank you very much for coming.
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Ulf Persson13:55
Thank you so much for taking out the time. Thanks for having me. Great.
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Interviewer13:57
To our viewers, we were in conversation with Mr. Ulf Persson, CEO of Abby, a company that specializes in AI-driven document processing and intelligent automation that streamlines business workflows. As we wrap up this segment of Biz Talk, I'd like to thank you for watching. Don't forget to hit that like button, share, and subscribe for more exclusive insights on tech and businesses. I'll see you in the next one.