Interview by Audrey Russo and Jonathan Kersting
Ravi Ajmani, President of LogixGuru, joins TechVibe hosts Jonathan Kersting and Audrey Russo at Huntington Bank Studios to unpack what 26 years in the technology business looks like — and why their very first customer, UPMC, is still with them today.
Ravi breaks down LogixGuru's evolution from IT staffing to a full-service technology partner spanning quality assurance, application engineering, data analytics, and digital transformation. The conversation digs into how AI is reshaping QA — from de-identifying healthcare data and building digital twins for testing, to deploying AI agents across the entire software development lifecycle through their proprietary framework.
Plus: why founder Singh personally calls every new hire before day one, how Ravi is building an AI-powered assessment platform to "kill his own business," and what it means to be a proudly Pittsburgh-rooted tech company named to the Pittsburgh Business Times Fast 50 — twice.
The Pittsburgh Technology Council produces TechVibe to explore Pittsburgh's technology and innovation ecosystem.
Transcript:
Logixguru
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[00:00:00] So the company started as a staffing organization back in 2000, and then over the years we've graduated. We got into quality assurance testing- That's what I thought. That's what I think of QA and- Yes So that's what I think of when I think of it And digital transformation as well now- Yes ... which is just so huge.
Absolutely. So yeah. But the QA thing really comes with quality assurance, really comes at a great time in the world right now. We're thinking about artificial intelligence, guardrails, ethics, compliance
So much fun, Audrey, when we have friends and family stopping by Tech Vibe. It is one of these things where it's like our jobs are so cool, we get to not only talk about some of the coolest companies in Pittsburgh, but hang out with the people that we know very well that are making these companies tick.
And today is just that day, 'cause we're talking to Ravi Ajmani from, of course, LogixGuru, one of our favorite companies here. Ravi, we're so stoked to finally have you on the show. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you, Audrey. That's great to be here. Great to be here. No, it's great to be here. We did, a little bit of a, a dapper assessment of your attire before you came in.
Yes. Ooh. 'Cause we knew you were [00:01:00] gonna be on, so you're looking smashing. Yes. Thank you. Really smashing. But to get on to, the matter at hand, which is really to talk about LogixGuru, but tell us some fun fact about yourself. I was born and raised in India, and I came here in 2004.
The fun fact about me is that I play a sport, rain or shine, throughout the year. Okay. So I play badminton. Nice. Badminton. No way. Yes. Okay, and where do you play? Yeah. We have a indoor place in Greensburg- Okay ... and we play there rain or shine, throughout. Is it dangerous? Not at all. Not at all.
Not at all. But I still dive around and- ... play with guys who are- Oh, my goodness ... 20 years younger than me, and I have fun at it,
I love knowing that. I know. I- if you play for an hour you sweat enough that you can say you had a good workout. I like that. Give us the overarching pitch of LogixGuru. So we have been in [00:02:00] business now for 26 years. That's amazing. And- Has it been that long? Yes. Yes. I thought it was longer, actually.
Yes. We were formed in 2000. The best part that I can tell you about LogixGuru is how our clients rely on us. How we create that lean and trust factor with our customers. So our first customer- uPMC And there has not been a day since that day till date when we have not actually done real business with them.
Get out of here. So- No way. That's a- 26-year-old- 26 ... cus- customer? Yes, ma'am. And so people who are listening g- just you don't need to give us sort of the inside scoop on that, but if they're thinking about LogixGuru- Yeah ... you have a 26-year cycle with them that's continuing. What's the pitch?
What's the high level work? It's basically we try to actively listen to the customer. So we started back in- In the tech department? In [00:03:00] the- In the IT department? In the IT department. Okay. Everything that we do with UPMC is on the technology side. Okay. So we- Article 19 ... of course,
Ab- So you're at a... You've been in this space for- Absolutely ... a long time. Absolutely. So we have our own framework that we bring to our customer. Okay. And the beauty of the framework is that it is highly customizable.
So we think like a service company. We are not selling a product. We are not saying, "Just come and get something from us." We want to listen to you, see what you're currently doing- ... where there is a gap, and where we can bring our framework and bring value to you- ... as opposed to saying, "This is it.
