I have known Jalaj Thanaki for more than 1 year. Jalaj comes across as a passionate techno-analytical expert who has the rigor one requires to achieve excellence. Her points of view on big data analytics, NLP, machine learning, and AI are well informed and carry her own analysis and appreciation of the landscape of problems and solutions. I'm glad to be writing this foreword in my capacity as the CEO and MD of SMEcorner.

Machine Learning solutions are rapidly changing the world and the way we do business, be it retail, banking, financial services, publication, pharmaceutical, or manufacturing industry. Data of all forms is growing exponentially—quantitative, qualitative, structured, unstructured, speech, video, and so on. It is imperative to make use of this data to leverage all functions, avoid risk and frauds, enhance customer experience, increase revenues, and streamline operations.

Organizations are moving fast to embrace data science and investing largely to build high-end data science teams. Having spent more than 30 years in the finance domain as a leader and managing director of various organizations such as Barclays Bank, Equifax, Hinduja Leyland, and SMECorner, I get overwhelmed with the transition that the financial industry has seen in embracing machine learning solutions as a business and no longer as a support function.

In this book, Jalaj takes us through an exciting and insightful journey to develop the best possible machine learning solutions for data science applications. With all the practical examples covered and with solid explanations, in my opinion, this is one of the best practical books for readers who want to become proficient in machine learning and deep learning.

Wishing Jalaj and this book a roaring success, which they deserve.

Samir Bhatia

MD/CEO and Founder of SMECorner

Mumbai, India