By News18,Sahas Mahapatra

Copyright news18

Phani Sai Ram Munipalli, a 28-year-old Indian techie, has swapped life as a software engineer for the fast-paced world of AI product management. And the journey is as bold as it sounds. Having worked at tech giants like IBM Bengaluru and Walmart Global Tech in Chennai, Munipalli decided in mid-2022 to pivot his career towards AI. He set his sights on a product management role in the United States.
“In July 2022, I left software engineering and chose to shift my career path to compete for an AI/tech product management role at Walmart in the US, even though I had little experience in that field,” Munipalli told Business Insider.
Money wasn’t the driver behind the switch. Instead, Munipalli’s motivation stemmed from his belief in AI’s transformative potential.
“Right as ChatGPT was introduced to the world, I knew a massive shift was coming, and my technical background was my unique entry point into the AI talent wars,” he said.
Following this, he completed a master’s in computer software engineering at San Jose State University in August 2022 and joined the university as a part-time AI research assistant. After a couple of internships, he finally landed his current role at Walmart in California in 2024.
“I love coding and still do it for my side projects, but I wanted to go beyond just writing code. I wanted to understand what products can be built leveraging AI, who the users are, and how it’s helping them,” he told Business Insider.
He added that this realisation led him to craft a personal roadmap to establish his own “AI-centric playbook around three core strategies.”
Munipalli’s strategies focus on “rewiring” his brain for AI product thinking, ditching “popular frameworks in interviews,” and building a platform to give first and network second.
“This three-pronged approach helped me pivot successfully,” he said.
He says his journey serves as a playbook for carving out one’s own path, showing that the right strategy and mindset when pivoting into AI or any emerging field can be more impactful than a conventional career background.
Munipalli’s LinkedIn profile traces his journey from a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh, to internships and a two-year stint at IBM Bengaluru starting in 2018. He then moved to Walmart Global Tech as a software engineer, where he worked until 2022.