Take it or leave it." Got it. That's not the strategy that we have. Okay. Which makes it much convenient for the customers, 'cause if they wanna... Let's say they are doing testing on a product, and they need help more on the automation piece of it. Okay. So do you sit here and write thousands of [00:04:00] lines of code, or now you have agents- that can do that piece of it. You could have agents for deployment. You could have agents for just taking and learning the application. You could give us- ... screenshot recordings, workflow, and we can dump everything in our- ... agent, and that can basically stitch the entire application workflow.
Or it can do the analysis for you, right? Exactly right. Yeah. Like quality assurance. So let... Can we just take a moment and really just talk about QA for a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. Because I think that's like a secret sauce that you have that differentiates your work. So not to be dismissive of anything else that you do.
Appreciate that. I just think this is really important. A QA deep dive. Here we come. So you've got- Man, I'm into it ... when you... what are you seeing that people are wrestling with in terms of the quality assurance of the work that they're doing and what they're rendering? And in particular, you're working in healthcare, so you're dealing with a lot of data that shouldn't be [00:05:00] identifiable.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's oh my God. So long question, but I feel like you're the guy that can probably answer that. Absolutely. No, thank you for asking that question. Again- Data privacy in healthcare or banking is super important. I think actually it's important now in every industry, but especially in healthcare.
When we are trying to automate stuff, we need to figure out and understand what we need to de-identify and what we need to mask in terms of- Oh. Yes Scramble. Scramble. Okay. So in other words, you could basically do automation with real data or data which is real like. So you get close enough. So like a digital twin kind of thing?
Yes. Ah, okay. Yeah. So you're not really, you're not really trying to [00:06:00] do your quality assurance workflow testing with real data, but rather give test data- You're doing a digital twin. Yeah ... and then run scenarios on it. Okay. So is that, should... So that gives people who are, for example, in healthcare and hopefully in FinTech as well, some sort of assurance- Yes
that there is QA really going on. Yeah. And all that, any time we are trying to do any QA work, that work needs also be, should be able to be audited, right? For example- that's where I was going before. 100%. Yeah. 100%. For example- So- ... if I'm doing it, how am I gonna say I did this? I did it. Yeah. Prove it.
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So we have to keep a good trail of it. You have to keep the threads going. Yeah. And then what about like putting AI agents in with QA so that way they can be always checking? A- absolutely. Yeah. That is the thing, and that is the beauty of our framework. We call it as a lifter [00:07:00] framework.
Okay. Basically what it does is you could use AI in the entire software development test life cycle. Whether you're trying to do it at the requirement stage- ... where you're saying, "We need to understand what this application actually does. We n- this is an old application. We never had good documentation and on it, how do we go about doing automation on it?"
So- Just like how you're ... it's so interesting because- The, the work that you're doing in healthcare has applicability to any other market sector. Absolutely. So- 'Cause that's the hardest one to crack. Yeah. With all the security and- And right ... sensitivities around it. Yeah. So the world is your oyster at this point in terms of opportunities?
Absolutely. So the people who work for you, what's that ongoing training that they're getting? So I'll give you a philosophical answer- sure ... and then I'll give you a real answer. All right. Sure. [00:08:00] So LogixGuru means logically thinking guru. And guru, in my mind, is a perpetual learner. Somebody who is always learning. So in our culture, we lay deep emphasis on continued, continuous learning. Anybody who is part of LogixGuru and, One of the unique things about Logic Guru, and I'm gonna share that with you- Sure ... anyone that joins Logic Guru- ... Singh calls that person himself before day one to welcome them.
So Singh is the founder- Yes ... started 26 years ago. And he's your uncle. Yes. Yep, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So- So he calls them and he does the interrogation like he did with me when I took my job. Did he do that with you? "Why do you want my job here?" I didn't know that. Oh, yeah. Oh, nice. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. "I wanna meet with you.
