At Lift12, Arka Dhar learned that knowing what to do was only half the job. From Zinier to OpenAI and Google DeepMind, he has kept returning to the difficult business of turning intelligence into something people can use.

Before he sold enterprise software, Prateek Chakravarty filed reports from remote oil rigs. Now the Zinier CEO is betting that useful AI begins with muddy boots, thick gloves and the stubborn details of work in the field.