Indian IT Must Brace For Gen AI Wave

India’s tech industry has largely been dominated by the likes of Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., and Wipro Ltd. for a long time. Given how the conversation around generative artificial intelligence has evolved over the years, there might be a significant shift in India’s technology landscape, depending on how the IT companies prepare for the future.

“The advances in GenAI and AI have become a lot more pertinent and effective today,” Chrys Capital’s Operating Partner Sanjay Jalona told NDTV Profit’s Niraj Shah.

Jalona, the former CEO and MD of Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd., shares three reasons why Indian IT will make the transition without much trouble:

• The ecosystem is ready to adopt Gen AI thanks to companies prepping in advance, be it investments in chipsets, creation of datasets, or building large language models. All of this has been prompted by the fact that large companies like Microsoft and OpenAI are pouring in significant amounts of money into the technology while making it open source.

• Gen AI has already made its way to the masses; it's no longer an enterprise product. From children using it for help with homework to adults using it to plan a vacation, the technology is impacting people’s lives.

• Businesses have seen how Gen AI can make their operations more efficient, which brings the conversation back to investments. Companies are now making sure investments are made in Gen AI to improve their operational efficiency.

Jalona said that seeing Gen AI as an opportunity or a threat to India’s IT flock is immaterial, given that the culture itself is changing within companies as they shift to a Gen AI/AI-first mindset. “The one thing weaving them all together is how can they produce amplified business outcomes using Gen AI,” he says, adding, “Indian IT will still come out on trumps.”

An often-voiced concern regarding AI has been the impact it will have on employment and the likelihood of people losing their jobs. So, the question is this: Will Indian IT, which has traditionally been known as a provider of manpower to its clients, reduce the people they employ?

Persistent Systems’ CEO and MD Sandeep Kalra doesn’t agree. “Gen AI is a tool. Any software engineer who uses this tool will be more efficient than one who doesn't.” He extends the reasoning to companies, saying those that adopt a Gen AI culture will be able to differentiate themselves from their peers in the industry to become “faster, better, cheaper”.

A common complaint about workers in India’s IT companies has been the amount of grunt work that is repetitive and requires little skills. Gen AI’s insertion here would automate such work, removing the need for manual repetition.

In fact, Kalra argued, there will be more work for people as AI adoption grows. “The use cases for software, product engineering and data engineering will all be spawned off because of AI.”

With Gen AI adoption expanding at breakneck speed, India’s IT companies need to pivot, from both a business model and cultural standpoint. “While talking about culture, we should also remember that there will be cannibalisation of existing business,” warned Jalona, and said that it’s inevitable, whether you do it now and reap the benefits or someone else does it first.

What both he and Kalra agree on, however, is that Gen AI is just the tip of the iceberg and is likely to spawn off several opportunities in the long run, even though managing the short-term impact might be difficult.