I wanna know all about you." "I wanna understand-" That sounds like Singh ... "who you are." Absolutely. Yeah. Love it. That's Singh. That's awesome. No, [00:09:00] but he- So he does- He definitely- ... the Singh litmus test ... litmus test. And where we are telling them that this is what is expected of you as a Logic Guru member. Okay.
And if not... Yeah. Hasta luego. If not, customers decide for themselves. Most of these- ... projects are high visibility. I was gonna say- High, high- ... this is not back of the room work. Yeah. Yeah. High visibility projects. If you're on it and if you're not delivering it you're gonna hear from the stakeholders.
So people are lis- ... as they listen now, what problems would they be trying to solve and why they should call you? So like, where might they be- Yeah ... in their journey right now? So- Is it staff augmentation? Is it project management? Is it QA? Is it AI? Like, where are those points where- Sure ... they should reach out to you?
Sure. So I'll share a few, Basically, let me first make sure I give you high level of [00:10:00] where all we are operating. Sure. We talked about staffing, that's what, where we started 20 years back, 25 years back now. So we do both IT staffing and then our customers pulled us into non-IT staffing as well.
That's an interesting story. I can share that- Interesting. Okay ... with you later. So- But it's all customer-driven, active listening, and them coming to us- ... asking for help. So do you place CEOs? Senior director level folks. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So you listen, you develop the relationship, and you figure out where they need the help.
Where they need the help. Okay. So that's only- But it's tech ... that- It's tech related. That's tech related. Okay. And then we do application engineering. Okay. We do data and data analytics, and of course, we talk quite a bit about quality assurance- ... and testing. So one example I can give to you very recently one of our client was moving from one loan origination system to another.
[00:11:00] And they wanted a unified data mart, so they wanted to make sure they can pull the data from the new system as well as the- ... system that they were gonna retire. Okay. So we brought in our architects. We built the entire unified data mart for them and built about 100 report On top of it. So basically, the business users, wherever they were trying to do certain reports, they can get data from both systems combined if they need it.
Wow. So that's the kind- Okay ... of work we come in and we do. Okay. And we take the entire ownership of the delivery. Sometimes our team will work as an extension of your development team. In other cases, we take full ownership of the delivery- Of the project ... and say that if we don't do it- We'll do it for you
Then- Yeah. You don't get paid. We don't get paid. I'm very vocal about it, that, we get paid for quality work. Good. And if you're not happy with the work, I'm ready to- Okay ... lose money on it. Yeah. 'Cause I'm not ready to lose a customer. Exactly, yeah. [00:12:00] So are you Pittsburgh regional focused, or do you go beyond?
Most of our customers, as of today, are in the Pittsburgh region. Okay. It's ... so I would say- So people... So your market sectors are healthcare- Finance
finance. Manufacturing- Okay ... and tech companies. Okay. So certain tech companies who are building their own products- Sure ... they may need help on the quality assurance side of things. 'Cause they call you in, right? So they do the development piece of it- ... and then we do the testing piece for them. Show 'em where it's broken.
Yeah. So people- Yes ... if you're listening, you definitely need to go to L-O-G-I-X-G-U-R-U.com. Just, I want everyone to know we're talking with- Absolutely ... Ravi and you're... What's your title now? I'm the president of the company now. You're the president of the company now. I like it, man. I like it. I'm liking that.
Yes. Good for you. And playing badminton. And playing badminton. And he's gonna join our pickleball team. Yes. He's gonna join the pickleball team. Yeah. And when he has free time, [00:13:00] Audrey, last time I was visiting out their Murrysville offices, you gave me a little sneak peek of an application that you're building, Ravi, which was pretty impressive.
Oh. Your AI talent platform, which was pretty- Oh yeah ... pretty intense. I was like- Yes ... tell us a little bit about this- Yes ... 'cause I think our- Yes ... I think our folks here would be, would "What is Ravi working on in between badminton sets?" Yeah, so because I'm part of the industry, I always feel...
