BENGALURU: Former Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani
once said to American journalist Thomas Friedman that the global
playing field is being levelled — a reference to the global, web-enabled
playing field that had allowed countries like India
to challenge developed ones in areas like software. That statement
became the trigger for the title of Friedman's bestselling book 'The World is Flat'.
Now, the current CEO of Infosys, Vishal Sikka,
is laying out a fresh thesis. He says a "far bigger" disruptive force
is emerging in the IT industry "than the flat world shift from about 20
years ago" - automation, enabled by artificial intelligence (AI).
"All our clients look to us
for help with innovation, in bringing digital and computing
technologies to their businesses' future... In all my meetings with
clients, in all their communication, this is crystal clear. They no
longer want engagements that deliver to a bottom line, they need to see
the value, the proactive generation of innovation in their engagements
with vendors. And increasingly, the need for IT innovation is outside
the IT teams," he said in an email to employees ahead of the company's
flagship client showcase called Confluence in San Francisco.
He
said a large company had recently written to Infosys about helping them
bring AI-based automation to support, not IT systems, but their
mechanical & industrial systems. He said clients also seek their
help in vastly lowering the costs of their existing landscapes. "This
needs to be fuelled by automation. Automation, enabled by AI
technologies, is a massive, disruptive force in our industry," he said,
and re-emphasized the importance of automation later in the mail saying:
"We must bring massive automation to enable innovation. If a human has
done it once, it should never be done by a human again. This must be our
aspiration."
He said the point of automation is not about replacing people, "it is about amplifying people
and enabling them to focus on the work only people can do — we automate
to free people to innovate, and we power this through education."
Sikka
believes that the current global delivery model should be transformed
into a virtual one, based on value delivered, and make the location of
the person doing the work irrelevant.
Since his appointment as CEO in August 2014, Sikka has lifted the fortunes of the $9.5 billion company.
Hansa
Iyengar, IT analyst in London-based Ovum Research, said Sikka has hit
the right buttons when it comes to his priority list for 2017. "While a
few priorities are tailored to restore Infosys's image as a path-breaker
and an innovator that can monetize its IP (intellectual property),
others are geared to maintain control on costs and bring greater
efficiencies into the business," she said.
Peter Bendor
Samuel, CEO of outsourcing research and advisory firm Everest Group,
said that under Sikka's leadership, Infosys has moved from a premium
price player to a price challenger in which Infosys is now consistently
the lowest or one of the lowest priced alternatives in the market.
"Infosys is betting that their relentless focus on automation will
allow them to make their margins, which is a bet on the future and on
their execution capabilities," he said.
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