While there is a need for generative AI-based solutions, businesses are concerned about the potential consequences. This has already prompted several businesses to limit or outright prohibit the usage of the technology.
Despite disappointing the market with weak earnings and an uncertain outlook, the IT sector does have one bright spot.
The biggest names in the IT industry, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, HCL Tech, and Tech Mahindra, are all placing large bets on generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Simply put, artificial intelligence (AI) is the capacity of machines to carry out specific tasks—such as language translation and data analysis—similar to humans but on a far bigger scale. In particular, generative AI refers to systems that create new information autonomously (for instance, based on a programme) or in response to a prompt (a text or an image) from the user.
Senior industry officials told Moneycontrol that, unlike the potential of the metaverse, which has yet to be achieved, AI has moved past the exploring stages and will soon be unleashing its full potential. In fact, firms like Tech Mahindra assert that by incorporating AI into their processes, clients are saving millions of dollars in a difficult macro-environment where the emphasis is shifting to cost-effectiveness.
During the company’s earnings call, TCS’s Chief Operating Officer, NG Subramaniam, stated that generative AI was already a revenue-generating vertical. The conversation starts and ends with ChatGPT and what it’s going to do in my relationships with clients over the past quarter. Innovation is clearly outpacing production, he claimed.
Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, spoke in a similar manner. His organization is currently working on initiatives that target particular client business segments with generative AI platforms. “We have used our internal software development libraries to train open-source generative AI platforms. We anticipate generative AI to increase our opportunities to collaborate with clients and to boost our own productivity, the speaker stated.
Regarding Accenture, their intentions in this regard included purchasing the industrial AI firm Flutura in March, which is based in Bengaluru.
“We are acquiring Flutura to bolster our industrial AI services and enhance the productivity of our clients” plants, refineries, and supply chains in the mining, energy, chemicals, metals, and pharmaceutical sectors. Additionally, it will help our clients reach their net zero objectives more quickly, according to Pranav Arora, MD and Lead – Applied Intelligence at Accenture India, who spoke with one agency.
According to Arora, “generative AI has the potential to transform business tasks and functions, from customer service and knowledge management to creative production and scientific research, across practically every industry.” This is because it ushers in a new era of enterprise intelligence.
These IT firms are collaborating with Google, Microsoft, and Microsoft-backed OpenAI, which created ChatGPT, as the competition for market share in the global deployment of generative AI solutions heats up. Using the tools provided by these tech behemoths, many of these IT companies are developing and customizing enterprise-level use cases of solutions.
What’s coming up?
TCS is attempting to innovate in both the consulting and solution spaces. It is working on projects like artificial intelligence-powered wealth management and financial advice services for the BFSI sector, a virtual fashion designer for the retail sector, computer vision for heavy industries, and anomaly detection using streaming data analytics.
Nidhi Srivastava, Vice-President and Global Head of the Google Business Unit at TCS, which is creating AI solutions on top of Google’s tools, said, “We are exploring cross-industry solutions to enhance productivity through automated code generation, content creation, copywriting, and marketing.”
On the services front, TCS is constructing service offerings and delivery capacities that will hasten the adoption of clients’ AI-based solutions. To increase the use of AI in businesses, we have also established a “AI Factory,” Srivastava added.
It has been more than two years since Wipro created the Generative AI Centre of Excellence (CoE) to collaborate with industry leaders and academic institutions to enhance AI research.
Wipro is involved in numerous client conversations ranging from strategic market model shifts and AI-assisted decision-making to designing cutting-edge digital experiences, to transforming processes across business functions, and modernizing IT systems and infrastructure, according to Mukund Kalmanker, VP & Global Head, AI Solutions, Wipro.
He continued by saying that consumers are interested in using AI from industries including banking, insurance, energy, retail, consumer goods, life sciences, healthcare, telecom, etc.
In the area of AI and Intelligent Automation (IA), Tech Mahindra is also engaged in numerous projects and the development of solutions. It is enabling businesses in implementing more intelligent business models, increasing efficiency, and meeting demand.
“We help enterprises save millions with computer vision-based solutions, asset inspection solutions, crowdsourcing (data, etc.), conversational AI, anomaly detection, Document AI, or low-code/no-code solutions like Vision AI Workbench and Forecasting Workbench,” said Kunal Purohit, Chief Digital Services Officer, Tech Mahindra.
For instance, Tech Mahindra increased data accuracy by 90% and reduced human labor by 60% for an insurance claims company using their Smart Assistant system that categorizes all incoming emails, resulting in a 6X boost in the ROI on support costs, according to Purohit.
Required AI talent
According to Purohit, AI is becoming a crucial component of digital transformation initiatives for companies across industries, and it will continue to develop and open up new opportunities. IT organizations will require dependable and competent staff to develop solutions in order to take advantage of this potential.
According to Wipro’s Kalmanker, the business has a strong enterprise-wide AI talent management plan in place, which includes both acquiring talent and providing training to staff members at the Wipro AI Academy using a well-developed AI curriculum.
“Our strategy also involves Ph.D. scholarships at prominent academic institutions throughout the world. These are for research initiatives that use advancements in generative AI to address challenging business issues”, the speaker continued.
For example, strategists, solution architects, implementation specialists, model developers, model trainers, training data preparers, and end-to-end ML (machine learning) lifecycle specialists will all be in high demand, according to Srivastava.
“While hiring will be an avenue for acquiring talent, talent up-skilling, and cross-skilling will receive just as much attention, if not more. Regarding TCS’s plans, Srivastava said, “This will aid in the retention of contextual organizational knowledge while ensuring viable labor economics.
Security and Privacy Online
Although cyber security risks are still a concern, organizations like TCS are investigating the use of generative AI to help their own employees.
When speaking with Moneycontrol in the past, TCS CHRO Milind Lakkad had stated, “We are looking into what generative AI means in the context of an enterprise, not just from the standpoint of what the operating model will be, but also what will be the role of an employee versus the role of an AI co-worker.”
He had also mentioned that discussions regarding protecting intellectual property (IP), security, etc. are taking place when generative AI is deployed. With AI bots like ChatGPT, there are worries that malicious code could get generated automatically and expose the IP.
“New tools raise fresh issues and security dangers. The potential for ChatGPT to be used to create malicious code is at the top of cybersecurity professionals’ list of worries. This implies that a lot more people may produce malware, potentially resulting in a lot more attacks and breaches, according to a blog post by Infosys.
While there is a need for generative AI-based solutions, businesses are concerned about the potential consequences. This has already prompted several businesses to limit or outright prohibit the usage of the technology. ChatGPT has been prohibited throughout all of the offices of companies including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.