And we talked about LogixGuru, that just- ... perpetual learner, so I always ap- try to apply that to myself, that one, am I gonna be able to use AI, and am I going to solve a real problem? So long story short, I was trying to build this platform- And of course, I'm trying to do it while I'm busy-
running the company. And I engaged with the company. I said, "I need some help. Can you help me with this some of my solution architect-" Wait, did you become your own client? Yes. [00:14:00] I, and I'll tell you- Are you billing yourself? I'm gonna tell you a- Okay ... an interesting concept. The idea was how can I kill my own business?
Oh. That is how I started- Such great- ... thinking ... such a great way- ... to think about things. Yes. So I wanted to make sure that I build a platform, and right now I'm successfully built one piece of that platform, which is the screening aspect of it. The entire platform, I cannot discuss that right now, but- So what I, what this application is gonna do is most of the times if you need help, you're trying to hire someone, you say, "I need somebody with this, and this skill. Go find me." And that's how we've been doing business. That's how- ... literally the entire industry operates.
What I'm trying to do is become a tech-enabled staffing provider in that space. So we've homegrown an AI assessment tool where we can customize the assessment. So you can come and [00:15:00] say, I need somebody with .NET, but I need somebody to be focusing on, React as well, and on back end I need SQL Server skills."
And together you and I can draw up the assessment. The tool has all the questions. You can pick it by technology. We can formulate an assessment that will be, depending on the time, I prefer to do the assessment in 20 minutes or less because any more than that, then you lose on good candidates. Nobody has time to sit there and give a two-hour assessment.
Enough where you know they got the core skills- Yes ... but you don't wanna tick 'em off at the same time. Ex- exactly. Exactly. You just, you want to get a feel of what they bring to the table and not get the same old resume with a cover note because now you're seeing candidate in action. They're talking to you.
They're answering questions. They're coding. Nice. They're writing. So it's the whole personality because nobody hires a piece of paper, right? I can make a resume look good- ... but are you gonna [00:16:00] hire that person? No. They gotta talk to Singh first. They gotta- Yeah. Exactly. You might wanna name this platform Singh.
That's all I'm saying. Oh my gosh, so you guys are busy. And you're up to good stuff. You touch every market sector it sounds like. Yes. That, and particularly in our region, when you think of manufacturing, you think of fintech- Yeah ... you think of healthcare, which is awesome. Yeah. So what's your departing words to us?
What, have we overlooked anything? Is there something other than badminton that we need to know about you? No. Yeah. I think what you need to know about us is that we are a strong local technology company, and we are ready to take on the big boys of the industry. We are- And big girls. And big girls. Ab- absolutely.
Yes. And big girls. Thanks for the correction. Thanks for the correction. And obviously, we have been growing. We were in the Fast 50- Yeah, you were just in the Fast 50 ... 2024. For [00:17:00] Business Times, yeah. And then back again in 2026- In 2020 ... this year. I saw that. So we are definitely growing.
We, I can use some help at some point. You can use some help, so do- You gotta perfect that platform so you can can put yourself out of business. Yeah. Then you have nothing to worry about. That's- Well, thank you for j- It's an amazing story. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for- Really appreciate it.
Yeah. Thank you for having me. I loved it. Absolutely. And I tell you what, my key takeaway is you've had UPMC as a customer- Oh ... since 2000. 2004. That- Oh, no, 2000. 2000. 2000. You started in 2004. 2000. 26 years you've had your first customer, and you still hold onto them today. Awesome.
Ravi, that's pretty amazing. It shows you guys are doing something right when you can make that happen. We're very proud of that. Should be. We're very proud of that. Yeah. When you told me that- Thank you ... I was like, "Whoa, okay." But anyhow, Ravi, thanks again for hanging out with us today. Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me. What what a joy hanging out with you here in the Huntington Bank Studios. Like I said, Audrey, when we have friends and family stop by- So great. It's really great ... it's always a fun conversation, especially when they come well-dressed. I love it. Dapper dude. Dapper. Dapper dude.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna start calling him Dapper Ravi or something [00:18:00] like that. Oh. But I love it. So once again, it's been Jonathan Kersting here. And this is Audrey Russo. And we are from the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and Tech Vibe is our jam, Audrey. We love having these types of conversations.
Keep coming back for more, and we look forward to seeing you on the next one, everybody.